Maigh Cuilinn were crowned Senior All-Ireland InterClub 60 x 30 Champions at the weekend after a dramatic 67-62 win over defending champions Kells from Meath. In the Senior final played in St. Coman's, Roscommon, the Maigh Cuilinn team became the first Galway Team, and only the third from Connacht, to win the Senior title since the inaugural championship of 1969. The Maigh Cuilinn team, Diarmuid Mulkerrins (1st Singles), Seamus Conneely and Conor Noone (Doubles) and Martin Mulkerrins (2nd Singles) faced the reigning champions, Kells (Co. Meath), the most decorated InterClub team on record, having previously won twelve national 60 x 30 titles. Inter-Club format comprises a team of four, each team has two singles players and one doubles pairing playing two games to 15 points. The maximum possible team score is 90 points, and the highest aggregate score determines the winners.
Diarmuid Mulkerrins played current National singles champion Gary McConnell in the first singles. After two hard-fought games, Kells were leading 30-22 (13-15, 9-15). Next up, the Maigh Cuilinn duo of Seamus Conneely and Conor Noone played Brian Carroll and Tom Sheridan in the doubles. The two Maigh Cuilinn men were exceptional in the first game. Seamus played very steadily with great long-range kills, and Conor Noone exhibited some of the best diving gets ever seen in the big alley. After the Doubles, Kells were 23 points in the lead, 60-37 (13-15, 2-15). Last up, in the anchor singles match, was Martin Mulkerrins. Kells needed only 8 more points to claim their 13th title. But Mulkerrins, only recently returned from the US, played fantastic big alley handball, overpowering Farley (15-1, 15-1) to win the match on a final tally of 67-62 and delivering a historic first 60 x 30 win for Maigh Cuilinn and Galway.
Earlier on Sunday in Collooney, Co. Sligo the Maigh Cuilinn Junior 'B' 60 x 30 InterClub team of James Dempsey (1st Singles), Paul Conneely and Jack McNeela (Doubles pairing) and Sean Moughan (2nd Singles), bridged a 48-year gap since the last, and only other time a Galway Team won the 'big alley' InterClub Junior 'B'. Indeed, it was another Maigh Cuilinn team, Tony Audley, Johnny Faherty, Nicky-John Clancy and Mick Lally (RIP), Martin Conneely (Sub), which claimed the 1977 title. Kells, Co. Meath, again provided the opposition, and it was James Dempsey who was first in for Maigh Cuilinn. Kells got the better of that encounter 30-15 as the Doubles match commenced. The Maigh Cuilinn duo, McNeela and Conneely, battled hard for every point against a strong Kells pairing who won both games. As Sean Moughan entered the court for the second Singles, Maigh Cuilinn trailed 60-36 in what looked like an unassailable lead for the Kells team. Moughan needed to keep his opponent to less than 6 points, and he ended up winning 15-4, 15-0 to claim the All-Ireland title by a mere 2 points on a final scoreline of 66-64.
