The second annual North Eastern Wallball League 2017 held in O'Raghallaighs GAA Club came to a close on Saturday evening after 8 hours of nonstop games. The tournament attracted players from Down, Louth, Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford and Galway with all players playing a minimum of 4 matches everyone agreed it was a great addition to the handball calendar as nobody left the event with energy left in the tank. The concept of the event was around games played rather than attracting huge numbers which can often limit the number of matches for those taking part due to limit court resources. The event was one of the first handball events in Ireland to use the tournament software technology and everyone agreed it made the event run smoothly with the tournament information visible for all to see and updated after each match.
The event organisers Brian Boru’s HC and O'Raghallaighs would like to thank all the players who took part as all players regardless whether they won or lost umpired the next set of matches which helped with the smooth running of the event.
To the business end, the Men’s A division was dominant by two of O'Raghallaighs finest at present, Billy Caddell and Ben Devlin. Ben dominant Group 1 to take his place in the semi-final with Anthony O’Sullivan from Brian Boru’s coming in second after losing his final round robin match against Ben. Billy won a very tight Group 2 finishing ahead of Barry McCoy from Saval. Billy squared off against Anthony in the first semi-final with Ben lining up against Barry. The two players from O'Raghallaighs eased through to the Men’s A final with Ben going into the final as favourite after his strong performance in this year’s Leinster Senior Wallball Final. The final was nip and tuck all the way with Billy earning the bragging rights over his club mate with a 15-13 victory. The win means O’Raghallaighs have put together back to back North Eastern Wallball victories with Stuart Heslin having won last year’s event. Stuart this time round had to settle for a win in the Men’s A Plate after defeating Jarlath Coyle from Brian Boru’s in the plate final.
The Men’s B event was a good mix of youth and experience with the three group winners all earning a place in the semi-finals, Oliver Maguire, Conor Keeley and Eddie McKevitt who were joined by Brian Havern after his win in the quarter-finals. Young Conor Keeley from O’Raghallaighs pushed Eddie all the way in their semi-final with Eddie finishing out on top with a 15-13 win to face off against his Saval team mate Brian in the final. Eddie completed his clean sweep of wins in the event with a 15-8 win in the Men’s B Final. Frank Semple from Brian Boru’s won the Men’s B Plate after defeating young Matt Lenaghen in that final. Full results of the North Eastern Wallball League 2017 can be found on tournament software at the link below. The Wallball season still has a few more chapters to run with Brian Boru’s HC organising the Dublin City Wallball Open in Trinity College on Saturday 21 October and would like to wish all the entrants from the North Eastern Wallball League who are traveling to Valencia for the Spanish Wallball Open in two weeks the best of luck.
http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=4A06D36E-B408-492F-B899-D01F8F724063
Results:
Men’s A
- Billy Caddell (Louth) 15-3 Ben Delvin (Louth)
Men’s A Plate
- Stuart Heslin (Louth) 15-0 Jarlath Coyle (Roscommon)
Men’s B
- Eddie McKevitt (Down) 15-8 Brian Havern (Down)
Men’s B Plate
- Frank Semple (Dublin) 15-6 Matt Lenaghen (Louth)