THERE will again be plenty of action in the handball courts during the coming week as the concluding games of both the adult and juvenile 40x20 provincial championship are decided. There will also be another round of games in the All-Ireland Senior championship qualifiers this weekend and we will also have the semi-finals of the juvenile team championship.

In Munster juvenile singles and doubles championship the last game of the provincial programme Boys Under 16 Singles will be played this Thursday in Cappagh at 8pm. Here, Denis O'Neill, Liscarroll will take on Clare's Colin Crehan in what promises to be a good game.

The 40x20 juvenile team championship commenced last night ( Wednesday) with Cork facing Limerick in Under 12/13 in Broadford at 7pm. Should Cork overcome the Limerick challenge then they will face Waterford in a semi-final in Mallow on Sunday at 11am.

Cork have a fairly useful Under 12/13 team made up of three Kilworth players Oisin Hickey, Jamie Kenneally and Aidan O'Brien, two Mallow players David Walsh and Gearoid O'Connell and Boherbue's Shane Flynn.

In Under 14/15 Cork also played Limerick last night in Broadford and they will be hoping to get a result. The Cork team on duty was made up of three Kilworth players Brian Sheehan, Michael Dunne and Timmy Dunne, Kurt Bowes, Fermoy, Ryan Harkin, Mallow and Aidan Kerins, Ballydesmond. Should Cork win that game then they will also go head to head with Waterford in Mallow on Sunday.

Also on Sunday next in O'Loughlins, Kilkenny at 1pm Colm Jordan partnered by Liscarroll player Shane Hedigan team up to face Wexford Gavin Buggy/Paul Lambert in the All-Ireland Senior Doubles qualifier.

In the All-Ireland Senior Singles qualifiers last Saturday Wicklow's Michael Gregan proved too strong for Fermoy's Colm Jordan but in fairness to Colm he played very well winning the first game narrowly but Gregan went on to advance with wins in the second and third game. Colm partnered by Shane Hedigan will probably be out again this weekend in the Senior Doubles qualifiers. Last Saturday in Broadford Catriona Casey despite losing to the more experienced Kerry player Maria Daly put in another very promising display, but it's Daly who advance s as Munster champion.

Last weekend's Munster Juvenile finals were played in Kilworth and Fermoy and while our Mallow Credit Union sponsored players performed well we did not win the expected number of provincial titles. Cork won just two with Sophie Carroll, Mallow winning the Girls Under 14 Singles and the Liscarroll pair Daniel Relihan and Michael Hedigan winning Boys Under 15 Doubles.

There were some good results in Munster championship over the past week. The Fermoy pair Tom McDonagh/John McDonagh Jnr had two very exciting outing defeating Clare in the semi-final and Tipperary in the Final of the Junior B Doubles championship. They are a pair that have improved very much during the course of the championship and now that they have booked their place in the All-Ireland semi-final will be hoping to continue that improvement.

John Kiersey, Kilworth was also impressive when defeating fellow county man Kevin Buckley, Mallow in the Masters B Singles Final and no doubt John will be hoping to do well in the All-Ireland series as will St Finbarrs player John Herlihy who defeated John Hedigan, Liscarroll in the Silver Masters A Singles Final.

This proved to be a tough battle with Herlihy having to battle all the way to overcome the determined challenge of John Hedigan narrowly in the third game.

Ballydesmond player Tim Joe Healy took the Diamond Masters B Singles title defeating Kerry player Declan Ryan comfortably.

First series of All-Ireland semi-finals are scheduled for the weekend of March 20/21 v Ulster winners with a number of our players facing the long journey North.

- Peter Dennehy