Egin Jensen & Eoin Kennedy
won their third successive Martin Donnelly softball doubles with a comfortable
victory over Mayo’s Dessie Keegan & Kevin Geraghty from Mayo played in
Croke Park on Saturday 15th September last,
For Eoin Kennedy the 28 y.o.
from the St. Brigid’s club in Blanchardstown is a year he will remember fondly
and entering the history books as only
the 3rd player to win the grand slam of 60 x 30 titles, the others
being the late John Ryan (Wexford) 1957, and Walter O’Connor (Meath) 1998. Welcome visitors to the finals included Dave
Vincent & Jeff Kastner from the U.S.H.A who are interviewing the top Irish
players before they head to Los Angeles to take part in the U.S. handball open
next month.
Limerick’s stars shine in Minor
doubles victory
First on the 3 match programme
was the Minor Doubles final between Limerick’s CJ Fitzpatrick & Seamus
O’Carroll as they faced Kilkenny’s Ciaran Neary & Keith Bourke. Kilkenny
were going for a 3-in-a-row of Minor doubles wins in the competition. The first
game the Kilkenny players will want to forget in a hurry as Limerick totally
dominated. O’Carroll especially prominent with excellent serving to both Bourke
& Neary won many points from.
Limerick got 12 points straight on the trot. When Kilkenny got into
serve they could not make it count. In
the end Kilkenny failed to “raise a flag” in Croke Park in the first game as
Limerick ran away with it.
Limerick had the better start to
game 2 as well hitting the front by 6-0.
Keith Bourke just 16 y.o. at
last coming to life showing what he can
do. A number of overhand serves by Bourke brought Kilkenny close to Limerick at
6-4. CJ Fitzpatrick also had an
eventful evening for Limerick as he pulverised the Kilkenny rear guard
especially Neary on the left side.
There was little getting past Fitzpatrick and with this Limerick pulled
clear by 11-4. Kilkenny put in a
determined effort with Neary beginning to make inroads into Limerick’s lead. Soon Limerick’s lead was whittled away to
11-9. Limerick managed to regroup and
their team play was now more evident.
O’Carroll got a nice fisted score with his left hand to stretch
Limerick’s lead to 15-9. Neary tried
hard to get Kilkenny back into it but O’Carroll & Fitzpatrick stood firm
and they eventually won game two by 21-9.Tom Walsh presented the Corn Nuachtain
Gael Cup to the winners CJ Fitzpatrick and Seamus O’Carroll and the runners-up
medals to Ciaran Neary and Keith Bourke.
It was Limerick’s first doubles title in 19 years.
Mullins power’s to Intermediate
win
The Intermediate singles final
was between 6’4 Paul Mullins from Tipperary and Mayo’s Ollie Cassidy. Cassidy who was involved in a car accident 6
years ago damaging his right hand was hoping for a better “break” of luck this
time. Mullins with the bonus of having
played the doubles two weeks earlier was better adept at using the full length
of Croke Park. Mullins using the serve
that Eoin Kennedy did so well against Michael “Ducksy” Walsh 2 weeks with a
high lobbing serve to Cassidy’s left corner and bouncing over on the right had
the Swinford player in a lot of difficulty.
Cassidy when he did get into good positions didn’t always make the best
of his chances instead he made it easy for Mullins. Cassidy wasn’t clinical
enough going for kills and weak returns onto the front wall didn’t help his
prospects against a player with 2 good hands and who could power back Cassidy
shots to the back wall. Mullins was
controlling the centre court and kept moving Cassidy all over the place. Mullins
had the advantage of a 7-1 opening lead. Cassidy on the right side directed a
nice shot into the left corner for his 2nd score but unfortunately
for him he could not add to it as Mullins with better serving and reading of
the game took the first game by 21-2.
After Mullins initial lead in
the 2nd Cassidy with a slow build up to his serves got close to
Mullins and only 5-4 behind. Cassidy
missed a number of quite easy returns which dropped short and his shots was
deserting him. Mullins with a powerful
right hand kept Cassidy racing to the back wall to keep the ball in play a
number of times as he extended his lead to 12-4. Mullins was using his side wall shots to good effect building up
a good 16-6 lead in the process. Cassidy
was much better in the 2nd game but so too was Mullins. Cassidy’s
inability to go for kills certainly worked in Mullin’s favour. With his dependable right hand Mullins
thwarted any slim chances of a Mayo fight back with nice passing shots. It was looking to be a Tipperary win and the
inevitable did happen as Mullins with a cross court serve to Cassidy’s left
corner that the Swinford man didn’t return. The second game finished 21-8.
Anna Costica presented Paul Mullins with the J.J. Bowles cup and the
runner-up medal to Ollie Cassidy. Mullins only the second Tipperary man to win
the singles since David Maloney was the inaugural winner back in 1994.
