This year’s 40x20 All Ireland Finals will see an exciting new format come into play as all games will be played in the one venue instead of being spread across the country in what promises to be a cracking weekend of Handball as all roads lead to Kingscourt from the 18th - 20th March!!
In recent years poor attendances at All Ireland finals were noted as players from the same club and county may have been playing in opposite ends of the country thus dividing the support base and also some venues did not have attractive programmes of games to attract crowds.
In an effort to rectify this and to give Handball supporters the best chance of seeing as much Handball as possible a decision was taken that every All-Ireland Singles Finals at all grades will be played in the one venue enabling fans, club mates, handball enthusiasts to attend and sample some cracking games of Handball over the weekend.
Kingscourt Handball Club in Cavan was chosen as the finals venue for 2016 for the Singles grades as 52 players are set to converge on the Cavan town to do battle in various finals across the three days. With 4 courts in action across Friday, Saturday and Sunday it promises to be a fantastic festival of Handball. This will be a fantastic opportunity to mingle with the top stars of the game while also experiencing some fantastic action all under the one roof.
National Manager John Kelly feels that this weekend will be one of the outstanding weekends of the GAA Handball Calendar.
"This is a very exciting venture for GAA Handball and while we are breaking away from the tradition of finals in many different venues this promises to be an incredible weekend of Handball giving all supporters and players the chance to meet, play and socialise, aswell as to compete for those elusive All Ireland titles."
"On Friday and Saturday Adult finals from Over 70's to Junior will take place with the showpiece on Saturday evening of the Ladies & Mens Open Finals that will now hopefully get the crowd they deserve to create the showpiece atmosphere that the occasion warrants. On Sunday the countries best Juvenile players will do battle and hopefully many of the top players will remain on to watch the future stars of our game. While it is an enormous undertaking I feel it is the way forward for our Sport in order to attract media attention and to give the players who play in All Ireland finals the platform they deserve and I would call on all Handball Gaels to support the weekend and to turn up and Support Your Sport."
All players competing in finals will get a free pass to all three days of action with the exception of the Men’s and Ladies Open Finals which will be all ticket affairs as the showpiece occasions of the weekend on Saturday evening. Sunday will see the Juvenile finals played with the top stars of the game on site to offer tips and help to our aspiring young athletes.
Provisional Schedule of Games (subject to confirmation)
Friday night games to start at 6.30pm
Saturday games to start at 10.00am
Sunday games to start at 10.00am
Updated Tuesday 9/3/16
Note the above schedule is only a provisional schedule. A full schedule will be confirmed closer to the date. Further information on Accommodation and ticket details for this exciting festival of Handball will follow.