The Central Restaurant Under 10 Indoor Hurling League got underway on Saturday with four veunes in use. The Saffron Gael got along to Cross & Passion College, St Louis Grammar School and St Patrick’s College Ballymena.
Danske Bank Leonard Cup final
Monday 15th January 1pm at Allen Park 4G in Antrim
Cross and Passion Ballycastle v St Killian’s Garron Tower
Cross and Passion Ballycastle have been waiting fully eight weeks for this Danske Bank Leonard Cup final after seeing off competition favourites in the semi-final as scheduled in mid November.
However a combination of snow, the unavailability of pitches and pre-Christmas exams meant that the second semi-final involving St Killian’s Garron Tower and St Louis Ballymena didn’t take place until last Wednesday when the Tower rather easily powered past their opponents.
This age-group has been hard to call with St Killian’s comfortable winners against St Patrick’s Maghera in the final of the MacNamee Cup two seasons ago and then last season, they were beaten by both St Mary’s CBGS and Cross and Passion with St Mary’s then comfortably seeing off the north Antrim school in the Gallagher Cup decider in May.
That’s why the ease of Cross and Passion’s semi-final win over St Mary’s in November raised an eye-brow or two and it will be interesting to see if they can re-discover that form after the two month lay-off.
Key man in that semi-final win was Michael O’Boyle who scored a superb 3-4 out of their 4-7 to 1-5 win. Interestingly the Glenarriffe forward was top-scorer for St Killian’s in their MacNamee win in 2015 before transferring to CPC this time last year.
He is an exceptional talent both from open play and placed balls and will feature very much in the plans that St Killian’s defence will lay down.
However he is certainly not the only player in the Ballycastle pack with the defence looking very strong around Enda óg McGarry and Dylan Devlin, particularly in the group game with St Killian’s that finished level.
Colm McKeegan scored a late equaliser for the Tower in that game. He is part of a physically strong team physically, while there are certainly scoring options in the attack, there is no one individual capable of causing the mayhem that O’Boyle could impose on a game.
Liam McLaughlin is strong and quick at full-back with the half-backs Aidan Scullion, Pearse McKeegan and Euan Mulvenna the key line in the team.
Cathal Hynds and Mark Emerson have forged a good partnership at midfield while Fintan McQuillan, Shea McDonnell and Ciaran Magill up front have been opening defences for scores.
However victory will revolve around the performance of Michael O’Boyle. If the Tower can curtail his influence on the scoring, they should take a first title. Alternatively if O’Boyle continues where he left off in the semi-final, Cross and Passion could win a fourth title from the last seven.
Possible teams :
St Killian’s : James McAllister, Declan Magill, Liam McLaughlin, Conor McCollam, Pearse McKeegan, Aidan Scullion, Euan McSparron, Cathal Hynds capt, Mark Emerson, Fintan McQuillan, Ciaran Magill, Calum Kilgore, Colm McKeegan, Shea McDonnell, Seanie McIntosh.
Subs : Sean O’Boyle, Gabriel Leech, Niall McGarrel, Daniel Kearney, Dara Mort, Shea McNaughton, Shane McKenna.
Cross & Passion : Kevin McAuley, Jack McGowan, Enda óg McGarry, Christy McGarry, Conall McGlynn, Dylan Devlin, Reuben McClean, Rian McMullan, Conleth McKinley, Michael O’Boyle, Eunan Laverty, Oisin Elliot, Conor O’Mullan, Caolan O’Connor, Damien Quinn
Subs : Tiernan McCaughan, Shane Kelly, Cormac Doherty, Christy McAuley, Ruairi McCormick, James Bakewell, Tadhg Donnelly
Philip Christie, Central Council delegate presents medals to the winning Lamh Dhearg team. Included is event organiser Jimmy Gaston.
The Co. Aontroma (County Antrim, Junior Scór, Table Quiz was held in Dunloy on Saturday. The Máistir na gCeisteanna was Caitríona Mc Ateer from Creggan who led the quiz and asked the questions.
Taking part in the quiz were: Conn Magees , Glenravel, Cuchullains, Dunloy, Lamh Dhearg, Belfast, McQuillans, Ballycastle, Michael Davitts , Belfast, Oisins, Glenariff, Ruairi Óg, Cushendall and St Ergnats, Moneyglass.
Left: Runners up, Con Magee’s Glenravel, Right: Question master catriona mcAteer with Jimmy gaston and Dunloy chairman, James McLean.
The teams were asked questions on:
1) Gaelic and Ladies Football
2) Hurling and Camogie
3) General GAA Round
4) Irish History
5) World History and World Geography
6) Irish Geography
7) Irish Current Affairs
8) World Current Affairs
9) Irish Culture
10) General Knowledge.
There were 10 rounds of 8 questions. One question in each round as Gaeilge (in Irish).
