by Paul Fitzpatrick

Cork are aiming for a double in tomorrow’s oneills.com All-Ireland Senior Doubles Men’s and Ladies finals at Croke Park.

Both deciders are repeats of last year, with defending champions and live underdogs in both. In the Ladies final, Catriona Casey and Aishling O’Keeffe are gunning for an eighth title while in the Men’s, Daniel Relihan and Michael Hedigan are looking to win the Tommy O’Brien Cup for the first time.

The Rebels meet Clare’s Diarmaid Nash and Colin Crehan, who are seeking to win the crown for the fourth time, in the Men’s final, with defending Singles champion Ciana Ní Churraoin and partner Niamh Heffernan providing the opposition in the Ladies final.

Casey and O’Keeffe, meanwhile, edged the Tribeswomen on a wafer thin 11-10 margin in a tiebreaker in last year’s final and will be out to assert their dominance, with Ní Churraoin – who stunned Casey in last year’s All-Ireland Singles final – struggling with an injury over recent weeks.

“From the start of the year every year, myself and Daniel always concentrate on the doubles because we enjoy playing doubles and we are very competitive in doubles,” Hedigan explained.

“We always wanted to win a 40x20 Senior Doubles. We play all the singles tournaments just to get us back into the rhythm of playing handball and whatnot but it’s always the doubles we’re going for.

“We’d love to win a Senior Doubles in the 40x20, that’s been our aim since a young age.”

While competing on the singles circuit keeps their eye in – and, indeed, both men have been very competitive in tournaments and championship handball – doubles is where it’s at for the Liscarroll duo.

They tailor their training towards doubles, Michael explained, and get a lot of practice games in.

“We play a lot of challenge matches against different opposition, it doesn’t matter what level it is because there is always something we could get confused with, even a 50-50 ball, in different games something different always happens so we’re always talking and learning.

“We do play a lot of doubles in fairness, there are a lot of teams to play challenge matches against in Munster and especially in Cork.”

The new National Handball Centre has really given handball a lift in general and Hedigan is a big fan of the facilities.

The name recognition of Croke Park, he says, adds to the credibility of the sport while it’s very nice to play in the show court, too.

“I really love going up to Dublin to play. The show court is immaculate, it’s one of the best courts I’ve ever played in. You get confused the odd time in the back corners with the glass but that’s the same for everyone so you can’t complain about it to be honest.

“Usually, if we are anywhere and talking to strangers and tell them we are playing in Croke Park at the weekend, they’ll look at you twice and say ‘oh, Croke Park’ so that’s a big bonus from it.

“Croke Park is so recognisable. A lot of our friends are willing to make the journey to Croke Park because the facilities are fantastic and it’s all under the one roof.”

Action serves off at 12 noon, with five-time world champion Paul Brady from Cavan making his comeback in the Masters Doubles final in the first match, against Mayo.

Also down for decision are the Minor Doubles finals, which are both Kilkenny v Galway.

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