A WEEK in Holland may well have changed the handball life of Conor McElduff as it launched him to victory in the Dutch Open Wallball Championship, a tournament on the recently-established Edtl European Pro Tour.
The Beragh boy and Armagh’s Conall McCavitt spent last week in Holland training for the event, and both cruised through their group qualifying sections, winning all their three matches in style to reach the quarter-finals.
At that stage, McElduff easily tamed Belgium’s Tangauy Metayer 15-9 while McCavitt took out American John Melo 15-12.
However, McCavitt’s excellent run ended there as he lost in the semi-finals 21-14 after a terrific battle with Danny Torres from the USA.
McElduff was cruising along against UK’s Dan Grant, leading 9-1, before the Englishman stormed back to close the gap at 16-14, before his Tyrone opponent upped the ante again to reach the final on a 21-16 ticket.
After showing impressive performances throughout the tournament so far, Torres was looked upon as favourite to take the Dutch title but McElduff had other ideas. Right from the hit-off he dominated his American opponent to take the title with a 21-2 win.
That took McElduff, who reached the Spanish semi-finals a few weeks ago, up to 16th position in the men’s European Tour rankings, just one slot ahead of McCavitt.
Some Irish women are also playing on the European Wallball Tour and sharing eighth place in the rankings are Down’s Lorraine Havern and Galway girl Sinead Hanley.
Meanwhile, Tyrone players, along with Monaghan’s Eoghan McGinnity, are bidding for success in the All-Ireland 60x40 Colleges’ Championships, being held this weekend in Tipperary at Cashel and Clonmel and at Dungarvan in Waterford.
Emer Kerr and Caitlin Conway, students at Dean Maguirc College in Carrickmore, play Mayo pair Heather Burke and Claire Reynolds in the Girls’ Junior Doubles semi-finals at Cashel.
At Clonmel, it is singles semi-finals time with Michaela McCartan (St Ciarán’s Ballygawley) playing Niamh Heffernan, from Colaiste Baile Clair. At the same venue, Eoghan McGinnity (St MacCartan’s) plays Gareth Delaney from Roscommon CC in the boys’ junior semi-finals.
Down in Dungarvan there is a strong Tyrone representation. In the B intermediate doubles, Cormac Munroe and Ciarán Cuddy (Dean Maguire) face Fiachra Mulkerrins and Shane Kyne (St Mary’s Galway), while Anton Fox and Lorcan McBride (Omagh CBS) play Dylan Hanley and Magomed Yakhyaev (Roscommon CBS) in the B junior doubles.
Omagh CBS is also involved in the B intermediate singles semis as Turlough Clarke battles for a place in the final against another Galway Mulkerrins, this time Diarmuid.
