Ballyvarley Hurling Notes Week of
18th April 2006
Senior Hurling League: Ballyvarley Vs Portaferry
Ballyvarley’s senior hurlers stormed
back to winning ways with an
excellent win over
Portaferry.
Played at home on a sunny evening
Ballyvarley went out against the
undefeated league leaders and hurled
like men possessed to grab a great
three point victory.
From the start there was a bite to
Ballyvarley’s
play, Red men out
infront
to grab all the early possession.
Indeed they got a dream start when
Conor
Lavery
pointed before he passed to
Conor
Grew who turned and goaled. The
movement of the home forwards was
causing the
Portaferry defence a lot of
problems, emphasised when David
McGovern came out of a melee with
the ball, shrugged off two men,
before sending a glorious point
over. David added a carbon copy soon
after to send Ballyvarley into a
five point lead against a
shell-shocked
Portaferry.
Two points a piece were exchanged
between the two sides, Martin
O’Neill putting over two pointed
frees for the Reds, before
Ballyvarley re-exerted their hold on
the game. Conor
Lavery
dominated at midfield; Martin
O’Neill, David McGovern and
Ciaran
Connolly doing the same upfront, and
Michael Cairns and the whole home
defence playing out of their skins.
On this platform Ballyvarley added
to their lead,
Ciaran Connolly tormenting
the visitors with his running and
getting a point. Martin and David
added two more points before the
break to give the Reds a seven point
lead that should have been more.
HALF-TIME: Ballyvarley 1-
8
Portaferry
0-4
On the restart Ballyvarley continued
where they left off. On three
minutes Martin O’Neill pointed
another free. But
Portaferry
where not going to lie down and
after a tongue lashing at half-time
they had a renewed fervour in this
second period. Each ball was eagerly
contested but now
Portaferry
were adding points to the
scoreboard. A tenth minute point for
the visitors was followed by a rapid
fire exchange of three points each
as the game approached the final
third.
Portaferry
were pressing hard, yet the
Ballyvarley rearguard held firm. The
younger lads such as Thomas Lennon
and Paul O’Neill performed extremely
well, helped by the older men, David
Lavery,
Michael Cairns, John and
Colm
O’Neill. Brendan Donald added to
this with some fine safe goalkeeping
as the Reds fought to the last
minute.
A late goal from the visitors left a
tense final few moments but
Ballyvarley strode on to a three
point win. This was an excellent
team performance and will hopefully
spur the team on in their next few
games.
FULL-TIME: Ballyvarley 1-
12 Portaferry
1-9
Ballyvarley Team
Brian Donald, Pat McGrath, Michael
Cairns, Thomas Lennon, David
Lavery,
Colm
O’Neill, John O’Neill, Paul O’Neill,
Conor
Lavery
(0-1), Eunan
McConville,
Martin O’Neill (0-7),
Ciaran
Connolly (0-1),
Conor Grew (1-0), David
McGovern (0-3), Sean O’Neill. Subs:
Niall Savage.
