Brilliant Paul Brady bows out on top of the world

Paul Brady cemented his legacy as the greatest handball player the sport has seen with an unprecedented fifth successive world title last night in Calgary, Canada – and he revealed afterwards he was signing off from the Worlds after his finest hour.

Brady delivered arguably the best performance of his illustrious career as he saw off young Cork sensation Killian Carroll 21-8, 21-2 in just under an hour.

Brady tore into his young opponent from the off, firing bullets from the service box as he raced into a 17-4 lead in game one, reaching 18 with a deft ‘paddle kill’ in the left corner.

But there were signs as the match wore on Carroll was growing into the contest. Brady made some uncharacteristic hand errors as the Corkman clawed his way to eight and successfully defended game-ball before the former Breffni footballer closed out the first with a textbook crack serve down the left.

Carroll was attempting to assert himself and slow the pace down, with some success, with three-wall wrap and ceiling shots but he looked in trouble whenever Brady upped the aggression.

And in the second game, the Cavanman was at his ruthless, brilliant best. Laying down an astonishing eight flat kills, he sped into a 16-0 lead.

Carroll pulled back two points but Brady was relentless, closing it out with two more amazing ace serves and three kills..

Brady entered as warm favourite having dismantled Team Ireland captain Robbie McCarthy in his semi-final, but young gun Carroll, still only 21, had shown in his wins over Luis Moreno and Sean Lenning he was very much the heir apparent to the 35-year-old Cavanman’s throne.

An emotional Brady held back tears after the match as he paid tribute to Carroll and his family back home, who he said, had supported him throughout his career.

“I’m just relieved and thankful it’s all over, it’s been a long journey,” he said, joking about a Cavan SFC match with Mullahoran tomorrow he would “lay off the beers tonight and be back for the football!”.

“I wanted to live and die a world champion and that’s the way I’m going to leave it now, that’s it for me in the Worlds, I’m going to relax and enjoy my life now but I’ll keep pushing myself on the US tour for another year,” he said.

Earlier, holder Aisling Reilly retained her Ladies Open Singles title with a nail biting 11-6 tiebreaker win over Cork’s Cathriona Casey.

Ballydesmond’s Casey was at her methodical best in the first game, playing percentage handball and finding her range with consistent right-handed kills and accurate serves down the right.

She stormed to a 21-11 win against a nervous-looking Reilly but the Belfast woman took control of proceedings early in the second, dominating from the service box as she raced into an 11-3 lead.

Casey slowly clawed her way back to 5-12 before a long delay when Reilly, who was struck in the face by the ball – a most unusual occurence – was forced to take a 15-minute injury time-out.

Visibly shaken, Reilly returned to the court and, with Casey’s momentum broken, stretched her advantage to 15-5.

Back came Casey to cut the gap to 11-16 and although Reilly surged to 18, Casey suddenly clicked into a higher gear and a succession of kills, ace serves and pass shots saw her claw it back, only for Reilly to finish strongly and take it 21-16. The pair were tied at 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4 in the decider but Reilly was more aggressive and a brave cross-court kill took her to game-ball before she closed it out.

“I drew on my experience losing the first game in the 2012 final, I took it one point at a time and got off to a fast start in the second game.

“I noticed she was trying to push me back but I knew I had to pounce even if I had just a sniff of a set-up.”