The opening round of Leinster 40×20 Juvenile Championships took place recently with a number of Laois handballers in action.
Up first, Michael and Darragh Brennan (St. Brigid’s, Monavea) made home court advantage count with a hugely impressive two game victory over Luke Fitzgerald and Sean Cloney (Carlow) in the Boys U-15 doubles quarter-final.
The Laois pairing started the contest strongly and they never let their standards drop throughout to record the win and progress into next week’s semi-finals.
There was no joy the following day for Carrie and Caoimhe Brennan (St. Brigid’s, Monavea) who lost to Kilkenny’s Ruth Moylan and Aimee Hickey in the Girls U-13 doubles quarter-final.
The girls have made huge improvements over the last number of months but unfortunately, came up against very strong opposition on the day.
Daragh Phelan and Daithí Russell (Cullohill) put up a very good performance in their Boys U-12 doubles quarter-final against Conor McCormack and Aidan Alyward (Kilkenny).
Despite their brave showing, it was victory for the very impressive Kilkenny pairing.
Theo Neale (St. Brigid’s, Monavea) had better luck in his Leinster quarter-final game against a talented opponent in Jack Ryan (Carlow).
Theo played superb handball and controlled the game from start to finish to register the win two games to nil and progress to the next round of the Boys U-14 singles.
The last Laois player into action was Annie Grant (St. Brigid’s, Monavea) who faced Gráinne Heap (Westmeath) in the Girls U-15 singles quarter-final.
Annie is a very talented handballer who performed brilliantly at recently played World Handball Championships and she carried this form into 2025 with a hugely impressive victory over her Westmeath opponent in two games.
Hopefully Laois will have further success at these championships over the next couple of weeks with a number of players yet to enter into the action.
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