Antrim Hurling League Division 1
Ballycastle 3-24 Ballycran 2-17
Ballycastle got back to winning ways at Pairc MacUilin on Sunday when they beat Ballycran in a high scoring and entertaining game. The home side appeared to have it all wrapped up when they went in at half time with a thirteen point lead, but the men from the Ards came out in the second half and made a real fight of it. When they closed the gap to five midway through the second half there were a few among the home support who were starting to look a little concerned. However the home side steadied the ship with a series of good points and went on to win in the end by ten.
Wearing their change of strips, as is traditional in this fixture between these two who wear the famous black and amber stripes, the opening ten minutes was score for score and they were level on four points apiece Tiernan Smyth catching the eye for the Town and Paul Sheehan for Ballycran. The game looked as if it was going to be a tight affair, but all changed in a five minute spell when Ballycastle grabbed three goals inside five minutes. Seamus McAuley got the first one after breaking through from the half forward line, Neal McAuley go the second, after the Ballycran keeper Stephen Keith had pulled off a great save to deny Tiernan Smyth, and ball broke to Neal McAuley who fired home the rebound. Goal number three came soon afterwards when Smyth broke through again and was fouled in the ‘square’ by Keith and the corner forward drilled the resultant penalty to the net.
Trailing by 0-7 to 3-11 at the start of the second half Ballycran began to make a fight of it just after the restart when the excellent Paul Sheehan fired over a point in the opening minute and when he drove a penalty to the net nine minutes later, a bit of momentum began to build. With the giant Paul Miskimmin now operating on the edge of the Ballycastle square he soon showed there was more to his game than just power as he doubled one handed overhead on a dropping ball and sent it flying between the posts. When Phelim Savage drilled in goal number two and Sheehan added another point the gap was down to just five, and with fifteen minutes left to play the victory did not seem as secure as it had appeared to be at the break.
However Ballycastle started to find the target again and with man of the match Tiernan Smith picking off a variety of scores the gap began to widen again and were good value for the ten point margin that separated the sides in the end.
