Travis Gibbons with Simon Cavanagh, Peter Davey, Paddy Walsh and Francis McCann at his Civic Reception in Riverside last week
Following on from his All-Ireland minor singles victory over Kilkenny’s Jake O’Neil last weekend, Collooney’s Travis Gibbons makes the trip to Handball Headquarters this Sunday for a meeting with the Munster Champion, Sean Considine from Clare for the rare prize of an All-Ireland Minor 40×20 singles title.
Gibbons admitted that he was never in any real trouble in his semi-final encounter against the Leinster minor champion, which he won 21-15, 21-14 and goes into Sunday’s decider in a confident mindset.
Considine, for his part, made short work of the highly regarded Ulster challenger Arron McElhone 21-5, 21-9 in his semi-final and will prove a worthy opponent for the Collooney man.
The Sunday programme on the Show Court gets underway at 11am with the ladies minor singles final between Tyrone and Galway and this is followed at 12noon approximately by the much-anticipated minor decider. It is expected that the game plus a commentary will be available free to watch on the sport@tg4 Facebook page.
Handball Headquarters hosted the All-Ireland Juvenile semi-finals and finals over the weekend.
Sligo’s sole contender, Adam O’Connor from the Castleconnor suffered a two games to nil defeat to the Leinster champion, Darragh Kehoe in the Boys U17 singles grade on a day when most of the Connacht contender suffered defeats, leaving just three finalists contesting finals.However all three emerged victorious, Lisacul, Roscommon in the Boys U17D, Galway in the Girls U17D and in a historic day for Leitrim handball, Maxim Gilmartin from the Feenagh club defeated Clare’s, Walter Moroney 14-15, 15-12, 15-11 in a thrilling the Boys U15 final.
The Collooney club hosted the Connacht final in boys U11 to U13 doubles grades at the weekend.
Collooney’s Logan O’Rourke and Lachlan Walsh defeated Galway duo, Odhran O’ Longain and Iarla Mulligan in a tie-break in their semi-final but just came up short against another Galway duo, Rhys Downey and Conan O’ Toursaig in the final on a 11-7, 11-6 scoreline.
Both are eligible for the U11 grade next year.
It is expected that the provincial adult doubles championship will commence very shortly and quarter-final fixtures in some grades should be available by the end of this week.
Sligo Handball wish to thank all for the Sligo County Council award bestowed on Travis Gibbons last week which his family and a number of Sligo Handball officials attended, it was a memorable occasion for all concerned.