Ballyvarley's first venture into Ulster Junior Championship Hurling proved to be a successful one when they once more produced a strong second half performance to build up an impressive eight point lead before being almost caught on the finishing line by a late Sean Treacey's rally. Outplayed in the first half the Reds emerged after the interval to produce their trademark second half rally and looked to be coasting to an easy victory when complacency set in and a late goal and two points left only three points between the sides at the final whistle.

Playing with the breeze in the first half, Sean Treacey's looked the more eager and sharper side and they had two pointed frees on the board before Ballyvarley seemed to realise that the game had started. Ballyvarley looked sluggish and out of sorts as the Lurgan side buzzed around picking up all the lose balls and winning all the scrappy scrambles to put tremendous pressure on the Reds defence. Paul O'Neill struck the first glimmer of hope when he extricated himself from a bunch of players to strike over a great point from play. Two more points from Treacey's confirmed their superiority before O'Neill converted the first of his seven frees to keep the Reds in touch. A resolute Ballyvarley defence, in which all seven players responded magnificently to the Lurgan onslaught, held firm throughout and all Treacey's could manage was two further points from play. A late rally from the Reds, which produced two well taken points from Paul and Martin O'Neill, hauled the West Down men to within striking distance by the interval and the relative relief of a dressing room mauling at the half time team talk.

Half Time: Ballyvarley 0-4 Sean Treacey's 0-6

It was a different Ballyvarley team that emerged in the second half and for twenty five minutes they exerted a comfortable dominance over the game. Lurgan wilted under the constant pressure and three pointed frees from O'Neill punished their indiscretions as the Reds took the lead for the first time. A great passage of play involving Conor Lavery and David McGovern ended with the latter firing over a sweet point and then Paul O'Neill got into the act again converting a free before turning sharply to send over another from play. The Reds were now three points clear and the fans in the stands were cheering every move as the players had finally thrown off their lethargy and once more looked like a championship winning team.

The first major score of the game came in the eighteenth minute when Conor Grew broke clear to send a ground shot to the net and the Reds looked to be cruising through to the next round. Lurgan broke away to score their first point of the half but back came Ballyvarley with two more frees from Paul O'Neill and another point from play by Martin O'Neill to leave eight points between the sides and there seemed no way back for Lurgan with just five minutes of normal time left to play. Ballyvarley began to introduce their subs and Lurgan tapped over two isolated points and imperceptibly Ballyvarley took their foot of the pedal as Lurgan gave it one last throw of the dice and almost pulled it off. Paul O'Neill pointed another free to leave seven between the sides but then the whole picture changed in a flash with the dismissal of Sean Kennedy, a great goal and a point from Lurgan and a stunning save from Cathal O'Neill as the Reds were somehow left hanging on desperately to their three point advantage at the final whistle.

Final Score: Ballyvarley 1-13 Sean Treacey's, Lurgan 1-10

The defence once more must take most of the plaudits with Cathal O'Neill sound in goals and captain James McGrath leading a miserly full back line of Pat McGrath and Thomas Lennon that was only bettered once throughout the game and that was in the second minute of injury time. Kennedy was superb in the first half and Colm O'Neill and David Lavery were steady throughout. Cathal McGrath switched to midfield and enjoyed an excellent game and in the second half his partner, Conor Lavery warmed to the task as the Reds took control. Martin O'Neill, David McGovern and Conor Grew had their moments in an attack that stuttered to get going and it was fortunate that Paul O'Neill was able to recover from the mauling he received in Warrenpoint 24 hours earlier to leave his mark on the game with a personal tally of ten points.

Ballyvarley now go through to play Tyrone Champions, Strabane Shamrocks, in the Ulster Semi-final next Sunday. The Donegal Champions, Burt, were always going to be the clear favourites to win this competition but last Sunday Shamrocks pulled off the shock win of the competition when they beat the Donegal men by 1-14 to 0-13, so the Reds know they are facing a mighty task to make it through to their first Ulster Final. There will be no room for complacency next week.

