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Eoin Kennedy & Egin Jenson Retain All-Ireland Handball Doubles Title - Wed, 20 Sep 2006

An inspirational Eoin Kennedy and Egin Jensen retained their All-Ireland senior softball doubles crown, following an exciting win over Wexford's Barry Goff and Gavin Buggy in the All-Ireland softball 60 x 30 doubles final, played in Croke Park.

At 2-2 at the start of the final Dublin with Jensen playing particularly well on the right taking up a position from the short line in was his territory and he did everything possible to keep the Wexford players at bay.  Jensen forced a number of errors from Gavin Buggy. Kennedy the great handball brain that he has ran onto a number off Goff's side wall shots that looked to be winners he was reading the game exceptionally well.  Try as they might Wexford simply had no answer to Dublin's dominance in the first game. With Jensen solid on the right and  Kennedy ready to pounce on any mistakes. Wexford couldn't break the Dublin stranglehold as the dubs ran out game one winning by 21-5.

During the two minute break Wexford pair stayed on court deliberating what to do. Dublin left the court but after a quick break were back in. At 3-3 Wexford with Buggy having a bigger say in the proceedings.  Buggy with accurate serving to Jensen's right side and Goff's killing on the left had Wexford in the lead by 7-3. 

Wexford supporters began to make their voices heard. Wexford's Jimmy King shouted encouragement to the Wexford lads when he said "now your smoking" Kennedy immediately alert to Wexford's dominance began to take Buggy's serves on the right.  Kennedy who 4 weeks previously won the world open doubles championship with Tony Healy showed why he is a class apart. With a number of kills on the right put Dublin back into the lead by 11-7. Wexford replied with two points. Kennedy playing outstanding handball with his superior fitness covered every inch of Croke Park. 

Just like in the singles final two weeks previous he shone like a beacon.  At 14-10 in front the Wexford pair were forced to switch sides but this  had no real effect. Wexford were forced into errors with Goff off target with a volley from Jensen's serve and Buggy fluffed a great chance close to the front wall as Dublin pushed into a 19-10 lead.  The end for Wexford soon came and Dublin thoroughly deserved their 21-11 win in the second game. An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern T.D. was special guest and was on hand to present the Independent Cup to the victorious Eoin Kennedy and Egin Jensen.

Afterwards I caught up with Eoin Kennedy and I asked him his thoughts and feelings on retaining the doubles titles. "I'm absolutely delighted and I know Egin feels the same came the reply. Coming in we were the defending champions it gave us an extra level of confidence but also put us under a little bit of pressure.  We played really well and we didn't let the Wexford boys settle.  They had problems settling down early on and we took advantage of that. Delighted to get the win."  I asked Eoin had they a game plan going into the game as they played quite a lot to Gavin Buggy's right hand side. "Coming into a game such as this you always have some sort of a game plan.  To be honest we knew the lads might have some trouble with the right side glass wall so we decided if the ball was set up to go down the right. It worked well for us."

Next question I asked the king of the big court at what stage did they feel they were getting the upper hand. To be honest not until we were 19-10 up in the second.  In the middle of the second game it was touch and go. Once we got the lead up we were determined to finish it.  Final question put to Kennedy that it has been a long and tiring season; will he take the time to enjoy his successes "Definitely I'm looking forward to a bit of a break for a couple of weeks. It has been a long year between 40  x 20, 60 x 30. I am going to play the hardball over the next few weeks.  I won't be doing a huge amount of training.  I have a lot of fitness built up and hopefully that will do the job. I'm looking forward to it" concluded Eoin

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