Before the senior final there
was a one-wall exhibition game between Shauna Hiley from Wicklow and Mayo’s Amy
Corrigan. The Wicklow girl winning 9-6 after the 10 minutes time game. This game was to highlight that Ireland
will host the 2008 European One Wall Championships.
Double trouble as Jensen and Kennedy expose Mayo
Dublin were first on court
followed shortly afterwards by the Mayo men. Kevin Geraghty came in for the
injured Joe McCann. Before the start
Eileen Dunne of RTE Master of Ceremonies read out the achievements of the
players while Katie McCarthy from Westmeath sang Amhran na bhFiann. Referee Paddy Collins from Tipperary got the
game under way. Kevin Geraghty the late replacement for the injured Joe McCann
served first but straight away Kennedy
got Dublin into serve. The favourites going into a 2-0 lead when the unbelievable
happened. Kevin Geraghty missed a high
return down the right, Keegan seeing the situation raced to the back wall. Only about 5 feet from the glass back wall
and his back to the front wall Keegan somehow returned nonchalantly with his
right a back hander landing perfectly onto the front wall a low shot that
rolled out. Kennedy was ready to pounce but the placed ball from Keegan’s was
so accurate that Kennedy could only look on. It is a shot that is well worth
looking at again and again and hopefully the TG4 Camera man will show the clip.
Geraghty got a nice score off the left side left leaving Dublin just 3-2 in
front. Egin Jensen started to fire up
with a high serve to Keegan’s left and landing over on Geraghty’s right. Dublin
soon pulled away Kennedy was razor sharp even Keegan’s low pounding shots that
looked winners was picked beautifully by Kennedy and the Dublin players played
Geraghty’s right side to maximum effect.
With Jensen’s accurate cross court serving Keegan was kept out of the game
and Geraghty faced the bombardment from the Dubliners. Kennedy & Jensen racked up an 18-2 lead
without reply. Mayo got 3 more scores and 2 more accurate serves from Jensen to
Geraghty’s right corner ended the first game by 21-5.
Independent Cup stays in Dublin
for another year
In game two it was all Dublin.
Keegan taking all the serves from the
back with Geraghty standing a little ahead of him. Geraghty was missing chances
while Keegan persisted with going for the big kills from far out mostly dropping
short. Dublin raced into a 13-0 lead. After this score Keegan with his hands on
his waist waiting Dublin’s serve knew that the final was going away from
them. Jensen had an excellent evening
for Dublin and his great serving and great awareness cutting out Mayo’s returns put Dublin into a comfortable
position. Mayo got a score but Dublin continued to head for the finishing line.
Kennedy had a chance to wrap it up at 20-1 but missed. Mayo got 4 points in a row but it came too
late as Dublin duly won the treble and Kennedy celebrated his grand slam. Martin Donnelly of the sponsors presented
Eoin Kennedy & Egin Jensen with the Independent Cup.
Afterwards I asked Dessie Keegan
his thoughts on the final and that he must have been disappointed with how the
game went.
“I’m not awfully disappointed
said Dessie. I’m disappointed for Joe
that on Monday night late I realised that he wouldn’t be playing. I had to scramble to get another
partner. I got Kevin on Tuesday night
and we had 1 training session and to be honest the writing was on the wall. I’m around handball long enough I knew in
order to beat Dublin this year we needed a fully fit Joe, me firing on all
cylinders and Joe firing on all cylinders.
Credit to Dublin they were absolutely ruthless. I would have done the
same thing myself. Realistically speaking we had no hope tonight. And that is the way it panned out in the
end.”
I managed to catch up with Eoin
Kennedy and I asked him his thoughts just after winning the softball doubles
3-in-a-row. Absolutely delighted to win it, came Kennedy’s response. Three years ago we didn’t think we would be
standing here today having won the 3-in-a-row. Delighted to get through tonight.
You must have been very pleased
as well with the fact that you have also won the grand slam all 4 titles in the
big court this year.
“Yes, absolutely I have enjoyed
some good company John Ryan and Walter O’Connor the only 2 to have done
it. To join the illustrious company I’m absolutely delighted.”
I asked Eoin was he surprised
how easy and comprehensive it was in the end the win? “Yes, it was comprehensive win but it was very hard for Kevin
coming in with Joe missing out. Joe is
so strong and fast. Joe and Dessie have
a lot of experience together. For Kevin
coming in at such short notice and having to play on the right side with the
glass wall was very difficult. He played well, we also played well and on the
right we were just too strong.”
One final question to Eoin what
does he think of his doubles partner Egin Jensen who played super handball tonight?
“Yes, it is a pleasure playing doubles
with Egin. He is an absolutely
fantastic player. You can always depend on him. You don’t have to think twice when the ball is gone in. You know he is going to do something good
with it. He dominates the right
side. Kennedy highly praised Jensen
describing him as one off the greatest doubles players off all time. He is really absolutely fantastic. It is a pleasure to have played with him
over the years.”