Eight time All Ireland winning hurler Richie Power was the guest of honour at the Ballycastle McQuillans awards dinner in the Marine Hotel on Friday night and the Kilkenny legend proved a very popular guest. The two time All Star spoke about his career with Kilkenny and with his club and admitted that one regret he had was not winning a Kilkenny senior title with Carrickshock. He went on to say he would gladly swop his eight All Ireland medals with the Cats for just one senior club medal with Carrickshock.
Antrim county chairman Seamus McMullan was also in attendance as was the new County Camogie chairperson Una Kelly who is of course also a prominent member of the Ballycastle club.
Most Improved Minor Hurler Conor Mooney receives his award from Kilkenny legend Richie Power at the Ballycastle McQuillan’s GAC dinner in the Marine Hotel.Minor Hurler of the Year Cathair Donnely receives his award from Richie Power.Shannon McQuillan receives the Most Improved Junior Camog award from Richie PowerRebecca Barrett receives the Junior Camogie Player of the Year award from Richie PowerJunior Hurler of the Year Ardan Kelly receives his award from Richie Power at the Ballycastle McQuillan’s Awards dinner in the Marine Hotel.Shannon McQuillan accepts the Most Improved Senior Reserve Camog award on behalf of Christina Hamilton, who was unable to attend.Senior Reserve Most Improved Hurler Oisin Donnelly recives award from Guest of Honour Richie Power.Senior reserve Camogie Player of the Year Niamh Campbell receives her award from Richie Power at the Ballycastle GAC dinner.Connal Magee receives the Senior Reserve Hurler of the Year award from Richie Power.Most Improved Senior Camog Becky Elliis receives her award from Richie Power.Orann Donnelly receives the Most Improved Senior Hurler of the Year award from Richie Power at the McQuillans GAC awards dinner.Guest of honour Richie Power presents the Senior Hurler award to Oran Kearney at the Ballycastle McQuillans GAC dinner.Caoimhe McKendry and club President John Harkin present a bouquet of flowers to Guest of Honour MariaMcQuillans GAC Chairman Fr Raymond Fulton presents a sponsorship cheque to the Saffron Gael at the club’s presentation dinner in the Marine Hotel.Fr Fulton with guests Richie an Maria Ballycastle club President John ‘Sparrow’ Harkin makes a special presentation to Guest of Honour Richie Power at the Ballycastle McQuillan’s GAC dinner in the Marine Hotel.Richie Power with Ballycastle club secretary Dessie Donnelly at the club dinner. Dessie played on and All Star team with Richie’s father, Richie snr, back in the late 1980s.Richie Power with Antrim county board chairman Seamus McMullan and Antrim Camogie chairperson Una Kelly
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Antrim v Waterford All Ireland U16 A Shield, Abbotstown 9th March 2025
Antrim 1-07 Waterford 1-07. Referee Philip McDonald, Cavan
Match report and photos from pitch side Antrim management
Antrim went head-to-head with co-league leaders, Waterford on pitch 1 in Abbotstown. When the short whistle went for the break, it was no surprise that scores stood at 0-04 each with two Antrim points from play by Teagan Cassidy and one each from JoJo Darragh and Tamara Black.
Antrim recovered well after an early second half goal from Waterford in the first four minutes. Second half scorers for Antrim were Cliodhna Thompson with a fine goal and again a point each from Teagan Cassidy , Tamara Black and JoJo Darragh, all scores coming from play.
Referee Philip McDonald from Cavan along with Waterford’s joint captains and Antrim’s Kiera McLaughlin
Antrim were wasteful on frees, missing nine score-able chances but on the plus side, Antrim know that and it’s something that will be worked on.
The defence again were outstanding and a special mention of Antrim’s keeper Mia Carlin who made two point blank saves and was injured on her elbow during the second save but elected to stay on and finish the game.
Antrim U16 manager, Liam Vallely, had this to say, “There was great resolve shown by the girls against our joint table toppers and we came away with plenty to improve on.”
County champions, Erin’s Own Cargin celebrated another successful season with a presentation evening in their clubrooms on Friday night where County Treasurer, Angela Callan was the guest of honour.
The Toome club collected another Senior Football Championship title in 2024 and added the Division 1 Reserve League title but the biggest cheer of the night went to the LGFA team who won the division 3 league and the Junior B Championship.
Barry O’Donnell presented Maureen Creelman with the Ladies Hand-Baller of the year before giving an excellent update on the rapid growth of handball within the club
Cargin Handball Club
Cargin now have 3 One Wall handball courts. There probably isn’t a day in the week where someone isn’t using them…it’s that popular.
Our main competition court is reputed to be the best wall in Antrim if not in all of Ulster where players come from far and wide to play on.
