Agonizing defeat for Castleconnor as McGee snatches victory for Collooney
Agonizing defeat for Castleconnor as McGee snatches victory for Collooney

Collooney reached the Provincial final of the Junior B Interclub 60 x 30 final following a narrow victory over a gallant Castleconnor team in the Sligo final played in Collooney on Wednesday evening last.

Collooney were overwhelming favourites to win, but Castleconnor hadn’t fully read the script and very nearly pulled off a shock victory. Peter Davey from Collooney started brightly against Castleconnor’s Martin Cooney. However it soon became evident that Cooney was going to be a difficult opponent for Davey and so it proved to be. Cooney with 2 very good hands began to find his range and took the first game by 21-12. Cooney kept up the pressure and it was clear that Davey was tiring against a stronger opponent so much so that Davey failed to register a score in the second.

With a 30 point advantage going into the doubles Castleconnor were in the driving seat. Collooney’s John McLoughlin & Sean Coen right from the start began to eat away into’s Castleconnor’s big lead, and quite easily took the 1st game by 21-5 over Michael Browne & Tom Foody. In the second Browne came more into it and covered every inch of the Collooney court, and Foody got some nice scores on the right. McLoughlin & Coen were finding it hard to add to their tally, and a reinvigorated Browne & Foody surprised the more experienced Collooney side by taking the second game by 21-15.

Going into the last singles match Castleconnor still led by 20 points (68-48). Collooney were relying on Michael McGee to pull the game out of the fire, and straight away he brought the battle to Joe Gorman from Castleconnor taking the 1st game by 21-12. Joe Gorman had a great start to the second game going 8-0 up and just needed 2 points for overall victory. McGee, the former Royal County handball player dug deep and in true Meath style put in a storming finish. Gorman only managed 1 further score as McGee took the second game by 21-9. At the very end Collooney had a narrow escape just pipping Castleconnor by 1 point, the final score in favour of Collooney was 90 – 89. Collooney now go onto the Provincial final where they will meet the winners of Roscommon or Galway at a date and venue yet to be confirmed.



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