Ballyvarley Notes 27th August 2006
Senior Hurling
Ballyvarley Vs Sean
Treacys,
Lurgan
Ballyvarley’s senior
hurlers warmed up for the
Championship with a friendly against
Seam Treacys
Lurgan
recently. The Reds showed well in a
skilful display of hurling and ran
out convincing winners.
The first half provide
to a tight affair and the visitors
took an early two point lead when
they converted two frees. The Reds
were lacking that sharpness that
playing regularly brings but slowly
the found their feet, but Paul
O’Neill led the way with three
pointed frees to send the Reds
infront.
Lurgan
began to find it hard going against
the Ballyvarley rearguard with the
home side quick in the tackle, with
James McGrath leading the way with
some crunching tackles. While
Lurgan
got the majority of their scores
from frees Ballyvarley began to get
theirs from open play. This was
shown halfway through the first
period when a good through ball out
of defence found Paul O’Neill who
dummied and sent the
sliothar
to the roof of the net.
With this score
Ballyvarley had the impetus to go on
and reflect their superiority on the
score-sheet. David McGovern led the
line at half-forward driving the
Reds forward winning the ball on the
right and turning onto his left and
gracefully flicking the ball over.
There was still time for Paul to get
two more scores, one on the left and
one over his left shoulder before
the half time whistle sounded.
HALF-TIME:
Ballyvarley 1-8
Sean Treacys
0-4
Leading by seven points
at the break Ballyvarley could have
been complacent on the restart.
Despite an early goal from a melee
by the Lurgan
side, the comeback never
materialised. Ballyvarley soon
goaled themselves, a great solo
score coming from
Conor
Grew. Conor
received the ball with his back to
goal, soloing through and placing it
past the keeper.
Every ball was still
keenly contested yet Ballyvarley
found the space to convert some
great individual scores. David
McGovern showed his clinical touch
when a 50 yard shot off his right
shoulder flew over and followed it
up with a piercing run finished with
a 40 yard drive just over the cross
bar. Sean Kennedy got in on the act
with a wonderful 70 yard point from
half-back.
There was good movement
from the Ballyvarley forwards, and
good link play between them and the
half-backs. A good run from James
McGrath coming out of defence saw
him tear up the field and hand-pass
to Davy McGovern to send it
emphatically over.
In response the visitors
good only manage four points, and
found it hard to find room and time
to get off their shots. The game
eventually finished with the home
side having the last word with a 25
yard point from
Eunan
McConville, to give the Reds
a seventeen point win.
FULL-TIME: Ballyvarley
3-19 Sean
Treacys
1-8
The home win was based
on a good overall defensive
performance, Thomas Lennon and Sean
Kennedy prominent; a good energetic
performance from
Ciaran
Connolly and
Eunan
McConville in the middle;
with David McGovern,
Conor
Grew and Paul O’Neill supplying the
cutting edge upfront. Neil Monaghan
acquitted himself well on his debut
for the senior team as did
Christopher Higgins who made his
mark with a second half goal.
Ballyvarley’s win was marred when
the Reds’ David
Lavery sustained a serious
injury in the game. The whole club
wishes David a speedy recovery.
Ballyvarley Team
Brendan Donald, Pat McGrath, James
McGrath , Thomas Lennon, Sean
Kennedy (0-1),
Colm O’Neill, Niall Savage,
Eunan
McConville,
Ciaran
Connolly,
Cathal O’Neill, David
McGovern (0-6), Darren
Macken,
Paul O’Neill (1-11),
Conor
Grew (1-0), David
Lavery.
Subs: Christopher Higgins (1-0),
Neil Monaghan.
Under 12 Hurling
Ballyvarley Vs
Kilclief
Ballyvarley under 12
hurlers notched up another win in
the Go-Games campaign beating
Kilclief
in a tightly fought contest by the
narrowest of margins.
