Following some thrilling singles battles over the past few weeks, attention in the handball world has shifted to the M DONNELLY Senior Doubles Championship this weekend.

Meath's Carl Browne and Gary McConnell and the Wexford pairing of Colin Keeling and Gavin Buggy opened the weekend's action at Ballymore Eustace on Friday night. Keeling and Buggy dominated most of the exchanges and recorded a comfortable 21-14, 21-4 win to set up a quarter-final meeting with the winners of the Mayo/Wicklow next weekend, and following their most recent victory, confidence will be high.

In the second clash at the Kildare venue, the father and son pairing of Robert McCarthy Junior and Senior overcame Dublin opposition in Ian Griffin and Christy Donnelly.
Westmeath's McCarthy duo mix of youth and experience was enough to see them through, and the talented Robbie Junior was real the difference between the pairings.
In the first game, the McCarthy pairing controlled most of the play and took a 21-6 win, while the second produced better handball, a 21-16 victory was enough to book Westmeath a quarter-final place against Mayo's Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann.

The Tipperary team of Ger Coonan and Martin McInerney were forced to pull out of the doubles competition due to an injury to McInerney. This allows Roscommon's Damien Martin and Rikki O'Gara an easy route to the quarter-final stages of the competition where they will meet Meath stalwarts, Walter O'Conner and Tom Sheridan.

Tipperary's pairing of David Maloney and Noel Murphy also recorded an impressive victory over Kerry's Dominick Lynch and John Joe Quirke at Broadford on Saturday night and will meet Dublin's Eoin Kennedy and Egin Jensen in their quarter-final clash.