Churchill and Valentia win promotion to Division 4
DIVISION FIVE
THE first two promotions were confirmed in this Division with Churchill and Valentia heading up to Division Four in 2019 after victories over Ballyduff and Asdee respectively in the two ‘2A’ matches with Dingle B qualifying for the Shield Final in the other section.
PROMOTION PLAY-OFFS
PRETTY convincing from Churchill as they never looked threatening against Ballyduff in ending their two year stay in Division Five with a comprehensive 4-16 to 0-2 victory at Na Gaeil. JJ Prior and Mikey Brennan had goals inside the opening four minutes to give them control of proceedings as Darragh Goulding scored the North Kerry side’s only first-half point. Ger McCarthy scored the St Brendans side’s third goal as they led by 3-9 to 0-1 at half-time in a game all but over.
Sean Donnellan scored three points for the victors early in the second period as Goulding scored Ballyduff’s only other point as despite Jack O’Sullivan and John O’Regan’s best efforts at midfield, Churchill’s strong running game proved to be too much for them to deal with. Ciaran Crowley scored Churchill’s fourth goal to complete a 26-point drubbing as Valentia will also return to Division Four next year for the first time since 2016.
Asdee made it a more competitive game than the other encounter but there was no stopping Brendan O’Sullivan once he hit form for the Young Islanders in a match played in Keel.
John Shanahan accounted for six of Valentia’s points on the day as they led by 0-8 to 0-3 coming towards the break with scores from Paul O’Connor and Paul O’Sullivan also part of that lead as Darragh Keane and Paul Carroll were Asdee’s scorers. A goal from Jim Lynch put Valentia ahead by 1-9 to 0-4 at half-time however as despite Keane and O’Carroll adding points to offer Asdee some hope a brace from Andy Quigley and Brendan O’Sullivan adding his name to the scoreboard made it a 1-14 to 0-9 win for the South Kerry side.
The match for the Division Five title will be a repeat of the opening day encounter in Group A between the same two sides, one Churchill won by 1-17 to 1-14. As to who the third team that will join them will be Moyvane’s hopes and League campaign are over after a seven point defeat to Duagh in I ‘2B’ after the two sides met in Tarbert. It looked good for Moyvane when Joe Coulson and Shay Leahy scored points early on but Nigel O’Connor managed to guide Duagh to a 0-5 to 0-2 lead at half-time. Gearóid Mulvihill’s goal was Moyvane’s only second half score as braces from both Kieran Quirke and Kieran Lucey and an effort from Ed Stack made it a 0-12 to 1-2 win for Duagh.
The other ‘2B’ encounter between Sneem/Derrynane and Scartaglin will be played this weekend with the loser eliminated from the promotion process like Moyvane with the winner joining Asdee, Ballyduff and Duagh in deciding the final promotion spot.
DIVISION 5 SHIELD
AFTER beating another ‘B’ side in Kerins O’Rahillys beforehand, Dingle got the better of Austin Stacks B in reaching the Shield Final as they had a strong 1-13 to 1-4 victory at Lispole.
Six points from Declan Devane and a goal from Joe Saunders along with a brace from Mikey Boland were big parts of the West Kerry side’s win as bar a goal from Brandon Patterson, three Donagh McKivergan points and a Danny Carroll effort, Austin Stacks went down to a nine point defeat.
Dingle now await the winners of the Rathmore ‘B’ versus Tuosist encounter in the final, the second semi-final taking place this weekend.