The cream of Ireland’s Juvenile Softball players converged on Moycullen and St Comans to battle it out for the 2019 MyClubShop.ie All Ireland titles in the Softball code. Eleven counties in all competed with Cork topping the medals table with FOUR titles. Galway, Roscommon and Tipperary took home two while Clare, Kilkenny, Sligo, Tyrone and Wexford all taking one title back to their respective counties to complete a very successful weekend of Handball.
The game of the day was the Boys U16 Singles Final with
Galway’s Mikey Kelly in sensational form against Kilkenny’s Billy Drennan in a
high-quality match. Kelly powered his way to take the first 21-1 as he
controlled the game from start to finish with some excellent serving and killing
shots. The second game was brilliant with them level no fewer than FIVE times
by the time it reached 8 all. Then Drennan went 15-8 up before Kelly with 3
wonder shots brought it back to 11-15. Another great serve from the
Abbeyknockmoy player made it 13-15 and then suddenly it was 15 all and then 17
all to the large crowd’s delight. Kelly got the important next point and with
some excellent high 3 wall serving and an ace to finish Kelly took the title
and the match 21-1, 21-17 to the roar of the Galway supporters..
Galway also claimed gold in the Girls U14 Singles as Emma
Kinane defeated Wexford’s Jodie Keeling in two games. A similar match to the
U16 Boys. Emma took the first game 15-1 but Jodie came back strongly in the
second which gave us a very tight finish with the game tied at 13 all. However
Emma never lost her nerve and broke the Wexford girls serve and closed out the
game 15-13. This completed a double in All-Irelands for Emma as she took the
40x20 title earlier in the year against the same opponent.
Overall a great day for Galway and Abbeyknockmoy where both
young players hone their skills.
