Masita Paddy Buggy All-Ireland hurling semi-final

Cross & Passion Ballycastle 2-23 Clonmel CBS High School 1-17

Cross & Passion College bridged a ten year gap when they booked their place in the Masita Paddy Buggy fCup inal at UCD, Dublin on Saturday, at the expense of Munster champions Clonmel High School. The Ballycastle college turned on the style with a series of outrageous scores throughout the game to set up a final meeting with Oranmore of Galway on March 15th…. probably at Abbotstown.

CPC were in control of the game for most of the hour, apart from a brief spell midway through the first half when Clonmel twice got their noses in front and at this stage of the game it looked like the Tipperary boys were getting on top. However the second quarter belonged to the Antrim men who produced a stunning second quarter which brought them from a point down to seven up by the time the referee bblew the half time whistle.

Oisin McCallin started the comeback with two points inside a minute, the first from out on the left wing, and the second from wide on the right. The excellent Aaron Cagney and Mickey McGuire came back with two for the ‘High School’ at the other end to just edge their team back in front, but a superbly taken goal from CPC full forward Roan McGarry from a seemingly impossible angle got the Ulster champions back in front and they finished the half with a series of spectacular point, three of them inside a minute, to finish the half with a 1-13 to 0-09 lead.

CPC started the second half as they finished the first and four points without reply, two of them from Roan McGarry and one each from Cadhan Crawford and ‘Rosie’Fitgerald had the gap out to eleven.

Clonmel hit back with four of their own, two of them from McGuire frees and one each from Conal Morrison and Finn Napier to bring the gap back to seven, just as it had been at half-time. The four score sequence continued with another gem of a score from McCallin, one from Paudie Martin and two from the bustling centre forward Conor Donnelly who burst through to split the post twice in as many minutes.

There was a warning sign that the Clonmel boys were far from finished when goalkeeper Anthony Mullan was forced to make a brilliant close range save and when David McSweeney and Aaron Cagney came back with points you felt the Munster champions were still very much in the game. When midfielder Morrison got through for a well taken goal soon afterwards the gap was down to five and for spell the CPC supporters were on edge. It took some heroics from Liam Glackin and co at the back to prevent the gap from closing further, but when Paudie Martin popped over another point the winners hit their stride once again.

Roan McGarry with two more and substitute Conan Johnston all but sealed the win before Oisin McCamphill put the icing on the cake with and outrageous piece of skill which saw him flick the ball from an attempted clearance by the Clonmel goalkeeper, controlling it on his hurl before firing to the net…a score for the ages!

All eyes turn towards the March 15^th final against Oranmore of Galway, but in the meantime the majority of the team have a lot of hurling still to do, with nine of them on the Antrim Under 20 squad to face Down in the Ulster decider and three in action at 12 noon today in the Danny McNaughton Memorial Cup final against the same opposition.

CPC: Anthony Mullan, Reece Cunning, Cian Baudant, Eunan Johnston, Darragh Donnelly, Liam Glackin (c), Arden Kelly, Darragh Kinney, Ronan FItzgerald, Niall McClean, Conor Donnelly, Paudie Martin, Oisin McCallin, Roan McGarry, Cadhan Craword.

Subs – Conan Johnston

Scorers – R McGarry 1-8, 0-2 frees, O McCallin 1-5, P Martin 0-4, 2 frees, C Donnelly 0-3, C Crawford 0-2, R Fitzgerald 0-1

Clonmel: H Lawlor 1-2, Aaron Cagney 0-12, 10 frees, Connal Morrison 1-0, B Roche 0-2, 1 free, M Bates 0-1

TO SEE MORE PICS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

https://myalbum.com/album/zxBvS8LiN5H4NF/?invite=1a4fa806-c9dc-4c19-b8d5-025382aaea1c

Ulster Minor Hurling Final

Antrim v Down at Pairc MacUilin, Ballycastle

Sunday 2^nd March – Throw-in 12 noon

Antrim Minor hurlers take on Down in the Ulster Minor Hurling final in Ballycastle tomorrow at 12 noon. The young Saffrons, under the management of Garbriel Crawford, and his team of coaches (Alan Rainey, Matthew Donnelly, Natty McNaughton, Kevin McCann and Ryan McAee) have already played the Ards side this season, beating them in convincingly in the end by eleven points. However it took a strong second half, and the introduction of substitute Cadhan Crawford to get them over the line. Crawford had been the star of the first round win over Derry at Dunsilly, scoring 3-6 in the opening half, before beings called ashore, along with a few others, so the management got a look at the talent at their disposal.

The following week the management made 134 changes to the starting line-up and though they held a narrow lead at the break, after playing into a strong wind in the first half, they made a few changes at the break to be sure of victory.

Last weekend Down travelled to Owenbeg to take on Derry in the final round-robin game and with Derry able to field a much stronger side that than they had done in their opening game against Antrim, things were much tougher for the Ards boys than most pundits had predicted. In a hard fought game game the two side could not be separated and so Down advanced by virtue of the fact that they had lost by less to Antrim than Derry had in that first game.