The opening ten minutes
of the game saw some good ground
skills displayed with both defences
proving difficult to penetrate. The
deadlock was eventually broken by
Jonathan Lennon who pointed a 65
getting the home side off the mark.
The young Reds began to settle,
winning possession, but failed to
convert their chances. They produced
a series of long range
wides
and two fine saves by the
Kilclief
goalkeeper.
Ciaron Davis was denied yet
again when he sent a powerful shot
from outfield which was turned away
by the confident goalkeeping of the
visitors.
Ballyvarley continued
their attack with Gary Kennedy and
James O’Meara supplying the
forwards. Jonathan Lennon made
himself available to receive a pass,
gathering the ball and soloing
across the face of goal. In the end
he settled for a point to edge the
home side further ahead. The young
Kilclief
side unwilling to let the game drift
away managed to push deep in
Ballyvarley territory and earned a
free for a foul on the ball. The
free was struck over the bar to
reduce the gap to one point before
the interval.
HALF-TIME:
Ballyvarley 0-2
Kilclief
0-1
After the break the
visitors emerged with a renewed
passion and fully tested the solid
defending of James and Sinead
O’Meara. The break through finally
came for
Kilclief after a goalmouth
scramble. Kieran
McShane
saved twice but the visitors surged
forward and edged the
sliothar
over the
goalline for a moment.
Kilclief
shouted claiming the first goal of
the game despite the protests of the
defenders. The visitors added to
their lead sending another ball over
the bar. Three points were now
between the teams.
The
Ballyvarley lads responded with
Aidan McKernan
working tirelessly at midfield,
sending dangerous balls downfield.
The forward line of
Odhran
Byrne, Chris Lennon and
Conal
McNally battled hard for possession
and were given assistance from
Jonathan Lennon. The latter was
fouled on a goal bound solo run. The
resulting free was duly converted
and Jonathan Lennon grabbed his
third point of the day. The Reds now
trailing by two points continued to
push forward with Aidan
McKernan
and Ciaron
Davis searching for a goal.
The
Kilclief
goal-keeper proved extremely
difficult to beat, but corner
forward Conal
McNally was there to tap home a
goalmouth scramble to the delight of
the home side. The goal raised the
Reds to a one point lead and proved
to be the winner. Ballyvarley tried
to extend their lead but could only
produce several
wides blasted from short
range. The visitors made several
breaks in the dying minutes of the
game looking for an equalizer but
all three full-backs remained alert
and halted their advance.
FULL-TIME: Ballyvarley 1-3
Kilclief
1-2
Ballyvarley U-12 Team
O.
Byrne, S. O’Meara, G. Kennedy, J.
O’Meara, A.
McKernan, J. Lennon (0-3), C.
Davis, C. McNally (1-0), C. Lennon,
K. McShane.
Ballyvarley Hurling Notes
Ballyvarley had two
representatives on the non-Ards
Down
Academy Under 16 team that played on
Saturday against
Ballygalget
in the Down ‘A’ Under 16
Championship. James McDermott in the
backline and Paul O’Neill at
midfield, acquitted themselves well,
the later scoring a goal and four
points. Unfortunately the result did
not go the way of the Non
Ards
lads, with the Down
Academy team losing by seven points.
The
Ballyvarley under 14s took all the
points from the Ballela match. The
under 14 hurlers play their
Championship match in the coming
weeks. Date, opposition and venue
still to be decided. In preparation
for this the under 14 hurlers are
training for the next two Wednesdays
from 6pm to 7pm in
Ballyvarley. Players are asked to
come ready to start sharply at 6pm.
The
under 10 and 12s continue to train
on Fridays from 7.15pm
to 8.30pm at
Newbridge Integrated College,
Loughbrickland.
The Ballyvarley seniors
will continue to train every Sunday
at 12.15pm and Tuesday
at 7.00pm in preparation for the
championship.
Sent
in by Colm
O’Neill (Ballyvarley HC Hurling PRO)
