The official opening of Conna’s two new one walls took place last Saturday 19 October where Mallow sent a Strong contingent to compete in the inaugural games. In what turned out to be a highly organised and enjoyable day Mallow’s Sarah O’Malley took to court #1 for the opening match facing Rhys McCarthy. Unfortunately for Sarah, Rhys seemed to have been practicing this new code of Handball before the opening and managed to gain a narrow victory over Sarah. Undeterred later Sarah again but up another great performance in the plate competition and went
out by the narrowest of margins to Niamh O’Regan.
Connor O’Flaherty came up against the powerhouse and overall winner of the Under 8 division Aiden Supple. This was a tense match with Connor getting tricked into playing Aiden’s style eventually losing out.
Next up was Killian Flaherty who as one of our newest members has a great future ahead of him. Killian fearlessly played in the age category above his own current grade and gave Brian Dunne a bit of a fright in the opening round however the age difference may have been all that separated them on the day.
Another new member only recently having turned six was Wesley Delany who playing his first major competition faced Aiden Supple in the opening round.Wesley played his heart out and showed great composure under pressure and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.This experience of competition will no doubt stand to him in future events.
Over in court #2 around the same time stepped in Eric Delany to play the opening round of the under 9 division. Eric seemed to be really focused and having gained the experience of the one wall nationals in Breaffy earlier in the year seemed to be up for the match. Eric with some superb serving was able to put his opponent Stephen Cotter under pressure from the start and came out on top in that match. Continuing his winning ways Eric found himself facing Nathan Sheehan in the under 9’s final. This was a tit for tat battle with Eric pulling away towards the third quarter in this timed event however Nathan put up a fierce comeback in the last few minutes and in the end only one point separated the two with Eric winning on this occasion.
In what was a wonderful social occasion a special thanks needs to go out to Conna handball club for a most enjoyable day and we here at Mallow hope there will be many more days like it to come. Also to all those who competed from Mallow in this new and exciting code of Handball well done to you all for playing in a competition in which our own facilities in Mallow are unable to accommodate at this point in time.