Junior ‘A’ hurling Champions 2012

Monageer Boolavogue are the junior ‘a’ hurling champions for 2012 thanks to a three point win over Oulart the Ballagh, in a sunny St Patricks Park today. The drawn game was a low scoring affair and this replay was something similar with the final score being 1-09 to 0-09. Despite conceding the first score we started brightly taking a 3 points to one lead, with Ed Rowsome back on form with the frees, and a suberb score from Chris Daly. Oulart managed to get back into the game and we went in at half time level on 5 points each. A savage effort by all was the main reason we managed to outscore Oulart by 1-04 to 0-04 in the second half. James Gahan has to be given a mention for his outstanding effort, along with many others but Chris Daly was the outstanding back. An early score from John Ivory set us on our way in the second half, whilst Ed added more frees. At the other end Oulart were finding it difficult to get scores thanks to the dog ignorance of Daire Turner in particular. The introduction of Michael Ivory in the second half worked wonders as he scored the decisive goal within minutes of coming on. Another subsitute Adrian O Dowd scored the point to give us the three point lead with only injury time remaining. Our lads stood firm for the remaining minutes and secured a famous victory. Afterwards we were treated to a marvellous speech from our captain Daire Turner, which thankfully was in slightly better taste than the one he gave before the Buffer’s Alley match. He received the cup to great cheers and shouts from our large support, and one hopes that (in contrast to 2000) he will ensure that this time the cup will remain in one piece. On a more poignant note, it was perhaps fitting that we won our first county title in 10 years on this day, which is Shane Fenlon’s birthday. He was born on the day after we won our first intermediate title in 1980 and our lads had him looking down on us today.

Finally, well done lads on a great victory and lets hope that next year this team can establish themselves in the junior championship.

Team: 1. Morgan Gahan 2. Mick Nolan 3. Daire Turner 4. Sean Doran 5. Denis Walsh 6. Chris Daly 7. Mick Sweeney 8. Damien Fenlon 9. Laurence Murphy 10. Ed Rowsome 11. Bryan Dwyer 12. Patrick Walsh 13. James Gahan 14. John O Loughlin 15. John Ivory   Subs: Adrian O Dowd for Patrick Walsh, Michael Ivory for John O Loughlin, Declan Kelly for Mick Nolan, Sean McCabe for John Ivory

Scores: Ed Rowsome 0-06 frees, Michael Ivory 1-00, Chris Daly 0-01, John Ivory 0-01, Adrian O Dowd 0-01