National titles for St Breckan’s and Éire Óg

CLARE teams contested six finals in the hurling and camogie competitions at the weekend, winning two titles.

St Breckan’s  1-7

Crusheen-Tubber  1-5

ST Breckan’s completed a memorable year for the club when they won a second hurling title in the space of a week.
Following on from their Clare Division 3 U-14 success, they blazed a trail of glory in the Division 4 Féile competition at the weekend.
Starting out on Friday with a 2-8 to 1-4 win over visitors Eoghan Ruadh from Tyrone, they followed on Saturday with a draw, 1-5 to 2-2, against Wolfe Tones from Longford before beating Crusheen-Tubber on a 3-7 to 0-4 scoreline.
In the semi-final, they met fellow Clare side Scariff and emerged winners on a scoreline of 2-6 to 2-5.
Meanwhile, Crusheen-Tubber beat Wolfe Tones from Longford in their opening tie on Friday (3-7 to 0-4) before scoring a 1-5 to 0-4 win over Eoghan Ruadh from Tyrone on Saturday morning. Despite losing to St Breckan’s, they still made it to the semi-final, where they were 7-4 to 2-8 winners over Aodha Rua from Donegal.
The final was one of the most exciting games of the weekend and those who were in Cusack Park on Sunday morning certainly weren’t disappointed.
Crusheen-Tubber led by the 0-3 to 0-2 at half-time, thanks to scores from Colin Halpin and Ronan Monahan (2), as Liam Tierney and Ian Queally responded for Breckan’s. The excitement increased in the second half as St Breckan’s came from 0-5 to 0-3 in arrears to go 0-6 to 0-5 ahead after 28 minutes. Ian Queally was the star forward for Breckan’s as Ronan Fahy scored their goal, only for Donal McMahon to score a wonderful Crusheen-Tubber goal a minute later to leave the minimum between the sides entering the final minutes. Both sides had chances near the end but it was St Breckan’s day.

St Breckan’s: L Tierney (0-2); M Whyte, M Byrne, L St George; J Howard, K McMahon, P McNamara; P Queally (0-1), A Davidson; M Howard, P Lacey, R Flanagan (0-1); R Fahy (1-0), I Queally (0-3), C Garrihy.
Subs: A Sweeney for Davidson.
Crusheen-Tubber: J Monahan; C Mullins, S Culligan, G O’Brien; E Quinn, D McMahon (1-0), J Fawl; S O’Donoghue, C Waters (0-1); C Halpin (0-1), C Droney, J Taaffe; R Hayes, R Monahan (0-3), J Rosengrave.
Subs: Breffni Horner for O’Brien.
Referee: Ger Lyons (Ruan).

 

Éire Óg  2-3

Camross  1-1

ÉIRE Óg and Camross served up a tremendous Division 2 camogie final at Cusack Park on Sunday.
Both sides had some of the best individual performances over the weekend from Orla Devitt and Gráinne Nolan (Éire Óg) and Michelle Holmes (Camross). Karol Roche opened the scoring with an Éire Óg point before Gráinne Nolan added an Ennis goal. Michelle Holmes hit a stunning Camross goal before 1-1 in response from Orla Devitt left the Clare side 2-2 to 1-0 clear at the break. A hard-fought second half resulted in only two points from Kim Cuddy and Devitt.

Éire Óg: F Kelly; L Browne, R Wall, L Hurley; M Clune, C Chadda, S Redmond; O Devitt (1-2), E Bradley; C Walsh, G Nolan (1-0), A Broderick; S Mulcahy, A O’Neill, K Roche (0-1).
Camross: L Keys; A Collier, C Lally, M Delaney; K Cuddy (0-1), L Ryan, R Hogan; S Carroll, M Collier; G Donnery, M Holmes (1-0), L Jones; M Lalor, A Burke, A Delaney.
Subs: B Cuddy for Burke.
Referee: Andrew Monahan (Tubber).

Castletown-Geoghegan  5-8

Ruan  1-2

A POWERFUL start by Westmeath side Castletown-Geoghegan laid the foundations for a comfortable win over Ruan in the Division 3 decider at Cusack Park.
Three first-half goals from Liam Cassidy (2) and Paddy Doody set the winners on the way.  While Ruan had a number of goal chances that went abegging, the half-time score saw them trail, 3-4 to 0-1.
Castletown-Geoghegan continued their dominance in the second half with early scores from Liam Cassidy, Cormac Deegan, the excellent Paddy Doody (goal), Johnny Bermingham and Shane Clavin before Conal Ó hAinifein scored a goal from a free for the Clare club.

Castletown Geoghegan: C Daly; P Doody (2-2), J Fox, M Mealiffe; B Carey, A Kincaid, S Fagan; T Moran, S Clavin (0-2); J Bermingham (0-1), C Glennon, L Cassidy (2-1); C Kane, C Deegan (0-2), B Heeney.
Sub: L McNally-Woods for A Corbett (1-0) for Doody, D Glennon for Deegan, S Maher for Mealiffe and B Heeney for Bermingham.
Ruan: C Hillary; N Bluett, M Lyons, R O’Donovan; A O’Brien, J Courtney, S Hillary; C Ó hAinifein (1-1), C Rice; T O Connor, B Heagney, M Corry; L O’Donovan (0-1), R Fitzpatrick, C Haugh.
Referee: Seánie McMahon, Newmarket.

