WPH Press, Breacach, Co Tyrone, Ireland 11/13/23
The GAA hosted the Men’s and Ladies Senior Singles WallBall on September 23, 2023 at Breacach’s indoor WallBall facility featuring the best Men’s and Ladies WallBall stars in Ireland.
WR48 #2 Eilise McCrory earned the best win of her young career on her home court, stunning Catriona Casey and Fiona Tully to take the prestigious All Ireland WallBall title.
“Beating Catriona and Fiona was a bit of a surreal moment,” McCrory would later say after surviving a Casey tiebreaker attempt that saw Casey cut a 3-10 third game deficit to 8-10 and defeating Tully in two close games. “Catriona is a player I’ve been looking to beat for a long time. I was unsure after beating her (in the semis) if I had the capacity to beat Fiona in the final just a few hours later, but I somehow pulled it out of the bag. Myself and Fiona have been meeting in tournaments for our entire careers and it’s always a close call. I knew I needed everything to beat her and I wasn’t sure I had it.”
McCrory tried to keep her strategy simple. “Serves were crucial I think and just ensured the ball was always kept in,” stated McCrory. “Fly kills seemed to be working a treat that day as well.”
Although McCrory does not consider herself to be a WallBall specialist, she was motivated to play well in the Singles WallBall after several WallBall losses earlier in the summer. “I rarely train for it (WallBall),” McCrory stated. “I usually use it as a break between 4-Wall seasons, just for a bit of summer fun. But I had a few hard defeats in the Nationals and the Loughmacrory showdown weeks previous, which I didn’t enjoy, so I put a little more effort into the All Ireland this year than in previous times.”
Semifinal: McCrory def Casey 15-12, 3-15, 11-8
Final: McCrory def Tully 15-14, 15-14
Conor McElduff continued to be the player to beat in Men’s Irish Wallball, downing Ben Devlin to win his fourth All Ireland WallBall title.
Final: McElduff def Devlin 13-15, 15-4, 11-3
Info for this report gathered from GAA Handball
Pictures courtesy of GAA Handball
Read the full report from Paul Fitzpatrick on GAA HERE
For more on GAA Handball, visit the GAA Handball homepage HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer