Club Hurling Co. League Up-date

SENIOR HURLING: Austin Stacks 2-4; Kenmare 4-14.

After receiving a walk-over from Ballyheigue in round 1 of the Co. League last Wednesday evening (30th May) our Hurlers were in action in Connolly Park on this Sunday afternoon (3rd June) against Kenmare who themselves had secured a hard-fought win in their opening round against Dr. Crokes (2-19 to 2-17).

And they continued their winning sequence in this second round of the competition, eventually pulling away from a Stacks team who had stayed with them for all of the first half and for ten minutes into the second half.

The visitors raced into a five points to one lead after 12 minutes – our score coming from Paul Daly in the 4th minute. But we were back on level terms within four minutes. Beautiful work by wing back, Johnny Downey, saw his shot across goal finished excellently to the net by Jason Conway. This was followed, two minutes later, by an equalizing point by Killian O’Riordan. Kenmare added two more points before the break to leave them ahead at half time by 0-7 to 1-2.

Both sides had a point each early after the resumption – ours coming from a lovely effort by Rory Forbes. However, in the space of a minute Kenmare added two quick goals and a point. But we responded well as Daniel Teahan , coming in from the corner, blasted to the net from and acute angle in the 38th minute to be followed, two minutes later, by what turned out to be our last score of the game – a pointed free by Paul Daly. Kenmare were five points ahead at that stage (2-9 to 2-4) and could have been further ahead but for at least three brilliant saves by Danny McGuire. But they did go on to score a further 2-5, without reply, to claim a well-deserved victory.

Team: Danny McGuire, Kevin O’Leary, Eoghan McKivergan, Tadhg Meehan (Capt), Ciarán Breen, Andrew Morrissey, Johnny Downey, Rory Forbes (0-1), Killian O’Riordan (0-1), Gearóid McCann, Daniel Teahan (1-0), Paul Daly (0-2 – one free), Thomas Meehan, John Connelly, Jason Conway (1-0).

Sub: Andrew Foley (40m).

It was great to see Andrew Foley back in action again after being out injured for all of the last season – his last game was in October 2016. But that didn’t prevent him from being on the line for almost all that period – urging his colleagues on the whole time and helping the management team when required.

We were due to play Kilgarvan in round 3 but they have withdrawn from the competition, so now we have a break of 19 days before we play Dr. Crokes at home in round 4 (Fri, 22nd June). The 5th and final round, away to O’Dorney, is fixed for Wednesday, 27th June.