Naomh Gall GAA

The handball season ended on a high note for the young handballers of Naomh Gall. Throughout the season we have used our Division 5 team to help bring through our younger players and to give them experience. This policy paid off on Thursday evening when we took on a very strong Ardoyne team in the league championship decider.

Ardoyne had already won the league and had beaten our team easily when we played them earlier in the year. However our young team of Jordan O'Neill, Lee McCann, Mark Rainey, Colm O'Neill, Aodhan McCabe and supplemented by Mark Kelly and Gerry Lowe, have developed well over the season. We also suspected that as Ardoyne had played all their matches on their own court it was a big advantage for them. So when we beat Clan Eireann, and Queens University to reach the final we were delighted that the draw had us down to play Ardoyne at a neutral venue. 

This proved to be the case, and combined with the improvements in our players we were quietly confident we could defeat them. The Ardoyne number who had hammered Jordan earlier in the year, was beaten in the first set as Jordan played a very intelligent game and used all his advantages. Jordan is still only 15 so in the second set he struggled towards the end and allowed the Ardoyne player to take the second set. However Jordan had inflicted their first defeat and their team was rattled. Due to injury and at late notice Colm and Gerry took on the doubles challenge. Although they were narrowly defeated they had gained enough points to give Mark Rainey a chance in the final game. And Mark took that chance with both hands. He defeated his Ardoyne counterpart in both sets played and when his points were added to the rest of the team it showed that the Naomh Gall lads had defeated Ardoyne, gaining their first major championship.

So well done to all those who contributed to making this team a success.