Juvenile Training: Juvenile training continues to grow strong with over thirty juveniles training in five groups from 8-16 years old on Wednesday’s at 7-8:30pm and Friday’s  at 7-9pm.Parents will be informed of their child’s group or any changes to times by text message each week.Juvenile membership is €10 and €2 per training session.

 

GAA National Club Draw: Thank you to everyone who bought and sold tickets for the GAA National Club draw.The O’Neills half zip tops sponsored by Lynch Brothers will be ready for collection on Friday 25th January.We are calling on all our senior and Juvenile members to be at the alley at 8:30pm on Friday the 25th of January for a group photo of everyone with their new tops.

 

Group League: Our group league is into it’s third week with 77 players from beginner to senior level taking part from Bawn,Carrickmacross,Kingscourt and Monaghan Harps Handball Clubs.Over 30 games will take place weekly until the end of March in the group league at Corduff and Bawn Handball alleys 

 

Novice B County Blitz: There will be no GAA League run this year, instead there will be a County Biltz run for each group. (Senior, Intermediate, Junior, Novice A and Novice B).

The Novice B Blitz will be held in Corduff Handball Club.Contact Aidan Marron 0879972389  for registration.

 

Quiz Night: Our Quiz night will be held in the Mountain Dew at Corduff/Raferagh Community Centre on Friday the 25th of January at 9pm.€20 for a table of four with a top prize for the winning team.There will also be great prizes at the raffle on the night including a €100 Oriel Oil voucher,€100  McVeighs Bathroom & Tiles voucher,€100  All Seasons Garden Equipment voucher €100 Coraghy Quarries’s voucher,€50 The Mountain Dew,Hamper from Activ8 Energies and many more hampers and prizes.Any sponsored prizes would be greatly appreiciated for the raffle on the night.

 

Renovations Opening Day: Our renovations opening day will be held on the 1st of Febuary at 7:30pm.Irelands top two seeded players Martin Mulkerrins and Diarmuid Nash will play a exhibition match which can be viewed in our new viewing area for €10 or you can view it on screen in the Mountain Dew for free.GAA handball President Joe Masterson will officially open the newly renovated alley.

 

Monaghan County Championship:Best of luck to all our members taking part in the county championships in the coming weeks.

-Senior: James Gavaghan.

-Intermediate: Ciarán Brennan.

-Junior: Peter Brennan,Aidan Marron,George McKitterick,Shane McNally,Jamie King.

-Novice A: Mícheál Hanratty,James Fealy

-Novice B: Colin Carragher,Ben Woods,Barry Finn.

-U21: Cian Callan,Dylan Finnegan 

-U18: Jordan McGarrell 

-Masters: Peter Brennan,James Fealy

 

Ulster Championship:

Well done to members James Gavaghan ,Ciarán Brennan and Aidan Marron who won their games and are through to the semi finals in the Ulster Championships at Kingscourt on Saturday 19th January.

 

Cumann Na Mbunscol:

Best of luck to our Juveniles Gerard Corrigan,Niamh Murnaghan,Jack Hanratty,Oran farrelly and Christopher Corrigan taking part in cumann na mbunscol at St Mellans Handball Club on Wednesday 23rd of January.

 

All-Star Club of the year: Corduff Handball Club has been awarded Ulster All-Star Club of the year and  will represent Ulster at the GAA Handball All-Star awards on February 2nd at Dunboyne Castle.Aidan Marron will also represent Ulster as club person of the year.The overall winner will be decided by public vote online at www.gaahandball.ie We would really appreciate your vote for all the hard work accomplished in renovating the alley,Increasing membership,running leagues and coaching our Juveniles.Photo of Committee L-R Gareth King,Ciaran Brennan,George McKitterick,Colin Carragher and Aidan Marron.Missing from photo Ben Woods.

 

 

Corduff GAA Handball Club Renovations

In 2014, the project was spearheaded while researching for the ‘Pride of Place’ competition in which our community competed. The Corduff/Raferagh Community was successful in achieving runner up position in this competition.Through our research, we found figures from the national census, this showed the population has doubled in the community between the years 1992 and 2011. This growth in population led to a demand for improved facilities for young people in the area.

