Brilliant Brady’s game in hand

IT’S one thing breaking records, it’s quite another to break the record of a legend. Paul Brady is a three-time world champion in handball, which by itself should be enough to put him on a sporting pedestal in Ireland.

Last weekend, however, the Cavan man broke a record many thought would last forever; when he overcame the challenge of Armagh’s Charly Shanks in the All-Ireland 40x20 singles final, he claimed his eighth title and thus overtook the record of Michael ‘Ducksy’ Walsh. For good measure he also set a new consecutive record, at seven.

This is not to say, of course, that he has overtaken Ducksy completely; like Christy Ring in hurling, whenever handball is spoken, the name of Ducksy Walsh will be up there in lights, the greatest ever. Ducksy, you see, was a master of both the smaller, international court — the 40x20 — but he was even more supreme in the bigger, Irish court, the 60x30, and his record of 38 national senior titles (both courts, singles and doubles) will surely never be surpassed.