Web site cover page: as of 5/1/2012

The Ball:

At the National Masters Singles/Women's Classic, held a week and a half ago at the Multnomah AC in Portland, OR, I rarely heard the ball mentioned. That's a good sign. The ball is becoming a 'non-issue' for players. Breakages were rare and balls returned for being out-of-round were almost non-existent. The only consistent comment about the ball's play characteristics was that it 'stayed up' and carried further back into the court than the Red Ace. In other words, don't give up on hard kills or pass shots. Many of them will stay alive long enough to get a hand on them.

USHA has approximately 40 cases of these batch #5 balls available for sale and they are selling balls by the case again. Hopefully the upheaval going on with the Irish ball won't cause any disruption in the flow of '21' balls to the US.

As some of you may know, O'Neills has now entered the "handball wars" with an unpressurized ball similar to the VOIT ball that was available in the US two decades ago. It was used a week ago at the Irish Nationals and feedback on how it was received by Irish players is sketchy at best. Some thought it was light, others thought it on the heavy side, most agreed that it was fairly live. No comments yet on how the ball plays, how round it is or any breakage issues.

To date, no O'Neills balls have arrived on my door step to be tested, but they say "the ball's in the mail." Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

The decision on which ball will be used at the World Championships in Dublin in October should be made within the next week.

In a phone conversation on April 30 a representative of Ektelon said there was no new information about when the next batch of Ektelon balls might be arriving in the US. This continuing disruption in the flow of handballs, racquetballs and tennis balls might cause the estimated arrival date of Ektelon handballs to be pushed back from the early June that was previously reported.

What's Going On:

113 players participated in the National Masters Singles/Women's Classic that was held April 19-22 at the Multnomah AC. Notable among the scores of competitive matches was a semi-final in the 60+ division between #1 seed Merv Deckert from Winnipeg and the MAC's own Craig Trull. Craig's tie breaker win in the quarters over #4 seed Ed Campbell set the stage. The first game went to Merv with a 21-20 score; second game: same score different winner. The 11-9 tie breaker in favor of Trull culminated a 2.5 hour match before a boisterous gallery. But the tank was on empty in the final as #3 seed Vance McInnis won the last match of the bracket 21-12, 21-6.

In the Women's Classic (offering $10,000 in prize money) relative newcomer Brittyn Bidegain knocked off #2 seed Samantha England in the quarters and lost to Tracy Davis in the semi's. Tracy took the top prize money with an 11-8 tie breaker win over #1 seeded Jennifer Schmitt.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Championships is slated to start this Friday, May 4 at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, WA. At this point 115 players are signed up to compete for regional titles.

The quarterly handball luncheon will be held at the Keg restaurant in Kirkland at 11:45 Tuesday, May 8. Joe Donoghue will be presiding over the get together and Joe Cox will be providing an update on what's happening in the handball world.

The final Race-4-Eight event of the season will be held at the Washington Athletic Club Friday, May 18 and Saturday. May 19. The big boys are coming to town to show us, once more, how it's done. Contact Darin Barr at the WAC for information regarding seat availability.

On a sad note, the Kauai AC's last handball event will be held later this month. It will be a low key in-house affair to acknowledge the passing of handball from the island. The club is scheduled to close in early June. Anybody need a lot of used handball gear?...

Preparation for the World Championships in Dublin this fall are on-going. Eavan Mulligan, National Operations Manager for the GAA, travelled 8,000 miles to the National Masters Singles in Portland to answer questions about the event. Be sure to pick up your tourism handouts, B&B info and maps of downtown Dublin when you're at the Regionals - there is no cost for this information.

Word is that the on-line version of the Worlds entry form will be available on May 8. Paper entries are available (to download) in the Tournaments section of the PNW web site.

If you're looking to purchase "21" balls from the current batch they will be available for sale at the Regionals by the ball or by the case. See Joe. This is the first batch of "21's" to play like the old Red Ace. The main difference is the ball is a little more live and doesn't tend to die on a kill shot or hard pass.

Please take the time to enter your contact information on our Player Roster. We have stalled out at just over 100 players. Check out the photos in the tournament results section. Who knows, you might be in there...