Clooney-Quin win Ned Doyle Cup

THE annual Ned Doyle Memorial Hurling Tournament was a great success at Bodyke last Saturday.
Clooney-Quin emerged as the competition winners. Their captain is Conor Harrison and the other members of the victorious panel were Derek Ryan, Brian McInerney, Shane McNamara, Peter Duggan, Fergal Lynch, Paudie Ward, Donnacha Murphy, Mick Daffy and John Earls.
The tournament went off very well in ideal conditions for hurling on Saturday. Bodyke captured the first semi-final spot with wins over Ogonnelloe and Smith O’Brien’s in Group 1.
In Group 2, it went down to the last puck of the game to decide the winner. Parteen defeated Killanena and O’Callaghan’s Mills defeated Parteen to leave the outcome of the last game between Killanena and O’Callaghan’s Mills crucial to determining who would go through.
The group decider again went down to the last puck of the game. Killanena had a chance to snatch victory with a 21m free but it ended up over the bar for a point, resulting in O’Callaghan’s Mills qualifying. A goal would have seen Parteen through on scoring average.
In the afternoon, Clooney-Quin had a win over Feakle but with Scariff defeating Feakle, the last game in the Group 3 decider between Clooney-Quin and Scariff was decisive. Clooney-Quin won to qualify.
Group 4 saw Whitegate and Broadford taking the spoils over Bodyke team 2, which meant another winner-takes-all clash in the group’s last game and after a very keenly fought match, Whitegate repeated their 2011 final win by coming through.
The semi-finals got underway at 5.15pm, with Bodyke team 1 against O’Callaghan’s Mills, who sealed the first final spot with Bryan Donnellan in superb form. Last year’s winners, Whitegate, came determined to retain their title but Clooney-Quin had their own ideas and came through in a very closely fought semi-final, with Peter Duggan key to their victory.
This cleared the way for the final and the teams did not disappoint the large crowd who turned out. Both teams had their periods of dominance and it was a late rally from Clooney-Quin in the final two minutes that edged them ahead by a point. With the last puck of the game from distance, O’Callaghan’s Mills had a chance to bring it to extra time but the shot just drifted outside the post, resulting in Clooney-Quin taking the Ned Doyle Cup for 2012 on a final scoreline of 5-13 to 6-9.
Presentations took place after the game and the player of the tournament award went to O’Callaghan’s Mills’ Bryan Donnellan, who edged out Peter Duggan. He was presented with his award by Sean Ryan of Binmaster. Liam Doyle, on behalf of the Doyle family, presented the cup to the Clooney-Quin captain, Conor Harrison.