Club ties re-drawn
All-Ireland Minor camogie abandoned
THE RE-DRAW for the group stages of the Wexford club camogie championship took place during the week, as the county edges closer to a resumption of Gaelic games in the coming weeks.
In the Premier Senior draw, champions St. Martin’s and runners-up Oulart-The Ballagh were seeded and kept apart, with the Piercestown and Murrintown club set to face-off against Rathnure and Premier ‘B’ titleholders Naomh Eanna.
In the other three-way round-robin section, Oulart-The Ballagh will look to advance from a group also featuring St. Ibar’s/ Shelmalier and Glynn-Barntown.
Games get under way on the week beginning July 20, with fixtures set to be finalised this week.
In the Senior ‘B’ championship there was no need for a re-draw. The five sides that will face off against each other are Kilrush, Buffers Alley, Bunclody, Clone Gaels (Monageer-Boolavogue and Ferns St. Aidan’s), and reigning Intermediate champions Oylegate-Glenbrien.
Runners-up in the Intermediate championship in 2019, Cloughbawn, have been drawn with Castletown-Liam Mellows and Rathnure ‘ B’ in Group 1 of this season’s renewal.
Blackwater, Craanford and Duffry
Rovers are all in Group 2.
Rapparees, RathgarogueSt. Anne’s and St. Ibar’s/Shelmalier ‘B’ all make up Group 1 in the Junior ‘A’ championship. Clongeen, St. Martin’s ‘B’ and Taghmon-Camross will fight it out in Group 2.
With more and more youngsters stepping up to adult camogie, there seems to be a consistent increase in participation in the lower grades, and Junior ‘B’ is the obvious stand-out with 14 teams in the competition.
Bannow-Ballymitty, Horeswood, Kilross Gaels and Tara Rocks are all in Group 1, while Ballygarrett, Fethard, Glynn-Barntown ‘B’ and Oulart-The Ballagh ‘B’ make up Group 2.
A trio of ‘B’ teams, Buffers Alley, Bunclody and Duffry Rovers, are in Group 3, while Davidstown-Courtnacuddy, Geraldine O’Hanrahans and Oylegate-Glenbrien ‘B’ are in Group 4.
Blackwater, Clone Gaels, Kilrush
and Marshalstown-Castledockrell account for the four teams in Group 1 of the Junior ‘C’ competition. In Group 2, Cloughbawn, Faythe Harriers and Naomh Eanna all face off.
Meanwhile, county Chairperson Jacinta Roche has expressed her surprise and disappointment with the decision to abandon the All-Ireland Minor camogie championship, despite half the group games being completed.
‘We’re very disappointed, especially having played three rounds,’ Roche said. ‘This will be the last year at Minor for most of the girls and for some of them their last year in a Wexford jersey.
‘It’s been hard on everyone but especially on them, missing out on their Leaving Cert., missing out on their debs, and now this.’
In a bizarre move, despite cancelling a part-finished All-Ireland series, the Camogie Association do expect Minor teams to come back together and play provincial championships.
The Under-16 All-Ireland series, which wasn’t scheduled to start until the summer anyway, will go ahead.
There was no surprise that the National Leagues were, shelved but the All-Irelands will begin in mid-October, in line with the men’s championships. The format of the competition has yet to be announced.
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