A thrilling two hour encounter at St Comans Handball Club in Roscommon saw the Clare pairing of Fergal Coughlan and Cathaoir Agnew narrowly defeated by Wexford in the 40×20 Minor Doubles All-Ireland Final.
In the opening game, Clare ran into an early 4-0 lead. Wexford responded excellently hitting nineteen unanswered points. Some great serves from Coughlan and some nice use of the walls by Agnew brought the Clare duo right back into contention and they trailed the minimum. However the Banner boys fell just short as Keith Armstrong and Daniel Kavanagh finished strong to claim the first game 21-19.
Clare completely dominated the second game and led 16-5. Momentum carried the Clare boys to victory in the second game as it finished 21-8 in favour of Clare.
The Model County were sharpest as the tiebreaker commenced and they took a 4-3 advantage. To their credit, the Banner fought back gallantly and overturned the score so that it read 12-5 in their favour. Some excellent kill shots from Fergal Coughlan pushed Clare ahead 16-10 but some fantastic returns from Daniel Kavanagh kept the Wexford duo in the contest. A brilliant kill from the right hand corner via Agnew gave Clare to serve but crucially Armstrong’s return off his left was outstanding to give the serve to the Wexford boys. Wexford hung on and a kill shot from Kavanagh sealed the tiebreaker 21-18 and in turn the All-Ireland title.
