Dunloy U15 Hurlers embarked on a memorable trip to Wexford on Friday last to compete in the All Ireland Division 1 Hurling Feile. 

Having come through a tough Antrim Feile a few weeks earlier as well as the Football a few weeks later, this talented bunch of lads were going down without any inferiority complex to play in the top Division in Ireland.

Played at the Wexford Centre of Excellence in Ferns on a scorching summer’s day, they were drawn in a group that consisted of Ballygunner, Raparees & Monageer.

First up was Ballygunner who would go on to win the tournament, and it was a nervy start by both teams with Dunloy giving their Waterford counterparts as good as they got.  The game ended in a 3 point win for Ballygunner with Dunloy relishing the possibility they might get another crack at them later in the tournament.

The next two group games were comfortable wins against the two Wexford teams winning by 13 and 11 Points respectively.  A goal scoring spree by full forward Ronan Elliott certainly helped in these two games.

This was enough to progress to the quarter final stage to play the winners of the other group in Division 1 which was Kilmacud Crokes. They had overcome hurling royalty in Na Piarsagh & Sixmilebridge in their group to earn the right to face Dunloy.

With the games coming thick and fast you would have expected a slow start, but Dunloy were first out of the traps with an early Ronan Elliott goal.  It was a lead they would never lose in a tense and thrilling encounter, eventually running out 7 point winners thanks to a second half goal by Harry Blaney and a penalty save by Tom Richmond. Other notable performances in this knockout game were Paidi O’Kane, Oisin O’Brien, Aaron Richmond, Peader Doherty, Blaine Mullan & Cillian Cunning.

The Semi-final pairing was against Ballinora from Cork and once again Dunloy started the strongest, going in at the short whistle 0-05 to 0-01 ahead.  They stretched their lead to 6 points early in the second half but the game turned following two goals from the strong running Ballinora team. They say sport is just a game of inches and it certainly was proved the case on several occasions in the dying seconds with Dunloy trying to overhaul a 3 point deficit.  The final whistle came too soon for the gallant cuchullain lads and a 1 score defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for the boys from North Antrim who had dominated long periods of this contest.

Dunloy mentors and players, although disappointed at the time, should be extremely proud of the effort of this group of lads (who all played their part) and they showed that they were able to compete with the top teams in Ireland. On another day they could have been in an All-Ireland Final and who knows what could have happened.

It’s onwards and upwards for the same group of lads as they go on to Derry next Saturday to represent Antrim in the All Ireland Division 2 Feile.