McMahon makes Ulster final

Last Friday saw the annual Ulster Colleges 40x20 Championships staged in Kingscourt and local boy Cormac McMahon made the most of home advantage by qualifying for the final of the Under 19 Singles. Representing Patrician High School, Carrickmacross, McMahon defeated Niall Donaghy (Omagh CBS) and Calum Lennon (Abbey CBS, Newry) to book his place in the decider, where he will face Paul Donnelly of Tyrone. St Pat"s had a full entry for the second successive year but despite a number of promising performances, no Ulster titles came back to the Cavan Town school this time. In Under 15 Singles, Dara McVeety turned in an excellent performance against Keelan Rice of Omagh. McVeety took the first game 15-12 with an impressive display, killing well in the front court and keeping his opponent pinned back with solid play on the roof. In the second, Rice"s ability to finish rallies in the right corner saw him close out the game 15-8 and under the bizarre aggregate scoring system, the unlucky McVeety crashed out. In Under 15 Doubles, Adrian Smith and Eoghan Martin recorded a superb win over Armagh in the quarter-final only to exit the race in the following round at the hands of Carrickmore"s Patrick McRory and Gavin McCrystal. After a tremendous showing in the first round, the St Pat"s pair struggled to cope with the intensity of the Tyrone side. At Under 17 level, Marcus Sheridan turned in a superb performance in the semi-final against Caolan Daly of Tyrone. Daly, the reigning American Under 17 champion and favourite for the All Ireland Minor Singles title this season, was forced to pull out all the stops as left-hander Sheridan pushed him all the way, eventually losing the match 15-19, 15-9. With hard work on his offhand, Sheridan could yet make an impact in the Ulster Minor Singles this year. In the corresponding doubles, John O"Grady and Ryan Brennan had a comfortable win over Belfast opposition in their semi-final before slipping to a disappointing final defeat to Christopher McKenna and Terry McElvaney of St Macartan"s. Conor O"Reilly was defeated in the quarter-final of the Under 19 Singles by Cahill Swinburn of High School. Meanwhile, the stage is set for an all-Cavan semi-final in the Ulster 40x20 Junior Singles as James Brady and Eddie Halligan both qualified for the the last four. Halligan received a bye when Martin Osbourne (Antrim) scratched due to injury while Brady came through a tough weekend, defeating Aidan Devlin (Armagh) and Chris Curran (Tyrone). Having lost the first game 21-17 and down 18-10 in the second to veteran Devlin, Brady dug deep to turn the match around and force a tiebreaker with a 21-20 win, before closing out the result 21-12 at Truagh. Brady had a comfortable win over Curran on Sunday. Also in action at the Cavan venue were Patrick Clerkin and Padraig Cahill. The Kill man routed doubles specialist Cahill, who had been in fine form, 21-4, 21-12 to book his semi spot Next weekend, Clerkin and Brady combine to face Antrim, while former Kingscourt Stars footballers Kevin Martin and Gabriel Patterson are also in action in doubles. Senior stars Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan will face Ian Griffin (Dublin) and Shane O"Neill (Tyrone) in their first rounds.