RUTHLESS GREVILLE CREW SEE OFF DUBS

JOHNNY Greville’s Westmeath ladies made their first visit to Croke Park one to remember as they claimed their maiden All-Ireland Premier Junior title. Although they held the upper hand for little more than a quarter of an hour, Westmeath were ruthless with their scoring opportunities. They took a little while to settle and fell behind to two pointed frees inside four minutes by Aoife Bugler. Dublin looked more assured but didn’t translate possession into points, and they paid the price. Sheila McGrath and Dinah Loughlin brought Westmeath level and, even when Hannah Core put them ahead at the end of the first quarter, it was against the run of play. Greville’s crew were beginning to exert control by now, however, and had added two points when Denise McGrath scored a goal that appeared to deflate Dublin. McGrath put over her second point and Loughlin provided three more to put the margin at nine at the break, 1-8 to 0-2. Róisín Baker gave Dublin a real boost with a goal 37 seconds after the restart and Bugler slotted a brace of points. Pamela Greville finally registered Westmeath’s first score of the second half in the 55th minute and, at that stage, Dublin had left themselves too much of a mountain to climb.

WESTMEATH: F Keating; S King, E McCormack, J McLoughlin; E Finn, F Leavy, L Doherty; J McCormack, M McCormack; C McCrossan, D McGrath, D Loughlin; H Core, P Greville, S McGrath. Subs: A Higgins for D McGrath (51), M Scally for M McCormack (58).

SCORERS: D Loughlin 0-4 (2fs), D McGrath 1-0, S McGrath, H Core 0-2 each, P Grevill, A Higgins 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: A Spillane; R MacLoughlin, N Gleeson, C Buchanan; G Free, D Johnstone, E Barron; G Power, R Drohan; A Dooley, R Baker, E Twomey, L Quinn, A Bugler, E Keenan. Subs: S Nolan for Power (ht), S Wylde for Quinn (ht), C Carolan for Twomey (49), E O’Riordan for Gleeson (56).

SCORERS: A Bugler 0-5 (3fs, 1 45), R Baker 1-1. REFEREE: P McDonald (Cavan).