UCD won the All Ireland Handball Intervarsities A Team Championship at the weekend, convincingly beating DCU in the final. It is the first time since 1994 that UCD were victorious.

An amazing weekend for UCD handball club in Wexford town this weekend as UCD leaves county Wexford with for 3 of the 5 titles on offer including the top prize of A Team title. A large amount of matches culminated yesterday evening with the finals taking place in St. Joseph's Handball Centre in Wexford town. In the A grade, the first of out two teams up was A Team 2 against a highly placed IT Tralee team. Unfortunately, they fell just short of the task losing to them and dropping down to the A Plate. Here, they defeated IT Tallaght convincingly and our team of Sam Temple, Marianna Rushe, Sean Foley and Marcus Sheridan are A Plate winners.

Our first A team put in a great performance throughout the weekend. They beat UL in there semi final setting them up for the A Final against DCU. In the first match up, Mark McGowan put in a flawless performane beating Peter Hughes convincingly on a 21 - 6, 21 - 16 scoreline. The next game was the doubles clash of UCD's Diarmaid Nash and Micheal Busher versus Ciaran Neary and John Horgan of DCU. A tight battle ensued but UCD showed the class required to take the games 21 - 19, 21 - 17.

In the last game, Martin Mulkerrins outclassed DCU's Terry McElvaney on a 21 - 2, 21 - 11 scoreline. This ensured the A Team cup returns again to UCD after it first arrived 48 years ago in 1963. A massive well done to the team on their amazing performance.UCD were also well represented in the C Team draw with two teams participating. Our second C Team performed very well in their two games losing to UL and then dropping to the C Plate where they faced TCD 2. An excellent performance was put in by Peter Harte winning 15 - 10, 15 - 9 against Ronan McQuillan. This was followed by an exhibition in handball by the doubles pairing of Conor Conway and Sophie O' Connor in defeating TCD's Paddy Mallam and Gabrielle Ramiraz 15 - 1, 14 - 15.

The team played brilliantly for their first intervarsity competition and had won the plate before having to concede thirty points for lack of a fourth player leaving the final score at 65 - 59. UCD tasted success with their first C Team as the title made its way back to Belfield campus as number 2 of 3 this weekend. They overame UCC in a titanic battle in the semi final which set up a final with TCD 1. First on court was the matching of Alan Armstrong and Sean Killeen. This match went the way of UCD on an emphatic scoreline of 21 - 1, 21 - 5 for Alan Armstrong. Next on court was the doubles pairing of Dara Cloake and Aoife O' Leary against TCD's Darryl Dolan and Ben Barry. Unfortunately, UCD were overpowered here and lost 21 - 4, 21 - 4. This left UCD 2 marks up going into the final singles match up of Niall McCormack and TCD's Paddy Malone. McCormack out performed Malone 21 - 4, 21 -8 with powerful serving and the title was UCD's once again on a 92 - 60 scoreline. Again a massive congratulations to the team on their title.

Then there was the Ladies A Doubles, UCD were represented here by the well known Rushe sisters, Marianna and Hilary. They lost in a hardfought, close contest to the UL pairing of Catriona Casey and Deirdre Donohoe in two straight games on a scoreline of 21 - 17, 21 - 11. The third title for UCD came in the Ladies B Doubles grade when the excellent pairing of Aoife O' Leary and Sophie O' Connor beat all opposition in their way, including their final opponents, UL's Aileen Madden and Aisling Dwyer. The match endured a thrilling finish as the UCD girls took the second game 21 - 20 having won the first game 21 - 6.Again, a successful weekend for our college in wonderful Wexford and a great time was had by all. Thanks to all who participated, organised accomadation, gave lifts and, of course to the one and only, Applejack Mulligan....UCD Handball Club's answer to Barack Obama.

We now look forward to the main event of the year, the All - Ireland 40x20 Singles Intervarsites Championships in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan in February 2012.

Pictured receving the cup from Seamus Buggy l-r are Martin Mulkerrins, Mark McGowan, Michael Busher and Diarmaid Nash.