Junior Handball - Dublin Open Championship
1st Years
Tallaght CS Vs Greenhills College 5-0
St Tiernans Vs Coolmine A 3-2
St Kilian's Vs Coolmine B 2-0
Drimnagh Castle Vs Eurocampus 5-0
Semi-final 1
St Kilian's Vs Tallaght CS 3-9
Semi final 2
St Tiernan's Vs Drimnagh Castle 2-6
Final
Tallaght CS Vs Drimnagh Castle 8-0
2nd years
Greenhills College Vs St Tiernan's 9-2
Eurocampus Vs Drimnagh castle 1-9
Ballinteer CS Bye
Tallaght CS Bye
Semi final 1
Drimnagh castle Vs Ballinteer 8-7
Semi-Final 2
Greenhills College Vs Tallaght CS 3-4
Final
Drimnagh castle Vs Tallaght CS 13-3
Final 4th year boys
Eurocampus Vs Coolmine 6-4
Dublin open champions Boys section
1st year Tallaght CS
2nd year Drimnagh castle
4th year Eurocampus
Top scorers
1st years
Craig palmer Tallaght CS 10
2nd Years
Jason Germaine Drimnagh castle 22
Luke Moran Ballinteer CS 6
Craig Foy Greenhills College
The boys section of the Dublin Open Olympic handball championships took place in Inchicore VEC on Wed 12th December. In all seven schools were represented at the event. Tallaght CS, Ballinteer CS, St Tiernan's, Drimnagh Castle, Greenhills College, Coolmine CS and Eurocampus, Clonskeagh ( an amalgamation of the German and french schools) This was a knock out competition from the strat. There were no seedings and the luck of the draw was all that kept you away from some really good teams. The competition was divided into 3 sections 1st year, second year and 3rd/4th year. The idea was that young boys would be able to play with their own class mates as opposed to other sports whereby 1 day either side of a date can put you in another age bracket. The games were fast and furious as each team knew that a loss meant an early shower. Coolmine hedged their bets with two 1st year teams but only their A-squad came close to winning eventually losing on the tightest of margins to St Tiernan's who had un earthed a gem of a player in Hungarian Fazekus, his shooting was unstoppable. in the other first round matches Tallaght St kilian's and Drimnagh castle all progressed. In the semi finals Tallaght easily brushed aside St kilians due to some fantastic team play from seasoned handballers from Lughnasa HC and a new find in craig Palmer who has been signed up by the Tallaght club. unfortunately for St tiernan's although they came up against a relatively new team in Drimnagh castle the castle had an ace up their sleeve. Ireland u-14 goalkeeper darragh Hallows played a personal duel against Fazekus with the Irish keeper coming out on top and his team scoring at will against the St Tiernan's keeper. However in the final a team of seasoned handballers from tallaght CS easily swept aside the Castle to win at 1st year level again in Olympic handball. the school that brought us handball in 1973 is rising again. The second years competition was a fantastic affair. Almost all teams had members of the u-15 Irish squad and the duels on the court made for breath taking games. Greenhills easily swept aside St Tiernan's, castle easily beat Eurocampus. But the match between Ballinteer and Castle was the best match of the day. Speed, jump-shooting, full contact defending the game had everything. Luke Moran with 6 goals and Jason Germaine also with 6 were the stars of the game. At the end they shook hands but in truth this was a war of attrition. Castle had some Irish squad players after this game some of the Ballinteer boys will be asked to join. In truth this was the final and even though Tallaght beat Greenhills by the 1 goal they were annihilated in the final. In the final of the 4th years the boys of Eurocampus beat Coolmine in what was Coolmine's worst display of the season. They never really got going but that was in large part to Julien eberle and his team mates, they kept the pressure on Coolmine all the time and when they eventually thought to mark Julien out of the game his team mates rowed in with some great goals. If you ever wanted your schol to try a different sport this is the time to do it. Boys and girls from Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare have played each other in 5 major tournaments this year and the number is growing. With professional refs at each tournament there is no doubt that Olympic handball is on the up and schools are now deciding to "Create their own Tradition" After the new year St Joseph's Rush, Maryfield College, St Paul's, Presentation terenure will all be joining the competition along with schools from Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Galway, Mayo and Sligo. If you are interested in playing Olympic handball contact the IOHA on 01-6251165 or e-mail ioha@olympichandball.org or check out the website the Lughnasa Handball club website http://connect.southdublin.ie/lughnasahandballteam/
and get playing.
Tomás Ó Brannagáin (IOHA)
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