This time however, over the course of a wet and waterlogged weekend in the town of Tralee, clichés such as these, frankly, don’t even come close to paying justice to what was quite simply one of the finest finals ever witnessed in the long history of intervarsity teams handball.

Tralee sports complex was the setting for the four and a half hour long ‘A’ team final that literally had it all. Suspense. Drama. Heroic effort in abundance. Every box was ticked.

For University of Ulster Jordanstown, it was job well done and straight to the top of the class as they successfully defended their All-Ireland 40x20 Team Intervarsity title, but not without some top class handball en-route.

UUJ came into the final following a one sided semi-final with the hosts IT Tralee, while on the other side NUI Galway had two comprehensive victories over 60x30 winners Waterford IT and then Dublin IT in the semi final.

The marathon battle began with the first of two singles games where UUJ’s Padraig McGlinchey got the upper hand on NUIG’s Ciaran Burke, especially in the second, where he upped his game to take an overall lead of seventeen aces in a 21-19, 21-6 win.

Next up and hoping to reduce the deficit was the doubles pairing of Clare’s Diarmaid Nash and Galway’s Kevin Craddock. A blaze of diving picks from Nash and clinical right corner kill shots from Kraddock saw NUIG overturn the deficit amassed in the first with a 21-15, 21-7 win over UUJ’s Brian Donaghy and Connor Duff. It was now NUIG ahead 67-64 moving into the last singles of the event.

The defending champions were trailing by three aces as Darragh Daly and Niall Malone got underway. The calculators were on hand to keep track of the overall score, and the 3rd level spectator’s math’s skills were tested throughout the last singles match.

Malone and Daly served up the best match of the weekend in their head to head. Malone was on fire midway through the first game killing everything, and looked to have the first game in the bag leading at one stage 14-6. Daly staged a remarkable fight back to take the opener 21-16, to leave the score UUJ 85-NUIG 83 with one game remaining. While their first game was good, this second game between Malone and Daly was a classic worthy of any final. Niall went ahead 15-4 and seemed to be cruising to victory. Even the NUIG supporters had the calculators put away. This one was assured.

Dara however responded and staged a tremendous fight back and with the score at 20-16 to Ulster it was anybody’s game. Hands changed seven times over the last four marks, to leave the final score 21-19 to Daly.

All the mathematicians clocked up their scores and anyone with honours maths got 104 for UUJ to 104 for NUIG, a draw in a handball team event. The calculators were put away and the rule book was dusted off.

As per the rules of team events, the outcome would be decided by one doubles game to 21, with any combination of doubles for either team allowed to take to the court. UUJ selected Darragh Daly and Padraig Mcglinchey while the westerners went for the formidable Tuamgranny pairing of Diarmaid Nash and Niall Malone. Luck it seemed ran out for NUIG in the end with the northerners taking the biggest prize in Irish colligiate handball for the second year in a row on a 21-9 score line. Burke and Kraddock will no doubt be disappointed not to reclaim the trophy they worked so hard to take hold of in 2007, but as the saying goes, there’s always next year. A spectacular performance on both sides and a deserved win for UUJ.

Across the hall in court two, the Rushe sisters Hillary and Marianna claimed yet another Intervarsity title, having beaten NUIG Leona Doolin and Catroina Casey in the semi final 15-6, 15-2 they faced the daunting UL pairing of Deirdre Donohoe and Karen Lawlor, and in an exciting contest they took the honours with a painstakingly close 21-17, 21-16 victory. In the Ladies B doubles UCD were hoping to do the double with Laura Mannion and Avril Burns taking on NUIG’s Siobhan Tully and Nicola Kelly however the strong westerner pair put in a superb performance winning 15-0,15-4.

In the Mens B grade, last years runners up UCD were expected to make no mistake this year and they didn’t disappoint beating both UL1 and UL2 enroute to the final against a three man Trinity who sensationally beat DCU in the quarter finals and NUIG in the semi final to set up an all Dublin showdown with UCD.

Ladies doubles champion Marianna Rushe faced off against Trinity’s Kilkenny ace Eamonn Foley in the first singles with Foley taking the first 21-16 and Marianna taking a tight second game 21-19, it all came down to the doubles as Trinity needed to be more than 43 aces in front to take the title or 42 to level it, as they had only three players. However despite Niall Mullally and Cormac McMahons 21-14, 21-17 win over Kevin Mulligan and Hillary Rushe UCD revenged their final defeat on an overall scoreline of 110-82. Who knows what would have happened had Trinity a forth player.

In the Mens C DCU were hoping to add to the 60x30 team title, and after a compressive win over UCD they faced UCC who defeated DIT in the final played in Ballymac. In the first singles John Kearney of UCC pulled out all the strings to beat Colm Grace 21-13 but Colm bounced back in the second winning 21-3.  The doubles saw DCU’s Paddy Rowsome and Tom Sinnott adding to DCU lead with a 21-16, 21-8 win over Cathal Reynolds and Colin Keane.

The last singles was a very close affair with Brian O’Sullivan DCU edging out Aaron Geoghegan 21-18, and mathematically finishing the game the second game went as far as 16-11 to DCU when it was decided to go no further thus giving DCU victory 118-77.

Overall it was a good weekend unfortunately the weather didn’t help. It has to be noted the dedication of every single player involved, in particular UUJ and their 10 hour drive and UCC and them even making it out of the city in the first place. Your effort did not go unnoticed. Thanks also to Tralee Sports Complex and Ballymac for providing the alleys and Kirby’s Brogue Inn for food and entertainment.

God be with the days of the out door alleys! All roads now lead to Kingscourt at the end of January.