All organisations within our community came together under the guidance of the community association to form a 5-year plan. The handball club undertook to increase the membership and to develop our facilities to attract new members and local clubs to the area.

After a positive year in 2015, the committee reached out to the community to encourage more people to take up handball, we also invited previous members to re-join the club. Now the club has 44 senior and 44 Juvenile members taking part in both local and county competitions. When comparing to 2014 where the club only had 7 senior members and zero juveniles. This year, the entries into our league has more than doubled, seeing 77 senior handballers taking part from within the County.

The renovations of our  40x20 alley started in July 2017 and are coming to a end with just a few small jobs left to address.The alley is in full swing with players from all over Ireland complimenting our great work achieved.We are currently planning a opening day with Irelands top two seeded players Martin Mulkerrins and Diarmaid Nash for our opening day on Friday the 1st of February (7:30pm).

We have many people to thank with no one better to start with then our Club secretaryAidan Marron for his successful applications in funding the renovations of the alley through various grant schemes from the following organizations.

Carrickmacross Credit Union

Department of Transport,Tourism and Sport - Sports Capital Programme

SSE Airtricity

Monaghan County Council

Monaghan Integrated Development

Monaghan Local Community Development Committee with advice taken from Monaghan Sinn Fein Councillor Noel Keelan,Fine Gael TD Heather Humphreys and Fine Gael Councillor Aidan Campbell

Many thanks must be given to all these organizations for their much needed funding. We would also like to thank our members and the Corduff/Raferagh Community for their support in fundraising at events held in the Mountain Dew at the Community Centre and to our handball committee consisting of Ciarán Brennan, Aidan Marron,George McKitterick, Ben Woods,Gareth king and Colin Carragher for organizing them.

· GAA Raffle

· Table Quizzes

· 24 hour Handball Marathon

· Handball Blitz Competitions· Singles and Group annual leagues ( We now have over 70 players taking part in each of these competitions)

The Club has spent over €40,000 to date on renovations with help from Contractors in the local area.

We would also like to give a well deserved thanks to Aidan Marron and Ciarán Brennan for their endless time spent researching and sourcing materials and companies to carry out the renovations to such a high standard. All of the renovations were not just carried out by companies with members Aidan Marron,Ciarán Brennan,George McKitterick, Colin Carragher,Gareth king, Jamie Campbell-king, Rory Daly,Sean Marron, Peter Brennan ,Declan Larkin, Brendan Mcnally, Niall Reilly, Jason Hand, Shane Hand, Niall Hand and Jordan Mc Garrell volunteering their time for painting,demolition and removal of the old back wall,ceiling and floor. We would also like to thank the following companies for carrying out the renovations to such a high standard.

Martin McNally - New maple floor/Seating in viewing area/New shower,toilet,sink/New main entrance.

Letterkenny Glass - New glass back wall

P McMahon - New and lowered ceiling

Paddy Malone Secure Systems - LED lighting in alley/Sensor LED in viewing area,hall,changing rooms/Camera,speakers and microphone/Electronic scoreboard/Ventilation system.

Michael McCahey - Painting floor

Sean Marron - Sourcing maple floor

Corrigan Staircases - Wall frame for old floor

Brenglaze Window Systems LTD - New window and doors installed

Sean Kelly Signpost.ie - Stickers

Following our renovations we decided to try and help out other Clubs either renovate their existing alley or even build a new alley so we created a renovation document which has been passed on to GAA Handball so other clubs in the country can benefit.

While working on the 40x20 Alley renovation and seeing how it had increased our members we decided to build a one wall alley for the local primary school,since the build in August of last year we have increased our juvenile members from 24 to 44. The Club runs juvenile handball training on a Wednesday and Friday night with the help of Pat Sheridan and 8 senior members who have all received Foundation level coaching qualifications from GAA Handball.

It is great to see all the hard work paying off with the alley buzzing every evening and weekends accommodating for all players male and female from beginner to senior with a age group starting at 8 going right up to 64 years of age.

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