By Jerry Quinn

There will be a new name on the Down senior camogie trophy on Sunday evening. A sixteen year winning sequence came to an end when Clonduff beat holders Liatroim in the semi-final three weeks ago and they will now play Portaferry in the final at Castlewellan on Sunday.

This is the first county final meeting between these teams but neither are strangers to the finals.

Whilst both go in search of their first ever county senior title they also share the experience of having been beaten by the Fontenoys in deciders in the past as the Liatroim girls ran up that fantastic winning sequence. Clonduff have lost to the Fontenoys in each of their two previous final appearances losing to the Liatroim in their first final in 2001 whilst the Ards girls lost to the Fontenoys a year later.

Clonduff looked impressive when going ten points up against Liatroim but they looked decidedly stretched when Liatroim turned on the pressure in the final quarter. The Ards girls had a one sided semi-final win over Ballyholland and before that they had been both consistent and impressive in the Ulster Premier league wining that competition when beating Ballinderry in the Shield final.

With Liatroim out of the competition the championship takes on a whole new perspective and both of these teams will think that with Liatroim gone that each has a real chance of winning.

The Clonduff club, forty years in existence is seen as one of the stronger camogie clubs in the county given their wide range of activity on and off the field and although they have won every other competition in the county the senior championship has eluded them in all of that forty years. Clonduff have had a strong representation in successful county U16 and minor teams in recent years and this year the Carr sisters, Maginn Sisters, and the Gribben sisters have been the backbone of the county senior team so they do seem to have talent in their squad. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that whilst Portaferry do not have any county senior players in their line up they did win the Ulster premier shield and that was indeed a creditable performance. The strength of the Ards team has been a very successful youth policy within the club where the young camogs and the young hurlers hone their skills together. Clonduff will be hoping that it will be third time lucky and the team that put Liatroim out do probably deserve to be favourites but the team that won the Ulster Premier Shield are the form team and the Ards girls might just shade it.

The throw in is scheduled for 4-00pm