Pat’s regraded to Junior

JUNIOR hurling was the first championship up for discussion at last Wednesday’s County Board meeting in Ballinakill and on Zoom with delegates all over the county.

CCC fixtures secretary Paul Wilson led the way in the meeting and the first real business to contend with was the proposal to allow St. Patrick’s drop from Intermediate hurling to Junior.

‘The first championship we are going to deal with is the Junior hurling championship,’ began Paul Wilson, secretary of the CCC fixtures.

The subject of St. Patrick’s moving down a grade was then broached and St. Pat’s delegate John Smith was invited to speak.

‘I’m for the motion that St. Pat’s take part in the Junior hurling championship,’ said John Smith from St Patrick’s.

‘We’re not able to field in Intermediate in the last few years.

They gave a number of walk-overs in the last few years and we’re trying to get lads back playing hurling, and trying to promote hurling.

‘It’s paramount that we have a team out on Wednesday night playing Junior championship to give our younger lads who haven’t had any meaningful hurling at under-17 for the last few years, we haven’t been able to field at under-17.

‘There’s a couple of them there and we want to try and encourage them to play, they’re now 18, 19, maybe 20, so it’s a couple of them and couple of the older lads, so we want to get them out playing games,’ he added.

Paul Wilson called for a seconder for the counter proposal of St. Pat’s playing in the JHC rather than the IHC and Bobby Dignam from Rathnew supplied that and the matter went to a vote with the result being that 22 clubs voted for St. Pat’s to play in the Junior hurling championship while 18 opted for them to remain in the Intermediate.

This decision placed St. Patrick’s in the Junior hurling championship and brought the number of competing clubs to six after Knockananna decided not to field given the impact of Covid-19 on their preparations in this their first year of entering an adult team in any competition.

Paul Wilson explained that the championship would consists of a round robin of matches, home and away (if at all possible).

The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals.

The losers of the semi-finals compete for the Junior ‘B’ crown while the winners of the semi-final meet in the Junior ‘A’ final.

The full draw for the first round of the 2020 Junior hurling championship is as follows:

Junior Hurling Championship Round 1

St. Patrick’s v Aughrim ARP v Éire Óg Greystones Bray Emmets v Western Gaels