Gabriel Craword admits that he and his selectors still are not certain of their best line-out, but they are a lot closer to it having seen all of them in action.

Antrim will go into the game as favourites but they will need to be wary and Down proved during the first half that day in Ballycran that they have a lot of good hurlers.

No team has been released at the time of posting this so I have listed the two teams who started against both Derry and Down. Three of the team, Eunan Johnston, Darragh Kinney and Cadhan Crawford are in action today for CPC in the All Ireland Colleges semi-final in Dublin, so understandably the management will leave it to the last minute before making their final selection.

So we would appeal hurling fans to make their way to Ballycastle tomorrow morning and support these you men as they battle for the first silverware of the season, the Danny McNaughton Memorial Cup.

Antrim team v Derry – 9^th Feb 2025

Liam Magee, Eunan Johnston, Oisin Heaney, Paddy Morgan, Darragh Kinney, Conor McCann, Niall McKeown, Daire Jemfrey, Canice McIntosh, Dylan McNaughton, Christy Leech, James McDonnell, Sean Smyth, Cadhan Crawford, Oisin Gillan

Subs used – Caolan McCollum for Cadhan Crawford, Nicholas McLaughlin for James McDonnell, Liam McGarry for Canice McIntosh, Liam Smyth for Darragh Kinney and Matthew Rice for Liam Magee

Subs – Matthew Rice, Aaron Quinn, Liam McGarry, Dylan Donnelly, Nicholas McLaughlin, Caolan McCollum, Anthony Cochrane, Ciaran McCann, Liam Smyth

Antrim team v Down – 16^th Feb 2025

Liam Magee, Dylan Donnelly, Liam Smyth, Eunan Harvey, Aaron Quinn, Conor McCann, Liam McGarry, Anthony Cochrane, Ronan Taylor, Oisin Boyle, James McDonnell, Ciaran McCann, Nicholas McLaughlin, Jay McAlonan, Caolan McCollum

Subs – Ruairi McShane, Cadhan Crawford, Oisin Healey, Dylan McNaughton, Canice McIntosh, Niall McKeown, Christy Leech, Daire Jemfrey, Paddy Morgan

Masita Paddy Buggy Cup semi-final

Cross & Passion, Ballycastle v Clonmel CBS

(Saturday, UCD Sport, Dublin 2.30pm)

CPC bid to reach the Paddy Buggy Cup final when they take on Munster champions Clonmel in Dublin later today (Saturday)

The Ballycastle school won the Mageean Cup in early December, which secured their place in today’s semi-final. After taking a break over Christmas they have been training hard ever since and have played a few challenge games in preparation for this game.

At the time of writing the team has not been announced but it will surely be along the same lines as the team who beat St Killian’s in the Mageean decider.

CPC’s opponents Clonmel CBS won their first Munter title a few weeks ago and will provide a stern test for the Ballycastle side. In the Munster final the Tipperary boys were the dominant force throughout the game, despite going into the final against Scarrif Comminty School of Clare.  Their defence was rock solid with full back Michael McMaugh dominating and tenacious corner back Max O’Dwyer also catching the eye. However it has to be said that the Scariff forward division failed to deliver the goods on the day and I feel the CPC forwards will cause them a lot more problems with the scoring power of the likes of Paudie Martin, Oisin McCallin, Roan McGarry and Cadhan Crawford, all accurate score takers.

Clonmell’s man of the match in the Muster final was centre forward Aaron Cagney who will take a lot of watching, as indeed with his wing forwards Mickey McGuire and Jamel Yousef, scorer of his team’s opening goal on the day. However the CPC half back line are a formidable trio with centre back Liam Glackin, flanked by Reece Cunning and Aiden Kelly. Harry Lawlor looked the pick of the full forward line in the Munster final but they face a strong CPC full back line of Dan Kinney, Cian Baudant and Niall McLean and goalkeeper Anthony Mullan.

The game will be played on a 4G pitch at UCD, which means the game with be a lot faster than what we saw in both provincial deciders and that could have an effect of how this go. CPC have done a lot of training in the 4g pitch at the Dunloy Accademy and that could stand them in good stead.

This had the potential to be a great game, with little separating two well matched sides. Clonmel will provide a stern test for the Ulster champions, but I feel CPC have the goods to secure their first final place since 2015

Pupils from St Anne’s Corkey, St Patrick’s Loughgiel, St Olcan’s Armoy and Gaelscoil An Chaistil attended Wednesday afternoon’s Cumann na mBunscol Fun Day at the Academy Dunloy. The Saffron Gael dropped in and took some pics

To see more pics from the day click on the link below

https://myalbum.com/album/LjinJG835BQ7mX/?invite=355ebb48-5b27-4b10-90e5-a5e0015270f4