Leinster Final success evades Laois juvenile handballers

Left: Boys’ U14 Singles Leinster Finalist: Theo Neale (St. Brigid’s Monavea and Laois). Right: Girls U15 Leinster semi-finalists: Annie Grant (Laois) and Ellie Roche (Kilkenny)

placeholder image — Left: Boys’ U14 Singles Leinster Finalist: Theo Neale (St. Brigid’s Monavea and Laois). Right: Girls U15 Leinster semi-finalists: Annie Grant (Laois) and Ellie Roche (Kilkenny)

Laois impressed with two finals and several hard-fought semi-final battles

The Leinster 40x20 Juvenile Handball Finals were played last weekend with Laois handballers reaching two finals.

In the Boys’ U14 Singles, Laois' Theo Neale (St. Brigid’s, Monavea) faced a formidable opponent in Charlie Roche of Wexford while in the Girls’ U17 Doubles, Aoife Kenny and Ellie Lafferty (Cullohill) were up against Kilkenny’s Aisleann Mullally and Kate Ryan.

Laois were unlucky not to have further representation at these finals with some narrow losses and excellent performances given by our county handballers in the Leinster semi-finals.

In the Boys’ U15 Doubles, Darragh and Michael Brennan (Monavea) were beaten in a very competitive semi-final game against Kilkenny opponents Robbie Lyons and Steve Hoyne. In the Boys’ U13 Doubles, Cullohill’s Taylor Mahony and Tadhg Hennessy lost out to strong Kilkenny opposition in Cathal Phelan and Michael Hogan.

Left: Boys’ U15 Doubles Leinster semi-finalists: Darragh and Michael Brennan (Laois) and Robbie Lyons and Steve Hoyne (Kilkenny). Right: Boys’ U13 Leinster semi-finalists: Taylor Mahony and Tadhg Hennessy (Laois) and Cathal Phelan and Michael Hogan (Kilkenny)

Annie Grant (Monavea) was extremely unfortunate to lose out in a truly fantastic Girls’ U15 Singles encounter against Ellie Roche (Kilkenny). Roche won the opening game 15-10 but the Laois handballer responded brilliantly and played superb handball in the second game. However, fortune favoured the Kilkenny handballer as she won the decisive ace in the second game to win a titanic battle 15-14 and progress to the Leinster Final.

The Cullohill pairing of Aoife Kelly and Ellie Lafferty had home-court advantage for their Leinster Final encounter with Aisleann Mullally and Kate Ryan (Kilkenny). The first game was an absorbing battle between two evenly matched pairings. Despite the Laois girls’ best efforts, the Kilkenny partnership won a close first game 21-16. Buoyed from winning the opening game, the pairing of Mullally and Ryan made a fast start to the second game and built up a commanding lead.

Girls’ U17 Doubles Leinster Finalists: Aoife Kelly and Ellie Lafferty (Laois) and Aisleann Mullally and Kate Ryan (Kilkenny).

Kelly and Lafferty remained competitive throughout, but victory went the way of the Kilkenny pairing on a 21-16, 21-08 scoreline. Despite the loss, Kelly and Lafferty showed plenty of promise in the final and will no doubt challenge for titles again in the near future.

The Boys’ U14 Leinster Final were scheduled for Croke Park with Theo Neale hoping to win Laois’ first Boys’ U14 40x20 Leinster title since Monavea’s Tómas Lennon’s success in 1999. In reaching the final, Theo produced two fantastic performances to defeat Jack Ryan (Carlow) in the quarter-finals and Ciaran Treacy (Kilkenny) in a three-game thriller in the semi-final. In that semi-final, Theo won the opening game 15-13 with Treacy responding to win the second game 13-15. In the tie-breaker, Theo showed great composure to book his place in the Leinster Final with a 15-7 victory.

However, in the final, Theo found himself up against an opponent in inspired form who played some excellent handball on the day. Theo battled bravely and never made things easy for his opponent but in the end a deserved victory went the way of the Wexford handballer in two games.

Boys’ U14 Singles Leinster Finalists: Theo Neale (Laois) and Charlie Roche (Wexford)

Congratulations to Theo Neale on reaching the Leinster final in one of the blue ribbon grades on Irish handball. Theo has made huge progress as a handballer over the last twelve months and if continues to progress in the manner that he has, he will have a very bright future in the game.