Naomh Eoin (Sligo)  1-4

Ogonnelloe  1-2

FOR tension, excitement and absolute passion it was hard to beat the Division 5 encounter played in Clarecastle.
The scoreline may have been low but this hid a huge skill level. The rate of scoring was poor, due to solid defensive displays by both sets of backs, resulting in only one point in the entire first half, courtesy of Ger Kelly-Lynch to leave Naomh Eoin clear at the break.
Ogonnelloe finally got on the scoresheet via Cian Bradley-Fitzgerald but Ger Kelly-Lynch responded with a brace of points as the Sligo boys went two clear. Benjamin Kikkers ironically kicked an Ogonnelloe goal to leave the East Clare side a point ahead. James Kiely added an Ogonnelloe point but Naomh Eoin were not to be denied with 1-1 in the final moments from top scorer Ger Kelly-Lynch to seal a well-received win.

Naomh Eoin: T Kelly-Lynch; O Kelly, V Corcoran, N Murray; D Connellan, L Henry, J Reilly; S Henry, R Fennell; L Nicholson, P Kilcoyne, G Kelly-Lynch (1-4); B Corrigan, C O Donnell, S Heeney.
Ogonnelloe: C Coleman; L Dylan, F Kiely, C Curran; J Orme, C Bradley-Fitzgerald (0-1), M Walsh; E Ryan, B Kikkers (1-0); C Harte, F Collins, J Kiely (0-1); G McMahon, T Burke, C Rowan.
Referee: Damian Fox (Wolfe Tones).

Celbridge (Kildare)  5-1

Wolfe Tones  1-1

IN the Division 3 camogie final played at Clarecastle, Kildare side Cellbridge proved too strong for Wolfe Tones, Shannon.
The Celbridge half-forward line dominated the scoring, hitting 4-1 of their tally. At the interval the Celbridge girls, who were the stronger side, led 3-0 to 0-0 and even though Wolfe Tones were more to the fore in the second half, they were unable to peg back the deficit and Celbridge were deserving winners by four goals.

Celbridge: E Bistrova; H Fitzsimmons, C Brady, A O’Brien; R Murray, R Nolan, S Moore; J Corcoran, A Bolger; E Barry (1-0), H Quinn (1-0), Z Reilly (2-1); A O’Sullivan, G Keegan (1-0), N O’Halloran.
Wolfe Tones: S Williams; E Reidy, J O’Donoghue, J Hickey; E McInerney, A Lee, R O’Toole; C Ryan, C McCormack; W Nolan, Z McInney (0-1), R Mullane (1-0); C Ryan, C O’Donoghue, T O’Brien.
Referee: John Dolan (Clarecastle).

Cillard (Kerry)  4-5

Killanena 0-0

CILLARD from Kerry became the first Kerry side to win a Féile camogie title with a convincing win over a young Killanena side in a perfectly appointed Clarecastle grounds. After five minutes there was never a doubt as to the winners, with the dominant full-back line.
At the interval, Cillard were 2-4 to 0-0 ahead. Killanena’s defence did well with Michelle O’Connor, Róisín McNamara and Amy McArthur to the fore but in the end, further goals from Clodagh Walsh, Orla Young and Kristle Curran sealed a famous day for Kerry camogie.

Cillard: J O’Keeffe; M Godley, A Fitzgerald (1-2), S Fitzgerald; A O’Connor, J Fitzell, A Maunsell; O Casey, O Young (1-2); N McGarty, C O’Carroll (0-1), C Walsh (1-0); K Curran (1-0), M Nolan, A O’Sullivan.
Subs: Rachel Mahony and Eilish Harrington.
Killanena: D Brady; G Conlon, L Jamie, M O’Connor; L Kelsey, R McNamara, A Hayes; A McArthur, L Canny; C McMahon, C Taaffe, P E O’Neill; E Noonan, M Gardner, O Broderick.
Subs: S Canny and E Sparks.
Referee: Fergal Gray (Feakle).

Other finals
Killanena’s Fintan McNamara refereed the Division 1 camogie final, in which Lucan Sarsfields had a 6-4 to 0-2 win over Burgess-Duharra.
His clubmate, Ger Hoey had charge of the Division 1 hurling final in which Turloughmore from Galway upset the favourites, Na Piarsaigh, from Cork.
In the Division 2 hurling final, Ratharney from Westmeath were 4-10 to 1-3 winners over Bredagh from down in a final refereed by Éire Óg’s Rory Hickey.
In the Division 4 hurling final, Seán O’Heslin’s from Leitrim were victorious over Old Christians from Limerick in a game refereed by Tom Stackpool, Ennistymon.