Meath and Dublin played out a thrilling All-Ireland Senior Doubles Final at Croke Park on Saturday as Dublin’s Egin Jensen and Eoin Kennedy defeated Royal pairing Brian Carroll and Tom Sheridan.
Last year, the Dubs and the Royals served up a cracking All-Ireland semi-final, where Meath edged a 21-18 tiebreaker victory, and onlookers were treated to a spectacle at handball HQ.
The Dubliners won the title in 2007 and were anxious to return to winning ways yesterday.
'It was a really tough game, but we played very well and having lost out to Brian and Tom last year, it feels great to be back on top,' said Kennedy.
'We always expected it to be a battle, and it took a great team effort to take that win.'
The first game was an action packed affair, full of top class handball, with just an ace dividing the pairings at the finish.
Meath will rue their missed opportunity at 20-16, but great credit must be paid to the heroics of Jensen and Kennedy who pulled back the five aces when under pressure.
'Egin was fantastic on the right and killed balls at really important times in the game,” said Kennedy.
The sides swapped serves on no less than 19 occasions, drawing level eight times, in the opening game. Carroll and Jensen had a great battle on the right, while Kennedy and Sheridan display some awesome killing power.
At 20-16 up in the hard-fought opening encounter, the reigning All-Ireland champions, Carroll and Sheridan, looked to have done enough but the dynamic Dublin duo had other ideas.
They picked off five quick aces to grant them 21-20 victory and break Meath hearts.
The second game carried the same drama as the first, with the sides swapping aces before Dublin broke into a 10-6 lead.
Meath took a 12-11 lead, but Dublin pushed ahead to 15-12 and while Carroll and Sheridan continued to pressure the Dubs, it was to be their day as they sealed victory on a 21-12 scoreline.
In the Minor Doubles Final, Mayo young-guns Stephen Cooney and Ian McLoughlin defeated Kilkenny’s Keith Bourke and Eoghan Hennessy 21-17, 21-17.
Mayo and Kilkenny also clashed in the Intermediate Singles Final, where Kilkenny’s Brian Manogue defeated Ollie Cassidy on a 21-11, 21-14 scoreline.
