McLoughlin helps Collooney to County Interclub win

McLoughlin inspires Collooney to County interclub win

The final of the Sligo handball Interclub 60 x 30 final took place in Collooney on Friday evening last. Veteran player John McLoughlin showed his experience when helping Collooney to an impressive 113-84 victory over Castleconnor. Collooney who reached the All-Ireland club final in 2009 handed a debut to 17 y.o. Tommy Trill. Trill played excellent handball is his 1st competitive game at senior level when getting the better of strong opponent in Castleconnor’s Mark Murphy. Trill took the 1st game by 21-17. Murphy began to read Trill’s style of play into the second and was able to counteract Trill’s early dominance with some sublime finishing, positional awareness and good serving to the teenager’s left hand. Trill held and early 9-6 advantage but Murphy worked harder and then took a sizable lead that he would not relinquish. Trill could not add to his score and Murphy powered home to an 21-9 win.
For the doubles in came John McLoughlin & Michael Bruen for Collooney and representing Castleconnor were Tom Foody & Tom Tuffy. McLoughlin & Bruen easily took the 1st game by 21-5 and it didn’t get any better for the Castleconnor men as McLoughlin served 17 winners in a row and Tuffy on the right side of court and was hapless to prevent McLoughlin’s onslaught. In the end it finished 21-3 in the Collooney’s men’s favour and the contest was effectively over. Collooney now lead by 72-46 leaving Collooney’s 2nd singles player Michael Bruen only needing 16 points for overall victory. This he did when defeating Joe Gorman 21-17, 20-21. Collooney will now go forward to the Connacht semi-finals where they will face the Mayo winners in Castlebar on Wednesday week.


Odhran plate runner-up in Williamstown

Brother & Sister Odhran & Aoife Quinn from the Castleconnor club recently took part in the Williamstown 1-Wall Tournament. Aoife had a very creditable showing when reaching round 2 of the Girls U-14 singles while brother Odhran reached the final of the Boys U-12 plate singles only to be beaten by Tyrone's Turlough Clarke on a final score line of 25-15.
County Juvenile 1-wall championships take place in Castleconnor on Saturday starting at 11 am in grades U13/15/17 singles
The County will also be organising a Juvenile doubles 1-wall championships in Curry to commemorate Curry’s 125th celebrations. The Championships will take place in the Cully One-Wall Court on Sunday July 31st at 11 a.m.