The Old Boro venue also hosts a winner takes all game in the football championship on Friday evening (6.45pm) between Ardmore and Kilrossanty, with Rathgormack waiting in the wings to take on the winner for a place in the last four against champions Stradbally.

The all Ballyduff hurling affair on Saturday evening should bring a bumper crowd to the Dungarvan venue, and while Lower will be favourites to master Upper it really is one of those games that could genuinely go either way.

TOM FEENEY

For the men from the West much will depend on the availability, or otherwise, of their sterling county defender Tom Feeney. As you read this he is currently holidaying outside the country and ironically is not due home until twenty-four hours after Saturday’s game. No doubt every possible effort will be made by club officials to get Tom home early, but if they fail in their endeavours then the pendulum will have swung decisively in Lower’s favour, even before a ball is struck in this losers group decider.

Mind you, they had the rub of the green in their victory over Roanmore last Sunday evening, with substitute Pat Murphy’s late goal proving to be the all-important score. They never reproduced the form that saw off fancied De La Salle a week earlier, and they will need to be at their best to book their place in the semi final against Mount Sion.

The West’s Ballyduff did extremely well to account for Portlaw last time out even without Tom Feeney, but really his presence on Saturday will be crucial to their cause. With him shoring up their defence I can see them edging it, but without him the vote would have to go to Lower.

ARDMORE MARGINALLY FAVOURED

Friday evening’s footballing clash between Ardmore and Kilrossanty is another difficult one to call primarily because of the recent indifferent form of both clubs. Certainly Ardmore have huffed and puffed in their last two outings, and looked to be way off the mark in their four point defeat of St. Saviours last Sunday.

Much the same can be said of Kilrossanty who trailed for most of their game against Tramore last Saturday but came good in the end thanks to a Kevin Lonergan goal twelve minutes from time. Even then they had to dig deep to stave off a Tramore side that squandered more than enough chances to have salvaged a draw or perhaps even outright victory.

After their heroics last year when they were unlucky not to have reached the county final, Ardmore’s form has been enigmatic to say the very least this year. True they are still missing a few key players who are plying their trade in the US, but generally there has been a slump in the team’s form.

The potential is undoubtedly there and if they can manage to get their act together then they are capable of beating all and sundry. Kilrossanty will provide them with a searching test, and while I still have a sneaking fancy for the seasiders the battle hardened Comeragh men are just the ones to punish mediocrity.

Whatever the outcome it promises to be a close and exciting affair. A tentative vote, nothing more, to Ardmore to shade it.

DEPLETED ‘COURTY ROUTED

The big talking point of last weekend was the savage mauling Ballinacourty endured at the hands of Rathgormack in the senior football championship at Fraher Field last Sunday evening. That 2-23 to 0-5 scoreline makes dismal reading for supporters of ‘Courty who had however to take the field minus at least half a dozen key regulars.

The absentees included Laurence and John Hurney, Derek Hayes, John Foley, John Phelan, and Colin Keane. In the circumstances it was too much to expect their depleted side to halt the Rathgormack juggernaut, but neither could anyone have expected so totally listless a challenge from ‘Courty. Without doubt this was the worst performance turned in by a side from the club in all its years in senior ranks.

I would exempt the youthful Hanrahan brothers, Rick and Simon, who were thrust onto this stage while still eligible for the minor grade. Sons of former star Michael, they clearly are players for the future whom we’ll be hearing a lot more about.

INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL

The big winners last weekend in the divisional intermediate football championship were Clashmore, Ballinameela, Brickey Rangers and Ballyduff, although the latter pair were stretched to the limit to see off the respective challenges of Shamrocks and Geraldines.

No doubting the star performers however. Clashmore looked every inch potential champions as they handed out a 4-12 to 1-5 hammering to Sliabh gCua at Fraher Field, and on the evidence of this sparkling display it’s as near a racing certainty as makes no difference that the team which beats them, if any, will go on an annex the divisional title.

They simply overwhelmed an outclassed Touraneena opposition from first minute to last and long before the final whistle brought the losers merciful relief the only thing to be determined was Clashmore’s final margin of victory. That stood at a whopping sixteen points at hour’s end and not one of those sixteen scores flattered a very, very, impressive all round performance.