Scores were announced after rounds 5, 7 & 9 and showed team scores very close with the lead shifting between 3 clubs and 3 other clubs close behind. In the event a tie break round was needed between 2 teams, Lamh Dhearg, Belfast and Conn Magees , Glenravel. Eventually Lamh Dhearg, Belfast won by a single point.
Central Council Delegate, Philip Christie, presented County Antrim Medals to the winners. He thanked the Dunloy Club and everyone for their organisation and spoke about the value of the GAA to our culture and community and the importance of the community to the GAA
The winners go forward directly to compete in the all-Ireland quiz on 17th February in Sligo.
Left: Lavey’s Thomas Donnelly who scored 1-6 in his side’s win over Galbally, sends over another point. Right: Angela Callan, Bank of Ireland, Antrim presents the man of the match award to Lavey’s Thomas Donnelly.
Bank of Ireland-Paddy McLarnon Cup
U21 Club Football Tournament Quarter-Final
Erins Own, Lavey (Derry) 2-7 Galbally (Tyrone) 0-5
Sunday January 14
By Brendan McTaggart
After 20 minutes of the last of the weekends quarter finals, it looked like Galbally would be booking their spot in the last four of the Bank of Ireland Paddy McLarnon Cup. The Tyrone men started the match strongly and despite yielding possession to Lavey for long periods, the Derry champions couldn’t make any incision in the Galbally defence. All it took was a little bit of magic. Step forward Thomas Donnelly. The Lavey forward put in a man of the match performance finishing the quarter-final with 1-6 and laying the first goal on a plate for Shea Downey in an outstanding display ensuring the Derry champions progress to the semi-finals in their first outing at the U21 tournament. It was an incredibly efficient defensive performance from the Erin’s Own men who didn’t concede a score from a free throughout the hour and just one point in the second half.
The Tyrone men opened the scoring with two points from Liam Rafferty and Ronan Nugent in the opening 10 minutes in a start to the quarter-final that resembled a chess match. Both sides feeling their way into the match, pressing and probing for gaps. Hugh McGurk was sweeping for Lavey and didn’t put a foot wrong in the entirety of the first half. If Galbally looked for Daniel Kerr or Conor Donaghy with early ball, the Lavey man was in the way with a superb display of sweeping. Anything he might have missed, ‘keeper Eoin Mulholland was dealing with comfortably with his own version of a ‘sweeper keeper’. Lavey dropped Shea Downey into the midfield to help his side gain footing but Conor Quinn remained his shadow as Galbally pushed up on the Lavey defence at every opportunity.
Fintan Bradley opened the scoring for Erin’s Own in the 14th minute to kickstart their Paddy McLarnon Cup challenge and while Mark Donnelly responded soon after to maintain Galbally’s dominance, it was Lavey who would land the first telling blow of the quarter-final.
Collecting a long ball from Aidan Toner, Donnelly laid an inch perfect pass into the path of the onrushing Shea Downey. The Lavey man showed great composure to place his shot beyond the diving Enda McAleer to give Lavey the lead for the first time in the contest.
Further scores from Donnelly (two) increased the Lavey lead to three points before a ’45 from Cormac Donnelly ended the scoring for the half with the Derry champions leading 1-3 to 0-4 at the interval.
Like the first half, Galbally made all the early running after the restart. They were making light of playing into the elements and while Lavey struggled to relieve the pressure off their defence, they were tackling and making life difficult for the Pearse’s, starving them of time on the ball with the Toner’s and Eamon McGill superb.
A superb Liam Rafferty point opened the second half scoring, the Galbally forward with his second of the match. The pivotal point of the match came in the 43rd minute with Lavey ‘keeper Eoin Mulholland pulling off an incredible double save to deny first Rafferty then Ronan Nugent. Tipping the first effort onto the bar before bravely diving at Nugent’s feet to smother his rebound.
Lavey went straight up the pitch and carved an opening themselves, Shea Downey with a piece of individual brilliance to carve open the opportunity before drilling his effort to the foot of the upright but it was a sign that the Derry men had fought off the Galbally revival. A brace of frees from Donnelly opened a four point lead with ten minutes remaining.
Galbally looked to their bench for answers with Shea Hurson, Kieran Holland and Darragh Traynor introduced in an attempt to breakdown the solid Lavey defence but they had no joy as Lavey continued to counter at will. Two further Donnelly scores (one free) put them in the driving seat with time running out and with the Galbally defence stretched, Lavey produced one more goal opportunity. Downey with the surging run through the heart of the Pearse’s defence before being hauled down in the square by Darragh Corrigan. Donnelly took the resulting spot kick, sending McAleer the wrong way in the Galbally goals and adding further gloss to a near perfect Lavey performance.
