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By Paul Fitzpatrick
Stellar line-up for St Paul's Golden Gloves
All roads lead to Belfast this weekend for the eagerly-awaited Fonacab St Paul’s Golden Gloves tournament, one of the longest-running 4-wall handball tournaments in the country which bills itself as “the biggest and best independently run handball tournament on the planet”.
This prestigious event has been running since the mid-1980s and has established itself as an iconic handball event, with the winners of the Open grades picking up the famous framed pair of golden handball gloves which have been won by all-time greats including Paul Brady, Ducksy Walsh, Fiona Shannon and Catriona Casey to name just a few.
The defending champions from 2025 are Diarmaid Nash and Martina McMahon and both are back hoping to retain their titles.
Action gets under way this evening (Friday), with the opening round matches taking place across St Paul's and Sportlann na hÉireann before the competition reaches its conclusion on Sunday afternoon.
Cork have a particularly strong representation, with Daniel Relihan, Michael Hedigan, Brendan Fleming, David Walsh, Gearoid Healy and Cian O'Driscoll all in the draw.
Relihan, Hedigan, Fleming and Walsh are seeded to Saturday's last 16, while Healy faces Clare's Colin Corbett and O'Driscoll meets Paddy Murphy of Mayo in Friday's opening round.
Armagh's Fiachra Ó Dúill, one of the country's leading wallball exponents, faces Kilkenny's Kyle Jordan in the first round while Tyrone's Caolán Daly takes on Antrim's Mark Rainey.
Cavan's Ben Devlin, who has enjoyed considerable success on the national stage in wallball and won a Junior Softball Singles earlier this year, opens his campaign against Mayo's Niall Joyce, with Monaghan's former minor champion Eoghan McGinnity awaiting the winner in the last 16.
Another Monaghan contender, Gavin Coyle, who reached the Southern Classic semi-final, will face the winner of the meeting between Gearoid Healy and Colin Corbett.
Top seed Nash and Cork's Michael Hedigan are among those receiving opening-round byes, while Monaghan's Oran Kiernan faces local favourite Jordan O'Neill, with Relihan awaiting the victor.
The quarter-finals take place on Saturday afternoon from 3pm, with the semi-finals scheduled for noon and 1pm on Sunday at St Paul's. The final is fixed for 4.30pm on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Ladies Open has attracted a stellar field.
Galway's Ciana Ní Churraoin, fresh from victory in America last weekend, is the top seed, with Roscommon's defending All-Ireland champion Fiona Tully seeded second and Limerick's Martina McMahon, one of the most decorated players in the game, seeded third.
Ní Churraoin opens her campaign on Saturday evening against the winner of the meeting between Cork's Carmel Kelleher and Tyrone's Caislin Tracey, while fourth seed Eilise McCrory of Tyrone awaits the winner of the clash between Clare's Caitriona Millane and Laura Duff of Tyrone.
In the bottom half of the draw, McMahon will take on either Wexford's Jodie Keeling or Kilkenny's Noelle Dowling, while Tully faces the winner of the meeting between Mayo's Cuileann Bourke and Galway's Aisling Ní Mhaoláin.
The draw raises the possibility of intriguing semi-final encounters between Ní Churraoin and McCrory, and McMahon and Tully, although the unseeded contenders will be hoping to upset the form book.
The opening matches take place on Saturday afternoon, with the quarter-finals following that evening. Sunday's semi-finals are fixed for 10am and 11am at St Paul's, with the final scheduled for 3pm.
There are large entries in the other grades at juvenile and Masters levels, with 25 in the Men’s C which is always a minefield.