SIDELINES

The Kerry ladies suffered a set-back to their hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the Lidl National League when they went down to a two point defeat to vistors Mayo in Fitzgerald Stadium.

Jerome Crowley, from the Farranfore-Mainevalley club, picked up the Hall of Fame award at the annual Kerry’s athletics awards night.

Team Denjoes American style reached the semi-final of the Women’s Ladies’ National Basketball League Division 1 with a victory over Kerry rivals Team Garveys of Tralee. The Castleisland side ran out 57-41. Heartbreakingly they were defeated in that semi-final by Cork side Fr Matthews by eight points – 68 to 60. In the men’s Division 1 semi-final Maree of Galway had enough about them to see off Keane’s Supervalu Killorglin by four points, 80 to 76.

Duagh’s Paddy Keane was honoured with a life time achievement award, the Pat Trainor award, for his work as an administrator and coach at the Cumann na mBunscol awards.

Liebherr retained their All Ireland senior inter-firms title with a 0-10 to 0-7 victory over Medtronic of Galway in Tuam.

An outstanding performance by Tralee Harries’ Conor Commane saw him claim the Under 14 boys 60m Juvenile Indoor title at the National Championships in Athlone. The Tralee athlete followed up that performance by claiming top spot with a new national indoor record for the grade of 5.68m. His team mate Aoife O’Carroll, meanwhile, also claimed gold in the Under 19 girls 60m.

The Kerry Under 21 footballers got their Munster championship campaign underway with an unspectacular victory over Tipperary in Austin Stack Park. Jack O’Connor’s men had to deal with the loss of Matthew O’Sullivan to a red card early in the game and, to be fair, did well. The Premier, however, played with very little ambition to win the game, dropping men deep and playing cautiously despite their superior numbers. Kerry ran out 0-11 to 1-7 winners for the right to face Limerick in the semi-final. In that semi-final the Kingdom got the mother and father of all scares as Limerick came with a gung-ho attitude and ferocity that would have served Tippeary well in the quarter-final fixture. The Shannonsiders scored two goals to rock Kerry back on their heels and expose a weakness at the centre of their defence that could later prove very costly indeed. In the end Kerry just had enough about them to see the game out 1-14 to 2-8 – Tony Brosnan’s goal the difference between the sides.

Ceann Sibeal snatched victory in the Kingdom Challenge Shield from a shell-shocked Dooks in the second leg of the final played in Dooks. Dooks carried a six-hole lead into the second leg, but the West Kerry side proved they were made of sterner stuff to fashion a famous victory.

St Brendans College, Killarney comfortably advanced to the final of the Hogan Cup – the All Ireland senior colleges championship. They hammered St Benidus College from Dublin by 4-15 to 0-9. Evan Cronin bagged two of their goals, Billy Shaw one and Michael Casey another.

It was mixed fortunes at underage level for the Kerry ladies. The Under 14s defeated Cork 2-11 to 3-4 in the first round of the Munster championship, while the minors were defeated heavily by Cork 4-16 to 2-9.

Dr Crokes were crowned the 2015 County League champions with victory over Austin Stacks in the final at Lewis Road, which also doubled as the first round of the 2016 competition. Crokes won by six points – 3-15 to 3-9 – in a fiery and competitive encounter.

In the National Camogie league the Kingdom went down to defeat to Armagh on a scoreline of 2-9 to 0-6 at Ballyseedy.

The Kerry Under 17 soccer team made its debut in the new SSE Airtricity Under 17 League of Ireland. The Kerry side hosted a powerhouse Cork City side in Mounthawk Park and went down to a six-nil defeat.

It was heartbreak for the Park when they went down to a four-nil defeat by Galway Hibs in the quarter-final of the FAI Umbro Youths Cup at Christy Leahy Park in Tralee.

Kilgarvan were forced to concede their Club Championship preliminary game to Ballyduff citing difficulties in fielding enough players.

In the County Senior Football Championship qualifier St Brendans claimed a place in the championship proper at the expense of Shannon Rangers seeing off their fellow north Kerry men on a 3-14 to 3-5 scoreline on Good Friday.

Killarney’s Valerie Clancy wrote her name in the history books by becoming the first player from a Kerry club to win the Munster Senior Ladies Championship since its inauguration in 1988. Even had Clancy slipped up the championship would still have had a Kerry winner as Tralee’s Mary Sheehy filled the runners-up berth.

In the Munster Youth’s Cup quarter-final Killarney Celtic went out of the competition at the hands of Limerick League side Fairview Rangers. In a game played in Celtic Park they went down to 5-2 defeat.