by Con Dennehy

Irish eyes were smiling in London at the weekend following phenomenal performances by Killarney’s handball stars at the prestigious United Kingdom Open One Wall Championship.

The standout players of the championships were Eoin O’Donoghue (Killarney) and John Joe Quirke (Glenbeigh) who were the pride of the Irish on Saturday and Sunday. They put in a devastating display of skill and passion to win the extremely competitive Men’s Doubles B Championship. After prevailing in a number of their opening games, they progressed to the semi-finals where they defeated the French duo of Tom Dutheil and Florina Vaujany 21-11.

In a hard-fought final, the Kerry players beat Naoise Green and Fionn Ó Súilleabháin (Ireland) 25-20 thanks in part to some great play from O’Donoghue.

“I was delighted with the win – it’s a great boost for handball in Kerry,” Eoin said. “We had to use all our experience and skill to edge past the Irish duo and win the title. It’s a great honour for my club, Spa Killarney. Many Kerry people living in London and our own families supported us on both days and this made winning the title very special.

“My doubles partner, John Joe, had a great weekend, winning the singles final and a silver medal in the over 40s doubles event.”

Teams from Ireland, England, France, Italy, USA, UK and Israel competed in the championships with four players from Killarney taking part.

In the Men’s C Singles competition, O’Donoghue finished mid-table in Group B following victories over Irish players Ger Scahill and Ray Carthy and defeat at the hands of James Toop (England) and Declan Keenan.

There was more success for Killarney in the over 40s competition as Brendan O’Donoghue and John Joe Quirke finish runners up in this hotly contested category. They were narrowly defeated by the American team of Carlos Torres and Jay Sanchez.

Elsewhere, Aoife Walsh and Sinéad Moriarty from Spa Killarney Handball Club both reached the semi-finals of the Women’s Singles competition. Walsh defeated Isabel Power (England) 21-4 but lost to Catherine Vos (England) and fellow Irish players Aoife McCarthy and Sinéad Hanley. She lost to Siobhan Prentice 21-16 in the semi-final.

Moriarty was defeated by Anastasya Spiridonov (Israel) and Irish players Sabrina Hughes and Siobhan Prentice while in the semi-final she was defeated by Catherine Vos (England) in a very exciting contest.

There was some consolation for the Killarney pair in the doubles competition where they finished a very credible third overall and just out of the medals after a classic encounter with the English duo of India Blaksley and Becky Connell.