60x30 Championships a huge success with all finals played on Sunday 28th May.
​All finals closely contested.
The day kicked off with a great Boys U18 Plate final, where John Joe Buggy and Shane O'Dowd showed great spirit to come from 2 games down and set up a tie-breaker with eventual winners Joseph Brennan and Ryan Lawlor. Harry Lawlor and Conor Malone took the Boys U18 title against Jack Carrol and Josh Lawlor, after just losing out in a tough match in the Mens Novice Semi Final on Saturday evening. Great performances from all 8 Juvenile players from theClogh/Moneenroe club over the weekend.
Sisters, Grace and Olivia Hearn stayed focused the whole way through the Ladies Intermediate final to pick up a great win against their Templeudigan clubmates Niamh Murphy and Suzanne Fitzharris, after going 1 game down. Avril Quigley and Maggie Walsh took the Ladies Plate final against Gusserane pair, Diane Somers and Pamela Quigley.
The Men's Novice final was an all Clogh/Moneenroe clash, with Thomas O’Reilly and Dylan Purcell pulling through against Robert Menton and Eoin Moore. It was a well-earned title for Thomas and Dylan on the back of 3 tough matches from the previous day.
New Wexford club, Gusserane, had great representation in the Mens Junior Final with 3 players featuring. Leon Galvin (Templeudigan) and Philly Molloy eventually took the title against Joe Kehoe and Paddy Whelan.
Wexford brothers Brian and James Bolger narrowly missed out in the tie-breaker to John Bolger and Shane Furlong of Templeudigan in a cracking Intermediate final.
In the premier division, the Men's Senior Doubles, Don Lawlor(Clogh) and James Smith(Arklow) battled through 3 tight matches on Saturday including a 12-10 tie-breaker Semi Final win over Niall Gibbons and Enda Gannon, to set up a clash with Paul Cummins of Ballyanne and Sean O’Neill from Templeudigan. It was a thrilling final to wrap up the weekend, with Don and James continuing their trend throughout the competition of digging out results and going on to claim an 11-9 victory in the tie-breaker.
Congratulations to all of the competitors over the weekend. We hope to see everyone again next year along with some new faces.
Or thanks to Tournament Director, Sean Lyng for his sterling work in running the Championships over the weekend.

A big Thanks to Mike Kinkin and Team Dovetail for coaching and exhibition games on their tour of Ireland after the Irish & Arklow Open.
The team held coaching sessions for juniors and adults in Kilkenny, Fermoy, Castlebar & Ballinrobe.
We especially thank the team for giving so much time to our junior athletes.
Photo
(Clockwise)
Junior coaching with Team Dovetail in Fermoy, Castlebar and Kilkenny
​

This weekend we celebrated the 40th Irish & 37th Arklow Open sponsored by Gearbox Racquetball, at Arklow Coral Leisure Centre with more than 65 athletes and 6 different nations taking part.

It was our international competitors that rose to the cream of the crop as Andres Acuna (Costa Rica) took home both the Men’s Open Singles and Doubles titles with Wexford partner Sean Lyng while Marie Renee Rodriguez took home the Ladies Open Singles title.

The 11th World Games Champion, Andres Acuña defeated his Dovetail teammate Andree Parilla (Mexico) by 3 games to 1 in the first semi final to reach the final. While on the other side of the draw, we saw Lalo Portillo(Mexico) defeat the best of the Irish players James Ryan from the Rossmore club in Co Tipperary. It was 3-1  to the Mexican in a high quality semi-final.  The final between Acuña and Portillo went all the way to an exciting conclusion with Acuña taking the crown 13 points to 11 in the fifth and final game..

In the Ladies Open Singles, Maria Renee Rodriguez brought home the crown when she defeated All Ireland Champion Aisling Hickey (Rossmore) 3-1. However in the Ladies Open Doubles, it was Aisling Hickey and Antonia Neary’s day as they defeated Susan Farrell and Maria Renee Rodriguez in the Ladies Open Doubles Final.

Other noteworthy winners include Reece Young (Arklow) who took home not only the CD Singles title but the CD Doubles title with his brother Elliot. In the Ladies CD Doubles, it was a five set thriller that saw Caylee Hogan/ Cara Delaney (Mitchelstown/Galmoy) defeat Kilkennys Deanna Phelan/Ann Marie Keogh.  In the Mens 50+, Joe Devenney (Ballinrobe) took the crown while Billy Walsh(Kilkenn) took the 60+ crown.

A huge thank you to tournament director Adam Neary, the Arklow Racquetball Club committee, all our sponsors, the four hosting venues, Team Dovetail and our own RAI executive committee.
A lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes to make an event like this possible and so we are grateful for all the effort by all involved.

Full Results: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/viewResults.asp?TID=41187