Team: Cathal O'Neill; Pat McGrath, James McGrath, Thomas Lennon; Sean Kennedy, Colm O'Neill, David Lavery; Martin O'Neill(0-2), Conor Lavery; Paul O'Neill(0-10), David McGovern(0-1), Cathal McGrath; Ciaran Connolly, Conor Grew(1-0), Sean O'Neill.

Subs used: Eunan McConville, Michael Cairns, John O'Neill, Niall Savage

Subs not used: Brendan Donald, Conor McClorey, Christopher Higgins, Leigh McConville, Neil Monaghan, Niall Higgins

U-16 Hurling Championship Victory Over Warrenpoint

Ballyvarley hurlers are fast becoming masters of the late second half fight-back and this time it was the turn of the U-16's who produced their own thrilling version of the resurrection from the dead as they overturned a five point deficit to knock Warrenpoint out of the U-16 hurling championship by the minimum of margins. There are no ordinary games in Ballyvarley hurling these days and this game proved to another heart-stopping encounter that produced scenes of celebration for the Reds and utter despair for the blues of Warrenpoint as they lay on the ground shattered by another defeat at the hands of the West Down men.

Warrenpoint had prepared well for this game and it showed in the opening half as Miceal Cunningham and Ross McGarry powered them into a four point lead that could easily have been so much more, so complete was their dominance. A point from Paul O'Neill broke the monotony but then Ross McGarry slammed home the first goal and it really looked as though the Reds were in for an old fashioned hammering. It was all Warrenpoint at this stage and adding to the problems was the fact that O'Neill was off form with his free-taking as he hit a succession of wides before he eventually added his second before the interval.

Half time: Warrenpoint 1-4 Ballyvarley 0-2

Balyvarley put the half time interval to good use and managers Gerard O'Neill and Brendan Donald re-vamped their whole team and what a difference we saw in the second half. An indifferent Paul O'Neill moved to half forward and produced a masterful display of foraging and score-taking while James McDermott was superb at centre half back mopping up everything at the back and constantly driving the revitalised Reds forward. Two early points from Paul O'Neill was the warning that he was back on form and then came his first goal when he smashed another free to the back of the net with the attentions of Kieran Maguire un-sighting the Warrrenpoint keeper. It was all Ballyvarley at this stage and as they pushed forward they earned another close-range free and, although most of the Warrenpoint team piled onto the goal line, O'Neill slammed a pile driver into the roof of the net. O'Neill increased the Red's lead to four points to climax an 8 point turn-a-round but from there to the finish Warrenpoint roared back into the game and we were left with a nail-biting finale.

Three further points from O'Neill were matched by similar scores from Cunningham and McGarry for Warrenpoint and with just minutes remaining an exhausted Ballyvarley were hanging grimly on to their lead. Michael McAllister was superb in goals and the defence marshalled by Jamie Murray, Colm Madden and Paul Cairns smothered most of the home sides attacks. Leigh McConville and Conor McClorey were fighting hard in midfield to stem the tide as Warrenpoint fired over three unanswered points to reduce the lead to the minimum. However the home sides recovery had come too late and amid contrasting scenes of joy and despair Ballyvarley advanced to another potential giant-killing act, a quarter final meeting with much fancied Clonduff.

Final Score: Warrenpoint 1-10 Ballyvarley 2-8

Team: James Kennedy; Jamie Murray, James McDermott, Cathal McGrath; Paul Cairns, Kieran Maguire, Colm Madden; Paul O'Neill(2-8), Leigh McConville; Christopher Martin, Sean Savage, Tony Hegarty; Patrick Mackin, Conor McClorey, Michael McDermott.

Subs: Michael McAllister, Shane McAreavey, Martin Connolly

Juvenile Presentation Function

Tickets are now available for the clubs Annual Juvenile Presentation Function in the Belmont Hotel on Wednesday 15th November and all juvenile players, both hurlers and footballers, should contact their respective team managers if they wish to attend.