Wexford handball celebrated a fantastic season as its top Handballers of the Year Barry Goff and Colin Keeling collected the Team of the Year award at the GAA handball annual awards ceremony held in Croke Park last Saturday night.
On another exciting day for handball when details of the forth coming World Handball championships 2012 were laid out, which include proposals for live television coverage of the championship on Sky Sports and TG4, it was fitting that the night had a purple and gold success story.
Barry Goff and Colin Keeling put together a fantastic season of flawless handball in the big courts of Ireland. The first signs of a fantastic season came as the Castlebridge/St Marys combination triumphed in the GAA Handball Irish Nationals 60 x 30 doubles which was in it’s maiden season and their success saw them topple the huge partnership of Michael Duxie Walsh and Tom Sheridan who were previously an unbeaten force in open doubles handball.
The biggest prize of all in 60 x 30 handball was then collected by the Wexford men in September on a dream night for Wexford handball in Williamstown County Galway. The night began with success in the Minor Doubles final as Dean Corrigan and Cory Murphy won, and their winning display fired up a huge Wexford crowd as Barry Goff and Colin Keeling faced the challenge laid down by Mayo men Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann.
Eleven years after Keeling won the same title with Tommy Hynes himself and Barry Goff would equal that win with a sublime performance of fantastic handball as the Wexford men defeated their Mayo counterparts on a 21-12, 21-18 score line.
The All Ireland and Irish Nationals titles were the two highlights of a remarkable season but other titles were also collected around the country as several prestigious Tournaments were also won by the Goff and Keeling, so last Saturday nights award as the team of the year was a nice way to wrap up a fantastic season for the pride of Wexford handball.
ACME Blinds and Curtains 40 x 20 winter league semi finals.
After some fantastic action over the last two months it now down to the semi final stage of the ACME blinds and curtains 40 x 20 winter leagues.
The top billing events will be the semi finals in the Premier division. In the first semi final there is a Wexford town derby clash of St Mary’s and St Joseph’s as Gavin Buggy squares up to the challenge of Paul Lambert and while Lambert has improved immensely over the past couple of seasons Buggy will be the favourite to progress in this semi final.
The second semi final is also a derby clash and it will be Kilkenny against Wexford as Michael ‘Duxie’ Walsh from Talbot’s Inch plays Barry Goff from Castlebridge. Both these players are more known for their exploits in the 60 x 30 court however all handball fans in the county should get out in force to see this semi final as it should go right to the wire.
The ladies semi finals has a trio of Templeudigan players involved and the possibility of mother v daughter final would certainly be unique if both Anne Boland and Michelle Boland can win their respective semi finals. Anne will meet Chloe Cash from St. Josephs in the first semi final while the second semi final will be the clash of Templeudigan duo Amanda Kelly and Michelle Boland.
Over the coming week there will be over 20 semi finals played and there is certain to be handball of the highest standard all over the county for handball fans.
