BALLYGALGET CLAIM MAIDEN HURLING OG SPORT TITLE.

Sunday 2nd October 2016

BALLYGALGET CLAIM MAIDEN HURLING OG SPORT TITLE.

Despite a late scare from Portaferry, Ballygalget refused to throw in the towel to claim the 2016 Down Og Sport title in gale force winds and wet conditions. Ballygalget eventually ran out winners by 4:04 to Portaferry’s 4:02 in a match that had everything including top class goal keeping, defending and attaching moves with huge levels of skills displayed.

The Final was played before the Senior Championship Final and was well attended by patrons who subsequently went to watch the senior match. This is the first time a 7 – a –side Hurling Og Sport to take place in Down and proved a major success in spite of the awful conditions. The group stages included clubs like Ballyvarley, Warrenpoint and Carryduff joining the Ards clubs which made for some very competitive games. After the series of group games, the winners of Group A were Portaferry with Ballycran as runners up. Group B was topped by Ballygalget with Warrenpoint as the runners up. The first semi-final was a low scoring and tight affair with Ballgalget advancing to the final after beating Ballycran by 2:03 to 1:02. In the other semi, Portaferry were pushed all the way by a very impressive Warrenpoint team, eventually running out winners by 5:05 to 2:02.

County Hurling Officer Thomas Daly said ‘it was great to see the number of games players got on the day, and to see the levels of skill displayed and enjoyment got from the players. We have been trying to increase the number of meaningful games players get this year and would like to think we have made good progress on this front. After today’s success, the Hurling Og Sport should be in the games programme for 2017 and hopefully we can get the likes of Castlewellan, Ballela, Kilclief and Clonduff and other clubs entering teams in future competitions. I’d also like to thank Liam Quinn and Conor O’Toole for organising today and also the referee’s and Portaferry club for ensuring today was a success.