Diarmaid Nash and Colin Crehan celebrate after retaining their O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Doubles handball title.
By Paul Fitzpatrick
Clare's Diarmaid Nash and Colin Crehan successfully retained their O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Doubles title on Saturday with a straight games win over first-time finalists Martin and Diarmuid Mulkerrins from Galway.
The Galway brothers started well and built up a 15-9 lead but with Nash dominating the front court and Crehan showing tremendous power and shot-making, the Banner rallied to win 21-17. Game two was also fairly close, with the Tribesmen surging into a 9-3 advantage and still leading at 10-9 and playing very well.
However, the experience of playing in tandem with each other competitively really stood to the champions on the home straight. Playing in their third All-Ireland final in succession, the Tuamgraney/Kilkishen partnership refused to panic and knuckled down to the task in hand impressively, reeling off 12 of the last 14 points to retain their Senior Doubles title.
The powerful Crehan served exceptionally well throughout the contest and, fittingly, he came up with two unreturnable rockets from the service box, one a hook serve down the left and the other an ace to the right, to close out the result after an entertaining, sporting match from which both pairs will emerge with reputations enhanced.
The Clare pair, both of whom have represented the county at underage level in hurling, won this title for the first time last year and with 11-time champions Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan of Cavan having retired from doubles, the way seems clear for the holders to dominate in the coming seasons.
Nash, in his acceptance speech, congratulated the Galway men on their performance and paid tribute to the host club, Kingscourt, for their excellent facilities and volunteerism.
Diarmaid Nash in action during the O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Doubles Handball Final.
There was some consolation for Diarmuid Mulkerrins, the youngest man on the court, as he picked up the U21 All-Ireland title on Sunday along with left-hander Cian Ó Conghaile when they saw off Kilkenny's Eoin Brennan and Conor Murphy (21-9, 21-4).
Meanwhile, Cork's Catriona Casey and Aishling O'Keeffe won their fifth Ladies Senior Doubles with a 21-6, 21-12 win over Roscommon's Fiona and Siobhán Tully. The Rossies grew into the contest after being well beaten in game one and they were very much in contention at 13-11.
However, Casey took control of the contest with some high quality play while O'Keeffe was rock solid in the front court on the run-in. The Rebelettes have been the leading doubles pair in the ladies game in recent years in both 40x20 and 60x30 and their tremendous run of success shows no sign of abating.
Elsewhere, Monaghan's Eoghan McGinnity and Konrad Kowal and Kildare's Leah Doyle and Abby Tarrant picked up the respective minor titles. The Monaghan pair's win was notable for the success of Kowal in becoming the first Polish-born player to win a minor All-Ireland handball medal.
The Intermediate Doubles crown went to the south-east as Wexford's Galen Riordan - the recently crowned United States Collegiates champion - partnered with Peter Hughes to defeat Tyrone's Ryan Mullan and Gary McRory 21-5, 21-4, in the process securing their passage to senior ranks.
It was a remarkable weekend for Antrim, who landed four titles in all. Jordan O'Neill and Mark Rainey defeated Clare's Fergal Coughlan and Ciaran Malone (20-21, 21-18, 21-18) to claim the Junior Doubles crown, with St Paul's pair Sean Devine and Seamus Ó Tuama avenging their defeat against Kerry's Dominick Lynch and John Joe Quirke to see off the men from the Kingdom 21-20, 21-13 in the Masters A Doubles final.
And in a high-quality Over 35 A Doubles decider, Mayo's Joe McCann and Joe Dowling defeated Wexford duo Gavin Buggy and Paddy Haughton (21-8, 7-21, 21-13).