We have over 40 kids playing each Satruday morning. That’s not to mention both our local schools Moneynick Primary and Toome Primary both coming in each week to play handball.
We also have 30 registered ladies players with about 15 playing each week and 30 registered men with about 10 playing each week.
Our members have attended multiple tournaments this past year.
In the Antrim Slam in Belfast Padraig Graham got narrowly defeated in his final and the sisters Una Cassidy beating Maura Creelman in their final.
Our ladies also played in headquarters with 10 playing in the She’s Ace competition in Croke Park.
We have close ties with Dungiven handball club and North Coast Handball Club (in Portrush) where our members compete against each other in friendly competitions.
Our biggest accolade last year has been our representation at the worlds handball competition in Limerick. We had 10 ladies and 3 underage competing at the highest levels, all wearing their cargin jerseys with pride.
From that competition:
Kate Laverty & Una Cassidy got to the doubles final of the ladies challenger.
Martina Gribbin & Maura Creelman made it to the over 40s doubles final.
Maeve Cairns and Amanda McGarry reached their semi final.
Maura Creelman just lost in her singles final.
It was great to see so many supporters making the trip and waving the Cargin flags.
With our profile now firmly in the handball circuits we may be asked to hold a Slam in May which will be the only Irish venue to host the European tour.
Club person of the year – Peadar McCann.
Peadar was heavily involved in our 2023 centenary celebration nights and the author of our Centenary book, ‘Clann na hÉireann – 100 Years of Pride & Passion’.
Club Aidan Johnston presented him with the Patsy Kelly Memorial cup.
Ronan Devlin presented Kevin McShane with Senior Player of the Year & Conan Johnston with Young Player of the Year.
JC Devlin presented Jack Harney with Senior Reserve Player of the Year.
Angela presented the Senior Reserves with their Div1 Reserve league medals.
Dermot McPeake presented Oran Johnston with the Div2 Reserve Senior Player of the Year award.
Gareth Scullion presented the LGFA Senior Player of the Year to Róisín Quinn & Angela Callan presented the Senior LGFA team with their Division 3 league medals & Junior B championship medals. They were unbeaten last year and will play in Division 2 and Junior championship this year.
Stephen Magill announced Sarah O’Neill as senior camogie player of the year. Sarah was unavailable.
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Antrim retained their unbeaten run in division 4 when they travelled to Owenbeg on Sunday to take on Derry in their final league game and came away with a resounding victory on a final scoreline of 4-14 to 2-6.
Antrim started off so slowly and just weren’t playing with their usual fluency and it took them ten minutes to raise a flag when captain, Bronagh Devlin opened the scoring with a point.
Orla Corr then took a great point from distance and on 15 minutes Ciara Brown fisted over the bar after carrying the ball all of 60 meters.
The visitors appeared to have taken their foot of the pedal at this stage and conceded 2-3 in a ten minute period to see them move ahead.
Rocked by the Derry onslaught the Saffron fouind a response and Nicole Jones fired over two points and Bronagh Devlin raised another white flag just before the break to send Antrim in at the interval trailing by three.
The Antrim management team rung the changes at the break and it seemed to have the desired effect as Luisne Adams scored a great individual point to open their second half account and then some brilliant interchanging of passes between Aoife Kelly and Maria O Neill saw the latter plant the ball in the bottom corner of the Derry net.
This score completely changed the complexion of the game and Antrim went on a scoring spree as the impressive Lara Dahunsi scored goal number two and the equally impressive Aine Lynch slotted over two points in quick succession.
Laura Agnew then sent Ana Mulholland through with a pin point pass and she fisted the ball over the bar as the Antrim challenge continued to gain momentum.
The Saffron girls continued to press and Blaithin ni Cahill scored two points in quick succession and then unselfishly laid off a pass to Dahunsi who again found the Derry net.
The visitor’s pressure continued and Theresa Mellon, who was causing Derry endless problems with her direct running set up two points for Lara Dahunsi and Marie O’Neill and as the game move into injury time, O’Neill got her second goal after showing great bravery to palm the ball to the Derry net.
The Antrim management team said after the game “We gave all the squad good game time today and now look forward to our league semi-final against Leitrim who are the current all Ireland intermediate champions. A big performance will be required if Antrim are to reach the league final”
Main pic – Man of the match James McNaughton celebrates after scoring the first of Antrim’s four goals
Allianz Hurling League Division 1B
Antrim 4-22 Laois 0-21
Corner forward Conor Johnston flashes the ball to the Laois net for Antrim’s second goal
Antrim hurlers are almost sure of maintaining their Division 1B status for next season after beating Laois convincingly in their last league game of the season on Sunday at Corrigan Park. Leading by 2-15 to 0-08 at half time it was clear that if the Saffrons could keep out the goals in the second half they were would be pretty sure of victory, and while the Leinster men did show a marked improvement in the second half, they could make no inroads into Antrim’s lead and the thirteen points that separated the sides at the interval, was still there when match referee Michael Kennedy sounded the full time whistle. It has to be said that much of credit for that goes to the Saffrons goalkeeper Ryan Elliott who made a series of excellent saves throughout the game, with a couple of them during the final quarter right out of the top drawer.
