Clare’s Niall Malone and Diarmaid Nash will meet reigning All-Ireland champions Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan (Cavan) tomorrow in the GAA 40x20 Senior Doubles Championship at Mullingar.
Two of the youngest debutants in this year’s championship, the pairing had a 21-7 tiebreaker victory over Tyrone’s Ruairi Kelly and Shane O’Neill in their opening game. Now they face the 2003 World Doubles Champions, one of the most formidable partnerships in Irish handball.
‘We’re looking forward to the game,’ said Nash, who is also a talented hurler, and played in defence for the Banner County minors over the past three years.
‘There is no pressure on us going into the game so we’ll give it our best and see what happens.’
Nash and Malone are both accomplished underage players and no strangers to the international stage having collected the World 15 and under doubles title in Edmonton, Canada two years ago.
The long-time partners have also an U-16 and prestigious Minor All-Ireland title included in their list of achievements, and in 2007, they collected the USHA 17 and Junior Nationals titles.
‘We’ve been playing together for about four or five years so we know each others game,’ said Nash.
‘Paul and Michael are the best there is in doubles and they’ve got a great reading of each others game – hopefully we can match that soon.’
Also at the Midlands venue, last year’s beaten finalists, Joe McCann and Dessie Keegan (Mayo) take on Cavan’s Patrick Clerkin and Raymond Cunningham, with the remaining Round of 16 Doubles games taking place at Offaly, Kilkenny, Kildare and Monaghan venues.
Two of last weekend’s postponed Ladies Senior Championship games go ahead this weekend. Top of the billing is the meeting of Tipperary’s Jackie Keating and Irish number two seed, Aisling Reilly.
Nineteen-year-old Reilly goes into the championship on the back of winning her first senior crown in 2008 and with the World Championships in Portland, Oregon fast approaching, she will be hoping to make a good start to her season.
