25 years since Kilworth's first county minor hurling title
A quarter of a century ago, Kilworth’s minor hurlers won the club’s first county minor title with a 1-10 to 1-7 victory over Watergrasshill at Glanworth on Sunday November 8th, 1998. This had the added significance of being the club’s first adult hurling county title (minor was deemed an adult competition at the time) since the junior county win of 1967.
This was The Avondhu match report:
MINOR HURLING COUNTY FINAL Kilworth 1-10 Watergrasshill 1-07
Yes, since the first time in 1967, Kilworth have failed to win a county title. That was put right last Sunday morning in Glanworth when our minor hurlers brought the coveted title back to the little village after a 31 year wait. We had been beaten agonisingly in 1980 (Junior A hurling), 1985 (JB football), 1993 (Junior A hurling), 1994 (Minor B football) and 1995 (Minor A football) in county finals, so you can imagine the scenes on Sunday afternoon at 1pm, “sheer joy”.
Coming into this game as underdogs, we needed to get a good start and we certainly did. Our lads settled early and our backs, particularly our half back line of Dave, Alan and Shane were commanding. Our half forwards tackled their opponents and gave them no room for lengthy clearances. Damien McNamara opened our account on 7 minutes with a pointed free. Good work by Damien and Alan Kenny saw the lively Brian Tobin score a good point on 9 minutes. Ned opened his account half a minute later with a point when Alan Kenny, after a great catch, sent him a great ball.
The Hill opened their account with a pointed free on 13 minutes, but Owen Walshe answered that score 1 minute later with a point. We were having our best spell now and on 16 minutes Damien sent over a point from a free. The Hill piled on the pressure and this yielded a goal on 21 minutes. Ned, who was making life a misery for their full back, scored a point on 22 minutes. They replied 1 minute later with a point and we had to wait 9 minutes for the last score of the first half, a point from Damien’s ‘65 to leave the score at the break 0-07 to 1-02.
The first 20 minutes of the opening half was so important but the first minute of the second half was, for me, the turning point of the game. Leading by 2 points at the break, Damien took a free on the 65 and drove it towards the goal. Ned got a stick to it and deflected it past a helpless keeper. This had the effect of putting us 5 points ahead, but it also had the effect of undermining the confidence of the Hill.
Our centre back Alan Kenny had picked up a leg injury and this came against us. Brian Tobin moved to centre forward with Joe Cahill on the wing. Niall O’Callaghan replaced Damien O’Donoghue, before the Hill again forced the pace with points in the 9th, 14th and 15th minutes and another point in the 21st minute to cut the lead to a point. Joe Cahill was switched to centre field with Damien to centre back and in a two-minute spell our lead was restored to 3 points. A free by Damien which Brian Tobin latched onto to score a point on 23 minutes and Joe Cahill after good work by Brian Tobin