Limerick's Martina McMahon impressed once again. Photo by Stephen Marken
Meath’s Brian Carroll and Limerick’s Martina McMahon claimed top honours in a successful renewal of the Irish Softball Nationals, hosted in Wexford and Carlow at the weekend.
In beautiful sunshine, Carroll and McMahon delivered some superb performances as they won out in the blue riband Men’s Open and Ladies Open grades, with Sunday’s finals crowning an exceptional weekend of ‘big alley’ handball.
Carroll, one of the most decorated doubles players in the sport in both softball and 4-Wall, picked up arguably his greatest singles success at the top level as he saw off experienced Wicklow man Michael Gregan 12-15, 15-1, 11-8 in a high-quality Men’s final.
Carroll’s speed and two-handed offense were as impressive as ever as he recovered from a first-game reversal to hold off the Coolboy right-hander in a close tiebreaker. In the earlier rounds, he defeated Kilkenny’s Kyle Jordan and his own clubmate Gary McConnell, while Gregan got the better of Limerick’s Evan Murphy, Kikenny’s Ciaran Neary and Wexford veteran Tommy Hynes en route to the final.
Meanwhile, in the Ladies Open, left-hander McMahon, who has won more or less every major singles honour in the game and has returned from serious injury in the last two seasons, was at her brilliant best as she defeated Kilkenny’s Ciara Mahon 15-4, 15-6 in the final, having earlier seen off Kilkenny’s Amy Brennan and top seed Mollie Dagg from Kildare.
Mahon, for her part, had good wins over Cork’s Aishling O’Keeffe and Mayo’s former Senior Singles finalist Cuileann Bourke to advance to another major final.
Elsewhere, the A Doubles went to the Cork/Wexford combination of Gearoid Healy and Joe Devereux while Carlow men Ollie and John Ryan won the Masters Doubles in a tiebreaker.
Local lads Jamie Moran and Sean Fitzharris won the Boys 17 & Under grade, with Holly Byrne and Katie Jordan from Kilkenny taking gold in the corresponding Girls grade.
Attention will now turn to the All-Ireland Senior Softball Doubles, which serves off this weekend.
Meanwhile, the earlybird entry for the oneills.com World Wallball Championships closes this Sunday. Interest in the event, which takes place from August 18-23 next at the University of Limerick, has been very high with a large entry anticipated.