Elliott’s performance had him in contention for the man of the match award, but that honour has to go to full forward James McNaughton who scored 2-11 over the seventy minutes, both goals taken expertly from play in a great all round display.
The win does not guarantee Division 1 safety as both Laois and Carlow have two games left to play. The O’Moore county have a home fixture against Carlow next week and if they were to win that they would still be in contention if they also beat Dublin the following week, a game that is also in O’Moore Park.
However a defeat in Sunday’s game would have left Antrim with no chance of survival and so it was vital that they came through. There were two very nerve-wracking moments for the Saffron fans in the opening minutes when Laois corner forward Tomás Keyes twice came within inches of an early goal, the first one hitting the side netting and the other fizzing past the far post, both of them from a narrow angle.
Ryan Elliott who had another excellent game in the Antrim goal
Gerard Walsh had given Antrim and early lead and when James McNaughton added two more and Conor Johnston one, daylight began to appear. The first goal came on 12 minutes when James McNaughton cut through the middle and just when it appeared he was about to lay off a pass, he produced a burst of speed that took him clear of is marker before firing the ball past Cathal Dunne in the Laois goals.
The home side kept the scoreboard ticking over and the gap widened before goal number two arrived, centre back Eoghan Campbell breaking forward before finding Conor Johnston in front of goal and the Johnnies sharp-shooter flicked the ball home one handed to the net, and when Ryan McCambridge and debutant Cormac McKeown added points the gap was out to 2-25 to 0-08 at the interval.
Keeping the goals out in the second half was undoubtedly the Saffrons aim and though they were not as dominant as they had been in the first 35 minutes they were still in control. Of course they did have Ryan Elliott to thank for that on more than one occasion and as the game entered the final quarter the play became a little scrappy.
Antrim had a good few chances to add to their own goal tally but good moves just kept breaking down at the last minute. However their persistence paid off eventually and James McNaughton grabbed his second with a finish as stylish as the first and Keelan Molloy put the icing on the cake with a sweet finish to wrap it all up.
That is league season wrapped up for Saffrons but they will have an anxious wait over the next two weeks to see if they have done enough to survive in 1B for next season.
Debutant Cormac McKeown sends over a point late in the first half
Antrim scorers: J McNaughton 2-11 (0-9f), C Johnston 1-2, G Walsh 0-3, K Molloy 1-1, R McCambridge 0-2, C McKeown 0-1, J Maskey 0-1, E Campbell 0-1
Laois scores: A Dunphy 0-9 (0-5f, 0-2 65s), P Purcell 0-2, P Delaney 0-2 (2f), C Dwyer 0-1, F C Fennell 0-1, M Keyes 0-1, D Dooley 0-1, M Keyes 0-1, M Dowling 0-1, C Byrne 0-1, J Lennon 0-1
ANTRIM: Ryan Elliott; Eoin McFerran, Paddy Burke, Stephen Rooney; Joe Maskey (0-01), Eoghan Campbell (0-01), Conor Boyd; Conall Bohill, Gerard Walsh (0-03); Ryan McCambridge (0-02), Keelan Molloy (1-01), Nigel Elliott; Cormac McKeown (0-01), James McNaughtonn (2-11, 0-09 frees), Conor Johnston (1-02).
Subs: Scott Walsh for R McCambridge (50), Seaan Elliott for G Walsh (55), Eoin O’Neill for C McKeown (55), Fred McCurry for N Elliott (70), Aodhán McGarry for C Johnston (70).
LAOIS: Cathal Dunne; Padraic Dunne, Lee Cleere, Padraig Delaney (0-02, 2f); Fiachra C Fennell (0-01), Donnchadh Hartnett, Jordan Walshe; Aidan Corby, David Dooley (0-01); Aaron Dunphy 90-09, 5f, 2 65s), Cha Dwyer (0-01), Willie Dunphy; Jer Quinlan (0-01), Paddy Purcell (0-02) Tomás Keyes (0-01).
Subs: John Lennon (0-01) for A Corby (29), Cormac Byrne (0-01) for C Dwyer (33), Mark Dowling (0-01) for P Purcell (50), James Duggan for W Dunphy (57), Cody Comerford for J Walshe (69).
REFEREE: Michael Kennedy (Tipperary)
Nigel Elliott gets past the challenge of Laois midfielder Aidan Corby
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