Intermediates hold on in thriller

Our intermediate hurlers welcomed Valley Rovers to Castlelyons last Thursday evening the 21st April. In what was a beautiful evening of hurling both teams put in very good performances and put on a very enjoyable spectacle.

Castlelyons started well with a James Kearney point after 2 minutes and we continued to press our advantage throughout the first quarter of the game. Dara Spillane did exceedingly well to win the ball, take on his man and bury the ball into the back of the Valley’s net. Alan Fenton scored an outstanding point from the sideline which was followed by a great score from his cousin Ronan from the middle of the field.

The Castlelyons defence were hurling well with Colm O’Neill and Tom Carroll leading from the front. Valley Rovers kept in touch throughout the first half mostly through frees as they played against a light breeze. The highlight of the first half was when Colm Spillane set up Peter Roche for a great team score after the sliotar was well worked out of defence. Castlelyons went in 1-13 to 0-9 in the lead at half-time and were good value for their lead.

Castlelyons started the 2nd half where they left off the first and Anto Spillane hit a sweet point on the run from 35 yards out. The industrious Brian O’Donovan was hurling well in the corner and won a hard-earned free after winning dirty ball on the 45. Alan Fenton duly converted the free and the Castlelyons lead extended to 11 points. Valley Rovers started to come back into the game and the Castlelyons defence started to become under pressure. Jack Barry had a great save 1 on 1 where he closed down the Valley Rovers attacker.

Valleys started to play long ball into their full forward line and it began to pay dividends with 2 goals in quick succession. Jack Barry landed a monster free on 55 minutes and Anthony Spillane scored a lovely point from 50 metres out and Castlelyons looked home and hosed. Valleys came back again with late pressure and scored 2 more late goals to set up a very tense last minute. Castlelyons managed to hold on for a deserved 1 point win on a final score of 1-25 to 4-15 and got our first win of the league campaign.

Team: Jack Barry, Bryan Carroll, Leo Sexton, Tom Carroll, Colm O’Neill, Colm Barry, Jamie O’Leary, James Kearney, Alan Fenton, Ronan Fenton, Anthony Spillane, Peter Roche, Brian O’Donovan, Colm Spillane, Dara Spillane. Subs: A O’Regan for Brian O’Donovan. Scorers: A Fenton 0-9 (7f), A Spillane 0-7, J Kearney 0-3, D Spillane 1-0, R Fenton 0-1, Brian O’Donovan 0-1, P Roche, 0-1, J Barry 0-1(f), C Barry 0-1.

JUNIORS LOSE OUT IN CLOYNE

Our junior hurlers travelled to Cloyne on Monday evening last in the latest round of the JBHL. Castlelyons played with a strong breeze in the first half and played some great hurling. John Healy hurled well in the sweeper role as Cloyne moved a man out the field. Bryan Carroll drove forward from wing back to pop over a nice point on the 10 minute mark. Cloyne were hurling well too and forced some great defending from Liam Moroney and Gavin O’Neill in goals to prevent a goal. Darran Tobin was on the ball with the frees and scored 4/5 in the first half. The best score of the game was a point by Alan O’Regan who collected the ball on the sideline 30 yards out and without looking, hit the ball on the turn and bisected the posts to place us 2 points clear.

Oscar Hallihan was a constant danger to the Cloyne defence as well and popped up with 2 well worked points. Declan Morrison and Séamus Moroney were hurling out of their skins at the back and kept the Cloyne lads at bay. Those of us keeping track of the score from the sideline had Castlelyons up 0-9 to 0-6 at half time but the referee did not agree so we started the 2nd half on a scoreline of 0-8 to 0-7 in our favour.

Darran Tobin started the scoring again with a long range score that edged us further in front but Cloyne started to really come into the game and put our lads under pressure. There was some heroic defending again at the back with Liam Moroney and Gavin O’Neill making more important interventions to prevent our bet getting breached.

Eventually, the persistent pressure from the home team began to pay dividends and a long ball into our square resulted in a penalty. The Cloyne full forward took the set piece and gave our keeper no chance and rattled the net. Frees from Darran Tobin kept us in touch but Cloyne tagged on 3 more points to leave the official score at the end 1-15 to 0-11.

Team: Gavin O’Neill, Declan Morrison, Liam Moroney, Séamus Moroney, Bryan Carroll, Conor McCarthy, John Healy, Jack Waters, Brian O’Donovan, Stephen Casey, Darran Tobin, Dara Spillane, Alan O’Regan, Ronan Fenton, Oscar Hallihan.

Scorers: D Tobin 0-7(6f), O Hallihan 0-2, B Carroll 0-1, D Spillane 0-1, R Fenton 0-1.

U9

U9s had 2 hurling games this week. First we played St Catherine’s away on Tuesday evening in a 12-a-side game. This was a tough, entertaining game, with good tackling and blocking from both teams.

On Saturday we welcomed Whitechurch to Castlelyons and played 2 6-a-side games. The boys played with great energy and got some great scores. Well done to all the boys and special thanks to Cian (U8) playing in his first U9 game and putting in a Man of the Match performance, scoring some great points.

BROCHURE DROPS

TAKING PLACE

Most households in the community will now have had players from the Camogie and GAA clubs call around to drop off brochures for the club development fund. We want to thank everyone so far for the largely positive reception we have had on the doors the past week. Members of the steering committee will call back to collect the brochures in the next week or two so if you are able to make a donation to the development of the new pitch it would be more than appreciated. If you have not received a brochure for some reason then I would encourage you to make contact with members of the GAA and we can arrange to drop one off to your household.

LOTTO

There was no winner of this week’s lotto jackpot of €20,000. Numbers drawn were 9, 15, 20, 23. The lucky dip winners were Jim Tobin, Willie Murphy, Breda McCarthy, Jimmy O’Leary, John Dineen, Bill Kelleher, Maura O’Sullivan, Alex Henley. Next week’s draw will take place on Tuesday, 3rd May at 8pm in the Community Centre.

SPONSORS

Our main sponsor is Zeus Packaging. We would like to thank them for their continued support.