After 2 weeks of football, the hurling championship resumed with 2 games on the bounce against Tournafulla and Templeglantine.
Both games were high quality high scoring encounters with the outcome in doubt up to the end.
First up for us were Tournafulla, on Saturday 2nd September, a game which was played in Quaid Park Coolyroe in ideal conditions.
We held the upper hand in the first half and with points from Shane Moloney, Richard Murphy, David Power, Cathal O’Neill and Conor Kirby we established a half time lead with a scoreline of 0-18 to 0-11.
Tournafulla came back in the game early in the second half with a succession of scores.
Scores at crucial times from Mark Shanahan, Conor, Rian and Cathal enabled us to keep our noses in front but the lead was reduced to a point with time almost up.
One of the Tournafulla forwards broke through and bore down on goal.
He struck his shot well but Ger Kennedy pulled off a magnificent save to preserve our lead.
The final whistle blew shortly afterwards and we had secured our second win of the campaign.
Final score was 0-24 to 0-23.
Second up was Templeglantine on Saturday 9th September, which again was played in excellent conditions at the Bog Garden, Rathkeale.
One factor which had to be managed was the sweltering heat on what seemed like one of the hottest days of the year.
There was a flurry of scores at both ends at the start of the game with Templeglantine having the slightly better of the exchanges and they established an early 2 point lead.
The game was keenly contested with both teams knowing a win was vital to stay in championship race.
We were unfortunate to lose a man to a red card midway the first half.
However, it inspired our lads to step up a gear and with Cathal O’Neill unerring from frees, a couple of points each from Chris Shanahan and David Power and a goal from Cormac Flanagan when he pulled first time on a ball on the ground, we reached the half way stage in the lead on a scoreline of 1-11 to 0-12.
Despite playing with 14 men, we continued to set the pace in the second half and pushed the lead out to 6 points by midway stage with points from Cathal, David, Rian O’Byrne and the hard working Shane Moloney.
Our defence was holding firm with Darach Skelly, Evan Moloney and Jack Dalton to the fore but Templeglantine gave themselves a lifeline with a goal which went in via a deflection.
The lead was now reduced to 3 points. Again, credit to our lads who stepped up their efforts.
The introduction of Brendan Power and Damien Kearney helped us to re-establish a foothold in the game and we finished strongly with points from Cathal, Cormac and Paraic O’Neill enabling us to close out the game on a scoreline of 1-27 to 1-19.
With one round of league matches to be played, we are in second place in the table on 6 points.
The top 2 teams qualify from each group.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish Ciaran Heagney the very best on his departure to Australia.
Squad : Gerard Kennedy, David Power, Jack Dalton, Tim Moloney, Paraic O’Neill, Richard Murphy, Darach Skelly, Shane Moloney, Rian O’Byrne, Cathal O’Neill, Chris Shanahan, Conor Kirby, Rob Henehan, Cormac Flanagan, Rory Hannan, Brendan Power, James Conheady, Donnacha Connolly, Damien Kearney, Ciaran Heagney, Ciaran Kennedy, Fergal Egan, Evan Moloney, Ciaran Humphreys, Shane O’Connor, Sean Malone, Sean Keyes, Ciaran Cusack.