The game between Ballinameela and Emmetts was a close affair throughout but in the end last year’s county junior champions shaded it on a 0-9 to 0-7 scoreline at Fraher Field. Emmetts might have salvaged a draw with better finishing up front, but over the hour Ballinameela just about deserved to garner the spoils.

CONTROVERSY

The meeting of Brickey Rangers and Shamrocks at Cappoquin was a tense and exciting affair and not without its moment of controversy. Shamrocks goaled from a quickly taken free but the score was “whistled back” for the free to be retaken without the same lucrative result this time for the Knockanore men.

In the context of the final score, 2-7 to 0-11, it was an incident that had a crucial bearing on the result and left Shamrocks players, mentors, and supporters none too pleased at the final whistle.

The Ballyduff/Geraldines game was even closer, with Ballyduff shading it by a solitary point, 1-9 to 1-8. Geraldines certainly had enough chances over the hour to have at least salvaged a draw, but prodigal wastage by their forwards proved extremely costly. In any rational analysis of the championship right now it is difficult, if indeed not impossible, to look beyond Clashmore.

A KILGOBINERT/ OLD PARISH J.F. FINAL

For Old Parish the dream of junior football championship glory lives on following their 1-10 to 0-9 victory over Dungarvan last weekend.

That win puts them into the divisional final for the first time in more than a decade and a half and has given this whole championship one massive lift.

Their opponents in the decider will be a mightily impressive Kilgobinet who did something of a demolition job on Tallow as they romped to an emphatic and hugely convincing 4-11 to 2-4 victory over the outclassed Bridesiders.

It is Old Parish’s triumphant march to this final however which has most caught the eye. Everyone outside of Kilgobinet would dearly like to see the Shocks lift the title in a few weeks time, and while they will go into that decider in the role of underdog they are not without a genuine chance of ending their lengthy spell in the footballing wilderness.

They were given a searching test in last weekend’s semi-final by a Dungarvan side that contained a wealth of experience, and when their mettle was tested most they proved well up to it. They face an even more formidable opposition in Kilgobinet in the decider, but it really has the makings of a mighty match and one that could set a new attendance record for a junior football final in the division. More anon!

VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT

“Grand larceny”. Not my words, but those of a very relieved Ballinacourty official after the club’s minor footballers had snatched victory from the very jaws of defeat against Kilrossanty in a belter of a Western minor A football semi-final last Wednesday on a 3-4 to 2-6 scoreline.

The all important winning goal was scored by ‘Courty’s Patrick Hurney SIX minutes into added time after he had been brilliantly set up by Declan Fives. It was a dramatic final to a tremendous game, but in congratulating the winners, just spare a thought for luckless Kilrossanty who have been left to ponder how in God’s name they ever lost this one.

At one stage in the second half Kilrossanty looked to be in cruise control after Barry Prendergast’s goal gave them a comfortable five point advantage. But never say die ‘Courty refused to bend the knee and were close enough to make that vital Hurney strike in the dying seconds of a real thriller.

They now await the winners of the second semi-final between Ardmore and Brickey Rangers, which goes ahead at Fraher Field on this Saturday afternoon (3.15) and will be preceded by the B minor football semi final between Kilgobinet and St. Oliver’s with An Gaeltaacht awaiting the winners in the decider.

SUNDAY’S ALL IRELAND FINAL

For many of us we will reflect on next Sunday as the day that ‘might have been’ when Clare take on Kilkenny in one of the most eagerly awaited All-Ireland senior hurling finals in years.

Very few would have predicted the pairing earlier in the year, especially after Tipp had consigned the Banner to the back door losers group in the first round. But fair play to Clare they have regrouped magnificently, and with victories over Galway and ourselves in turn who can say they aren’t worthy finalists?

The Cats of course helped themselves to the cream when they edged out Tipperary in one of the greatest hurling games Croke Park has hosted in decades, and I suspect a repeat of that form, and more especially another D.J. Carey blinder, may be good enough to bring the title to Leinster.

Main News Page | Previous Page