A week out from Mayo’s latest attempt to bring home Sam, Mayo GAA Handball had a day of success that can only be seen as a good omen for the week to come.
Mayo Handballers claimed four All Ireland doubles championships in the one day to add to the two singles championships won by Melanie Nallly of Belcarra and Tom McCormack of Claremorris just a few weeks ago.
Claremorris duo Paddy Murphy and Niall Joyce secured senior status by winning the All Ireland Intermediate doubles title in Fahy in Offaly. Paddy and Niall have been knocking on the door the past couple softball seasons but they firmly kicked that door open last Sunday with a dominant two game win over Tipperary’s Ned Reilly and Kevin Dempsey. The Claremorris men who are the current senior Hardball champions started like a train winning the first game 21-8 with a display of precision and power; from that point they never looked back and wrapped up the match convincingly 21-10 in the second.
Prior to the Claremorris men’s heroics, Swinford’s Ollie Cassidy and Ballaghaderreen’s Joe McCann retained their Masters Softball title with a one-sided victory over Limerick’s Ken Bourke and Keith Heelan. The Limerick men competed well in the first but once they were up and running it was all Mayo as they won 21-15, 21-2.
George Miller (Swinford) and Tom McCormack (Claremorris) completed a hat-trick of All Ireland’s for Mayo in Fahy. Tom fresh off his singles triumph looked to double up with the Diamond Masters doubles to go with his single. The match proved to be a short one on the day as an injury at 14-13 of the first game forced the Tipperary pair to concede the match, handing George and Tom the title.
Mayo’s fourth All Ireland Championship win of the day came in the famous handball stronghold of Kells in Meath. Chris Gavaghan and Shane Heraty won the over 35’s championship in a three game two hour battle. Shane who stepped in at short notice as substitute for Peter Cassidy due to an injury was outstanding and dovetailed with Chris brilliantly as they took home the title against a much-fancied Wexford pairing 21-20 18-21 11-3.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a clean sweep for Mayo teams as Eugene Maloney (Swinford) and Michael Munnelly (Swinford) lost the Diamond Masters B final to Cork in a battling performance 21-8 21-15
