McCarthy and Casey win All-Ireland Senior Softball Singles titles

By Paul Fitzpatrick

It was business as usual at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park on Saturday as Catriona Casey and Robbie McCarthy retained their All-Ireland Senior Softball Singles titles with victories in the women’s and men’s finals respectively.

In the opening match of the programme, Cork’s Casey claimed her seventh Senior Singles title in the ‘big alley’ with a hard-fought 21-13, 21-12 victory over debuting finalist Mollie Dagg from Kildare.

Casey was a worthy winner and showed her class by taking the lead in both games. However, the scores were a bit too high for the 22-year-old from Leixlip, who played well in both sets before the brilliant right-handed pitcher from Ballydesmond stepped it up a notch.

Dagg, showing no signs of nerves, took an early 5-2 lead and extended it to 11-8, 13-10. But then it was Casey’s turn to show why she is the best player in the world.

With the aid of a tricky lob serve to Dagg’s left, Casey began to create attacking chances and punished any soft returns mercilessly. A straight kill from the right hand saw the 30-year-old Corkwoman lead 14-13 and she never looked back.

A few hand errors from Dagg and some clinical play in the frontcourt saw Casey take the match 21-13.

Game two followed a similar pattern. Dagg led 5-3 early in the match, but Casey pulled ahead 11-6, then 15-10. A great retrieval and rekill in the right corner put Dagg back in the service box and she rode her momentum to 12, but that was the best she could get as Casey pushed on again.

Casey sensed the finish coming and raised the stakes. While Dagg was under pressure and tensed up a bit, Casey controlled the final rallies and won 21-12.

“It feels fantastic, especially after such a hard-fought final,” said Casey.

“Well done Mollie, on a great championship. For her first senior singles final she was not at all impressed by the situation. She played great, so I am very happy with the win.

“The level was very high throughout the championship, so I’m very happy with it.

“The hunger to keep training every year, it’s busy when you play all three codes, but I like the big alley. It was a shorter season, but it’s a lot of fun, so I think I’ll keep trying to improve and work on my weaknesses and keep developing as a player.”