TEAMS
Lavey: Eoin Mulholland; Aidan Toner; Conor Mulholland; Kevin Toner; Ruairi McGurk; Eamon McGill; James Crawford; Brendan Laverty; Dara McPeake; Oran Downey; Hugh McGurk; Peter Rafferty; Thomas Donnelly; Shea Downey; Fintan Bradley
Subs: Nathan Scullion for E McGill (inj); Ciaran Henry for H McGurk (inj)
Galbally: Enda McAleer; Darragh Corrigan; Conor Quinn; Marc Lennon; Conor Donnelly; Seamus Og Mulgrew; Dylan McVeigh; Enda McGarrity; Cormac Donnelly; Caoimhin Quinn; Ronan Nugent; Mark Donnelly; Conor Donaghy; Daniel Kerr; Liam Rafferty
Subs: Kieran Holland for D McVeigh (40 mins); Darragh Traynor for C Donaghy (40 mins); Shea Hurson for C Donnelly (52 mins)
SCORERS
Lavey: Thomas Donnelly 1-6, 4 f’s 1-00 pen); Shea Downey 1-00; Fintan Bradley 0-1
Galbally: Liam Rafferty 0-2; Mark Donnelly 0-1; Ronan Nugent 0-1; Cormac Donnelly 0-1
Referee: Eamon McAuley (Cargin)
Kickham’s Creggan committee member,Michelle Bradley presents a cheque to paddy McIlwaine who received it on behalf of the ‘Saffron Gael’ at the Bank of Ireland-Paddy McLarnon U21 tournament quarter-finals in Creggan on Sunday.
CPC celebrate their win over St Loius in the Ulster Senior Colleges Camogie final in Ballymena. Pic by Dylan McIlwaineCross and Passion Ballycastle 0-8 St Louis Ballymena 1-3
Cross & Passion College, Ballycastle retained their Ulster Senior Camogie title when they held off the stern challenge of St Louis Ballymena in Sunday’s final at Quinn Park, Ballymena. Going into the game the smart money was all on the champions to easily retain their title, but St Louis, who were appearing in their first senior final since 1951, hadn’t read the script and they tore into their opponents with passion and skill. They trailed by 0-6 to 0-2 at half time and when they drew level soon after the restart they looked like they were on course to cause the shock of the Century. However CPC dug deep when their backs were against the wall as they somehow fashioned a victory as they held their opponents scoreless for the remainder of the game while grabbing two points of their own. It may not have been the free flowing camogie they have displayed all season, but they got the job done and they will feel that is what really matters. However great credit must go to St Louis for a brilliant fighting display. They came within a poc of a ball of causing a major upset and though they will be hurting badly this evening they can be proud of their display.
In a game dominated by defences scores were hard to come by, the first arriving on four minutes from CPC’s Kirsty McKendry but this was not be a game of spectacular scores and so scores from frees were to be vital. Roisin McCormick hit three in a row to put Ballycastle four up, two of them for fouls on the dangerous Maeve Kelly who was causing problems for St Louis by her strong running through the middle.
The excellent Áine Devlin hit back with two frees for St Louis and, although McCormick came back with two more in reply the Ballymena girls knew they were very much in the game going in at the break just 0-6 to 0-2 down with wind advantage to come in the second half.
St Louis got a good start to the second period when Devlin pointed a free just after the change of ends and when the Tir na nÓg ace fired home a penalty in the fortieth minute they were back on terms. The odds of an upset had now shortened significantly and the St Louis tails were up, but Anna Connolly steadied the ship for CPC when she grabbed a point from play in her team’s next attack. The remainder of the game was tense and exciting with opportunities of scores reduced to a minimum by two excellent defences. Roisin McCormick eased CPC two clear with her first point from play with just six minutes to play, but they Ballycastle fans had to endure some heartstopping minutes before the end. CPC full-back was sent off after receiving a second yellow card as she reppeled the St Louis attacks. Aine Devlin came close with the resultant free but the CPC defence, in which Catie McCaughan made some great clearances, held out for the win.
Relief was probably the overal emotion for CPC at the end for they knew they had been in a battle royale and their thoughts now turn to an All Ireland semi-final next month.
Cross and Passion : A McGowan, C McCaughan, K Lynn, A O’Mullan, B McKeague, C McShane, F McVeigh, R McCormick 0-6, 0-5 frees, M Kelly, A Connolly 0-1, K McKendry 0-1, M McCormick, D McGill, C McCarry, M O’Neill.
Subs: C Laverty for D Magill (ht), C McGarry for A Connolly (57).
St Louis : A Graham, L McAleese, E Kearns, F Hills, Cameron McGaughey, A Boyle capt., B Delargy, K Mullan, M Downey, K Burke, C Crawford, A Devlin 1-3, 1-0 pen., 0-3 frees, S Darragh, K Edgar, M McKillen
Sub : E Traynor for C Crawford (55)
Referee : Owen Elliott (Ballymena)