Detailed Results Below

This time however, over the course of a wet and waterlogged weekend in the town of Tralee, clichés such as these, frankly, don’t even come close to paying justice to what was quite simply one of the finest finals ever witnessed in the long history of intervarsity teams handball.

Tralee sports complex was the setting for the four and a half hour long ‘A’ team final that literally had it all. Suspense. Drama. Heroic effort in abundance. Every box was ticked.

For University of Ulster Jordanstown, it was job well done and straight to the top of the class as they successfully defended their All-Ireland 40x20 Team Intervarsity title, but not without some top class handball en-route.

UUJ came into the final following a one sided semi-final with the hosts IT Tralee, while on the other side NUI Galway had two comprehensive victories over 60x30 winners Waterford IT and then Dublin IT in the semi final.

The marathon battle began with the first of two singles games where UUJ’s Padraig McGlinchey got the upper hand on NUIG’s Ciaran Burke, especially in the second, where he upped his game to take an overall lead of seventeen aces in a 21-19, 21-6 win.

Next up and hoping to reduce the deficit was the doubles pairing of Clare’s Diarmaid Nash and Galway’s Kevin Craddock. A blaze of diving picks from Nash and clinical right corner kill shots from Kraddock saw NUIG overturn the deficit amassed in the first with a 21-15, 21-7 win over UUJ’s Brian Donaghy and Connor Duff. It was now NUIG ahead 67-64 moving into the last singles of the event.

The defending champions were trailing by three aces as Darragh Daly and Niall Malone got underway. The calculators were on hand to keep track of the overall score, and the 3rd level spectator’s math’s skills were tested throughout the last singles match.

Malone and Daly served up the best match of the weekend in their head to head. Malone was on fire midway through the first game killing everything, and looked to have the first game in the bag leading at one stage 14-6. Daly staged a remarkable fight back to take the opener 21-16, to leave the score UUJ 85-NUIG 83 with one game remaining. While their first game was good, this second game between Malone and Daly was a classic worthy of any final. Niall went ahead 15-4 and seemed to be cruising to victory. Even the NUIG supporters had the calculators put away. This one was assured.

Dara however responded and staged a tremendous fight back and with the score at 20-16 to Ulster it was anybody’s game. Hands changed seven times over the last four marks, to leave the final score 21-19 to Daly.

All the mathematicians clocked up their scores and anyone with honours maths got 104 for UUJ to 104 for NUIG, a draw in a handball team event. The calculators were put away and the rule book was dusted off.

As per the rules of team events, the outcome would be decided by one doubles game to 21, with any combination of doubles for either team allowed to take to the court. UUJ selected Darragh Daly and Padraig Mcglinchey while the westerners went for the formidable Tuamgranny pairing of Diarmaid Nash and Niall Malone. Luck it seemed ran out for NUIG in the end with the northerners taking the biggest prize in Irish colligiate handball for the second year in a row on a 21-9 score line. Burke and Kraddock will no doubt be disappointed not to reclaim the trophy they worked so hard to take hold of in 2007, but as the saying goes, there’s always next year. A spectacular performance on both sides and a deserved win for UUJ.

Across the hall in court two, the Rushe sisters Hillary and Marianna claimed yet another Intervarsity title, having beaten NUIG Leona Doolin and Catroina Casey in the semi final 15-6, 15-2 they faced the daunting UL pairing of Deirdre Donohoe and Karen Lawlor, and in an exciting contest they took the honours with a painstakingly close 21-17, 21-16 victory. In the Ladies B doubles UCD were hoping to do the double with Laura Mannion and Avril Burns taking on NUIG’s Siobhan Tully and Nicola Kelly however the strong westerner pair put in a superb performance winning 15-0,15-4.

In the Mens B grade, last years runners up UCD were expected to make no mistake this year and they didn’t disappoint beating both UL1 and UL2 enroute to the final against a three man Trinity who sensationally beat DCU in the quarter finals and NUIG in the semi final to set up an all Dublin showdown with UCD.

Ladies doubles champion Marianna Rushe faced off against Trinity’s Kilkenny ace Eamonn Foley in the first singles with Foley taking the first 21-16 and Marianna taking a tight second game 21-19, it all came down to the doubles as Trinity needed to be more than 43 aces in front to take the title or 42 to level it, as they had only three players. However despite Niall Mullally and Cormac McMahons 21-14, 21-17 win over Kevin Mulligan and Hillary Rushe UCD revenged their final defeat on an overall scoreline of 110-82. Who knows what would have happened had Trinity a forth player.

In the Mens C DCU were hoping to add to the 60x30 team title, and after a compressive win over UCD they faced UCC who defeated DIT in the final played in Ballymac. In the first singles John Kearney of UCC pulled out all the strings to beat Colm Grace 21-13 but Colm bounced back in the second winning 21-3.  The doubles saw DCU’s Paddy Rowsome and Tom Sinnott adding to DCU lead with a 21-16, 21-8 win over Cathal Reynolds and Colin Keane.

The last singles was a very close affair with Brian O’Sullivan DCU edging out Aaron Geoghegan 21-18, and mathematically finishing the game the second game went as far as 16-11 to DCU when it was decided to go no further thus giving DCU victory 118-77.

Overall it was a good weekend unfortunately the weather didn’t help. It has to be noted the dedication of every single player involved, in particular UUJ and their 10 hour drive and UCC and them even making it out of the city in the first place. Your effort did not go unnoticed. Thanks also to Tralee Sports Complex and Ballymac for providing the alleys and Kirby’s Brogue Inn for food and entertainment.

God be with the days of the out door alleys! All roads now lead to Kingscourt at the end of January.

Detailed Results Below: