Louth teams shine in the sunny southeast
THE Sunny South East certainly lived up to its name over the weekend as clubs from Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow played host to 88 clubs nationwide competing at the ‘John West’ U14 Hurling Feile na nGael.
All three Louth clubs had mixed fortunes on the opening Friday evening winning one and losing one of their groups before suffering defeats to their host clubs on Saturday morning.
Naomh Moninne competed in group D of Div 7 losing their opening match to Ballinastragh Gaels (Wexford) by 1-10 to 1-1 before beating Castleblaney narrowly by 2-3 to 0-8 at Kilanerin. On Saturday morning they lost to their host Burren Rangers (Carlow) by 3-4 to 1-2. These results saw the Dundalk boys progressing to the Shield quarter finals later in the day at Clonroche where they qualified for Sundays semi final by beating Longford Slashers by 1-7 to 2-1.
Tipperary club Roscrea ended their dreams of reaching the final on Sunday morning when they proved too strong winning by 6-6 to 2-1 at the Ferns Centre of Excellence. Naomh Moninne scorers - Conor Murphy (5-11), Cian Walsh (1-1), Ciaran Walsh (1-0), Fionn Cumiskey (0-1), Sam Phelan (0-1).
The Knockbridge/Pearse Og combination took part in group D of Div 8 and they recorded a good opening 4-4 to 1-6 victory over Naomh Brid (Carlow) before losing narrowly to East Cavan Gaels by 1-10 to 2-4 with both games played at Paulstown. On Saturday morning they lost to their host Barrow Rangers (Kilkenny) by 3-10 to 2-3 and on a superior score difference they progressed to the Cup quarter finals later that day.
Their quarter final was played at St John’s Park where they came out on the wrong side of a 4-12 to 0-1 scoreline against Dromin Athlacca Banogue (Limerick) to make their exit from the competition.
The third of the Louth representatives were St Fechins who operated in group D of Div 11 and like the two other Louth clubs they had mixed fortunes on Friday evening at Killurin. The easily saw off Clonard (Wexford) in their opening match by 8-7 to 0-0 before suffering a narrow 1-4 to 1-1 defeat to Portlaoise ‘B’ (Laois).
Their host club Glynn/Barntown inflicted a 4-2 to 0-1 on them the following morning and based on these results they progressed to the Shield quarter finals.
Tinryland was the venue for their quarter final clash with Tourlestrane (Sligo) where the Termonfeckin boys came out to top with a good 3-4 to 0-4 victory to progress to a semi final on Sunday morning.
They returned to the same venue where they faced Buncrana (Donegal) but they suffered heartbreak as the Ulster boys won out by the minimum on a scoreline of 1-3 to 1-2.