THE handball year was dominated by the World Championships in Calgary, Canada, and by Paul Brady, who has set a record that is unlikely to ever be broken, unless he changes his own mind and extends it himself.
Brady became the first player in history to win the Men’s Open World Championship five times in succession, over a 15-year period, and immediately said he was signing off from the game at world level.
And while, there is surely nobody around capable of embarking on their own run to beat the Cavan man’s record, there might just be a chance he could opt to try and make it six in Alaska in 2018, by which time he will be 40.
There have been very few GAA people who have become a world champion, let alone a five-time winner on the global scene. Brady served notice early in the year that 2015 was going to be a special one for him.
In January, in Houston, he demolished Sean Lenning 21-5, 21-7 to win the first ProStop event of the season and quickly followed that up with a similar victory over Emmett Peixoto in San Francisco.
March brought a third ProStop victory when he pulverised Andy Nett in New York, allowing the man from Minneapolis a meagre three points across two games.
Peixoto was on the receiving end of another Brady blitz in the final of the USHA National Championship in California, when the Breffni battler took the title for a 10th time in 11 years.
The only setback for the former Cavan senior footballer came when injury forced him to pull out of the Players’ Championship in Salt Lake City, but Irish players were still to the fore and Catriona Casey won the ladies’ final, beating Aisling Reilly in three games.
While Brady was blazing a trail of success, Casey was keeping pace, winning the Women’s ProStop in February, without dropping even one ace to Canadian Jessica Gawley.
The previous month, the Cork girl had won the Ladies’ Open She’s Ace title in Castlebar, beating Reilly at 15 and 9 in the final. She collected another ProStop title during March, in New York, when she overcame Galway teenager Ciana Ní Churraoin, while Martina McMahon (Limerick) defeated Aoife McCarthy (Westmeath) in the third-place play-off.
Casey again matched Brady by claiming victory in the USHA Nationals when, once more she fought out a thriller with Reilly before taking a tie-breaker 11-4, after trailing 4-0.
However, Reilly hit back and, along with Ní Churraoin, took the doubles title against Casey and McCarthy. All that action was used as preparation for the tri-annual World Championships in August, with Brady installed as a strong favourite to win the Men’s Open for a fifth consecutive time.
Reilly, meanwhile, was aiming to retain the women’s crown, with Casey very much the main danger. Yet Brady wasn’t always a certainty to take part, never mind win the crown again.
“I thought long and hard about whether or not I would defend the title,” admitted Brady.
“I had a few injuries during the previous year. However, I couldn’t let the chance of another title slip away.”
He didn’t, as he carried the tag of favourite comfortably lightly throughout the competition, with only Charly Shanks and Robbie McCarthy managing double figures against him in his run to the final.
Brady then retained the title with a 21-8, 21-2 defeat of surprise package Killian Carroll (Cork), who had beaten Luis Moreno in the last four.
The Irish dominated the competition, with five players reaching the quarter-finals and all four semi-finalists hailing from this country.
As expected, Reilly and Casey battled through to the ladies’ decider, and once more they served up a cracker. Casey took the first game at 10, before Belfast girl Reilly hit back to claim the second at 16 and then held her nerve and retained the crown with a 11-6 tie-breaker win.
Brady, fearing injury, and Michael Finnegan pulled out of the Men’s Doubles at the quarter-final stage, and it was Diarmaid Nash and Robbie McCarthy who won the title, beating Joe McCann and Rikki O’Gara in the final.
Once more, all four semi-final pairings were Irish, while seven of the eight players involved in the women’s semi-finals were from this country.
Reilly collected her second gold medal in Calgary, just hours after taking singles glory, as she teamed up with Martina McMahon to defeat Casey and Aishling O’Keefe at 15 and 13.
The World Championships proved a bonanza for Ireland across the levels. In all, 37 titles were brought back to these shores.
On the domestic front, Brady didn’t play in the All-Ireland 40x20 Championships in March, and it was Robbie McCarthy (Westmeath) who defeated Lurgan’s Charly Shanks in the Men’s Open final at Kingscourt after a pulsating 21-20 tie-breaker.
Reilly needed only two tight games, at 15 twice, to beat Casey in the Ladies’ Open final. However, Casey and Aisling O’Keefe took the doubles title against Kerry pair Maria Daly and Ashley Prendiville.
The World Trials were played in May and Brady made a rare appearance on home soil as he and Finnegan booked their tickets to Calgary by defeating McCarthy and Nash at 15 and 16.
Reilly and McMahon once more took the women’s honours, beating Casey and O’Keefe, 13 and 18. The One-Wall game grabbed a lot of headlines, with Tyrone man Conor McElduff hitting the headlines.
He began the campaign with victory in the Ulster race at Loughmacrory, where he beat his Beragh colleague Johnny Woods, but there was to be no McElduff double as his sister Maeve lost to Lorraine Havern (Down) in the Women’s Open decider.
In July, Conor recorded a three-game victory over Martin Mulkerrins in the Irish Men’s Open at Breaffy House, while Casey overcame Havern in the ladies’ final.
In the 19&U grade, Ciana Ní Churraoin beat Maeve McElduff but, as she was already in the Irish team for Canada, there was a play-off for a place on the plane and the Tyrone girl beat Niamh Coleman to take the coveted seat.
Conor McElduff didn’t win in Canada but made his mark in Europe in November, winning the Belgium Open and finishing third in Spain.
