Ballyvarley Notes - 12th June 2006
Under
14 Hurling Championship
Warrenpoint Vs Ballyvarley
The first round of the
Under 14 Hurling Championship pitted
the local Ballyvarley hurlers
against one of the favourites for
the competition, Warrenpoint. Played
in the ‘Point, in blazing hot
conditions the home side were just
two strong for the young Reds moving
into the quarter-finals.
Ballyvarley’s
under
14s, in the position of underdogs,
found the going tough in the opening
exchanges, the blues of Warrenpoint
quickly going three points into the
lead, two coming from frees. The
locals were finding it hard to get
started yet as the game went on they
came more and more into it. Some
darting runs from Kieran Maguire and
Tony Hegarty
upfront showed much promise before a
good solo through from James Kennedy
saw him fouled 25 yards out. Tony
Hegarty
converted the chance with ease,
placing the
sliothar over the bar to open
Ballyvarley’s account.
There followed
end-to-end chances for both sides,
the Warrenpoint keeper in particular
preventing a number of Ballyvarley
goals, from Martin Connolly and
Conor
McShane,
with some great goalkeeping. The
home side found the killer goal as
elusive as the ball seared wide from
a vicious ground stroke.
The goal eventually came
for the Warrenpoint men when a
ground stroke deflected off a stick
just inside the right corner post.
Cruelly for Ballyvarley they
conceded another three pointer a few
minutes later. A long low drive from
the home teams forward was going to
be dealt with by the Reds’ keeper,
only for it to take a massive
deflection of a Ballyvarley mans leg
to go to the opposite corner.
Credit to the
Ballyvarley lads they could easily
have folded, and with the ‘Point
piling on the pressure the Reds’
rearguard kept the Warrenpoint
attack wide to shot from far out and
unbalanced. This bought the
locals
time to refocus and try to get the
vital scores to get themselves back
into this contest. Indeed, James
Kennedy went on to get perhaps the
score of the game. Just in the
Warrenpoint half, he tackled and won
a fifty-fifty ball beat his marker
and soloed in beat two more blue
shirts before lifting the right
corner of the net. It was a great
goal and as the half drew to a close
Paul Cairns went close with two long
seventy yard frees. That left a six
point margin at the break and all to
play for in the second half.
HALF-TIME: Warrenpoint
2-4 Ballyvarley
1-1
The
second period began as the first
with the home team
quickier
to the ball, grabbing an early
point, before a good solo run from
their half-forward finished with the
sliothar
lobbing into the net.
Ballyvarley came back with a long
free from Paul Cairns almost
dropping into the net, only for the
Blues’ keeper to flick it wide at
the lost possible moment.
Conor
McShane
spun onto a loose ball in the box,
and a quick turn and drive saw the
sliothar
just scrap the outside of the post
and wide. Close.
However the Reds’ were being
restricted in their scoring
opportunities by a quicker
Warrenpoint side that closed them
done very quickly and made they
shoot faster than they would have
wished. In the face of this
Ballyvarley did well to their
opponents to just three more points,
which they converted despite severe
defensive pressure from the Reds’
backline.
Ballyvarley battled away and
eventually got a reward when a good
jinking run from Tony
Hegarty
saw the ball fall to substitute Neil
Monaghan, who sent a first time pull
into the net. Despite pressure
towards the end to add to their
tally this score was to be mere
consolation for the Ballyvarley
lads, as they ended the match
defeated but unbowed.
FULL-TIME: Warrenpoint
3-8 Ballyvarley
2-1
It was a good night for
hurling with a strong Warrenpoint
worthy winners. The midfield
partnership of
Dairmuid Taylor and Jason
Haven for the ‘Point were
outstanding. For Ballyvarley James
Kennedy played some excellent
hurling with tremendous work at the
back coming from
Conor
Strain, Michael McDermott and Paul
Cairns. Tony
Hegarty battled hard under
severe pressure upfront while Neil
Monaghan and Patrick McNally played
well when they entered the fray.
The Reds’ will not meet
a harder team in the league over the
coming weeks and they can take heart
from their gutsy performance
throughout.
Ballyvarley
Under 14 team:
Michael McAllister, Paul
Colgan,
Michael McDermott,
Conor
Strain, Christopher Martin, Paul
Cairns, Michael McKay, James Kennedy
(1-0), Thomas
McKernan, Tony
Hegarty
(0-1), Kieran Maguire, Jonathan
Lennon, Shane
McAreavey, Martin Connolly,
Conor
McShane.
Subs: Patrick McNally, Neil Monaghan
(1-0), Aidan
McKernan, Peter
Lavery,
Joseph Garvey.
Ballyvarley Hurling Notes
Last week two
Ballyvarley hurlers, Sean Kennedy
and Thomas Lennon, represented
Down on
the Down Minor Academy Hurling team.
Down went on to
that defeat Donegal in that
game played in the Ulster Hurling
League at Clones. Sean Kennedy
played at midfield with Thomas
playing in the second half.
Ballyvarley’s coaching for the under
10 and 12 hurlers continues on
Friday nights from
7.15 to 8.30 pm at
Newbridge
College,
Loughbrickland. The under 12s
hurlers play away to Newry Shamrocks
on the 10th June followed
by Warrenpoint at home on 17th
June.
Ballyvarley senior hurlers took home
all the points from the
Portaferry
game during the week. The seniors
continue to train on Sundays at
12.15pm in Ballyvarley. Their next
hurling game on Tuesday 20th and 27th
June are to be League re-fixtures
for the games put off during the bad
weather at the start of the season.
The
under 14 hurlers lost against
Warrenpoint in the Championship.
They now enter the new division 2
league stage beginning on Wednesday
14th June. Their first
game is at home to
Castlewellan.
Sent
in by Colm
O’Neill (Ballyvarley HC Hurling PRO)
