First win for third XV
We played our second Junior C (East Cork Junior HL Div 4) game on last Monday night in Páirc Naomh Chaitríonaigh, Ballynoe.
We played into a strong wind in the first half and both teams struggled for scores due to the wind. It was level at the short whistle at 0-6 each. Our white flags coming from John Buckley, Craig O’Callaghan, Nicky Kelleher and Brian Collins. Our backs had performed very well in that opening thirty minutes as we were under a lot of pressure playing into the wind. Corner back Jack Connor raised a white flag also with a mighty puck.
We started the second half smartly and using the wind we scored three quick points from Dave Burke. Catherines responded with a point but points from Shane O’Flynn, Craig and another from Dave saw us leading 12pts to 7 after 40mins. With the wind behind us our defenders and midfielders were well in command. Our forwards continued to work well and further scores from Dave, Alan Barry, Shane and Craig saw us out winners on a scoreline of 0-18 to 0-10. Our defence kept up the good work from the first half and kept the St Catherine’s forwards relative quite.
Team and subs: Mark O’Connell, Jack Conor, Liam Collins, L O’Flynn, Jack Kearney, Mike Liddane, John O’Sullivan, Stephen Pratt, Nicky Kelleher, John Buckley, Brian Collins, Jake Tobin, Craig O’Callaghan, Shane O’Flynn, Jamie Buckley, Brian Lahive, Oisin Roche, James Murphy, Dave Burke, Alan Barry, Cian Howard, Pa O’Driscoll.
Well done lads, a great win. It’s great to see such a mix of players young and not so young and with connections from far and wide. On the panel in Ballynoe on Monday night we had links with Down, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick and Clare! Our next Div 4 JHL game is against Fr O’Neills in Rathcormac on June 1st.
JUNIOR HL DIV 2
We are away to Youghal tonight Thursday, May 19th in the East Cork JHL Div 2 at 7.30pm. U17 HURLING Bride Rovers 1-12 Newtownshandrum 2-20
On Friday we played our last league game against a strong Newtown team. The first half was evenly balanced with the score 1-7 to 7 in favour of the visitors. The second half was a different story and we simply couldn’t hold their fast running game.
In fairness our lads kept battling away but couldn’t narrow the lead. We finished 4th in the league and qualified for shield semi-final which is important as it gives us another competitive game before championship. More than likely our opponents will be either Erins, Killeagh or Carrigtwohill.
Panel – Ronan, Eldon, Adam, Darragh, Oran, Denis, Luke, Ryan, Kieran, Cillian, Ben, Louie, Colin, Cormac, Kamso, Gearoid Gubbins, Gearoid O’Connell and Ciaran.
U14S V ROCKIES
On this Friday night the U14 hurlers take on Blackrock in Church Road. This is a challenge game in preparation for the 1st round of the Rebel Óg Championship against Watergrasshill on next Wednesday night May 25th. The U14 football championship first round v Castlelyons is penned in for June 1st.
U10S IN WATERFORD
The U10 boys travelled to the annual U10 Ballyduff Upper hurling tournament on Saturday last. With Cork and Waterford playing the following day there was a great ‘hurling buzz’ about. In total 30 teams competed under glorious sunshine, a mammoth organisational feat.
We entered two teams, a Green Team of 11-a-side and a Gold Team of 9-a-side.
Our Green Team were in a group with Holycross Ballycahill, (Tipperary) Ballygunner (Waterford) and Sarsfields of Cork. We played Holycross in game 1 and came out 4 points short after a good battle. Our lads were slow to get to the pace of game and just couldn’t peg back a physically strong Holycross side.
In game 2, we had a titanic battle with neighbours Sars and after a hugely intensive game lost by 2 points with Sars getting a goal with a minute to go. Game 3 finally saw us get the result our good play deserved when we dominated Ballygunner for large spells and came out the victors by 2 points. Congrats to Holycross who won Division 1. All games were very tight.
In Divison 3, our Gold team played games against Sars, Ballyduff and St Pats (Waterford) Despite losing all three games, the players performed so well and really showed their character and spirit in all games. Many kept their best performances of the year for these matches. We are so proud of them all and it’s just brilliant to see the skill level improving every week and above all the lads are having great fun. Many thanks to Ballyduff for a great day and we look forward to meeting these teams again in the future.
Training: Wednesday night at 6pm on the main pitch (football).
Next fixture: Go Games football v Ballincollig on Saturday, May 21st at 12.30pm in Ballincollig GAA.
SENIOR HURLING
We play our next RedFM League tie against Ballymartle on this coming Saturday, 21st May at 7pm in Rathcormac. The following Friday, May 27th we have a challenge game v Tallow (away) at 7.30pm and a league fixture v Sarsfields in Riverstown on Sunday, 5th June at 2pm.
U8S IN CARRIG
Our U8 boys headed to Carrigtwohill last Saturday for a football blitz. They were several team taking part on the day with different sections. Bride Rover were in a group along with Douglas, Lisgoold, Killeagh, Kilworth, Erins Own and Aghada. The team put in a great effort in all the matches and are improving all the time. At U8 it’s not about winning or losing, goals or points but getting enjoyment and learning the basics of our native games. Well done to the U8 boys. New players - born in the year 2014, are always made very welcome.
15,000 AT A MONDAY NIGHT GAME
A massive crowd of over 15,000 attended the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship final in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on last Monday night. In a unique Midlands ‘derby’ the novel pairing of Offaly and Laois vied for the title. It was the first time
since the competition started in 1928 that neither Kilkenny, Wexford or Dublin were in the final. Laois have just 4 wins the last in 1964 and had never actually received the Walter Hanrahan Cup! When Laois won in 1964 for some unknown reason the Cup was missing, AWOL, so just last year the Leinster Council Chairman symbolically presented Billy Phelan, the 1964 team captain, with the Cup.
On Monday night it was Offaly who were deserving winners by 21 points to 13 but Laois are still in an All-Ireland quarter final. I think it’s sad that the Minor All Ireland final has been ‘separated’ from the senior final and won’t be played in Croke Park on Senior final day as was the tradition - seems like ‘tradition’ is a dirty word in the GAA nowadays!
LOTTO GOES TO €20,400
The weekly lotto results for Tuesday, 10th May were as follows. The four numbers were 07, 09, 19 and 32 and there was no winner of the massive jackpot of €20,200. Congrats to our lucky dip €30 cash winners: Mike Buttimer, Ballyhooly, Gina O’Leary, Rathcormac, Maura Fitzgerald, Glenahulla, Elvira Finn, Rathcormac and William Connolly, Castlelyons.
The tickets for the weekly draw are available from several sources. As always club members and local business outlets have the €2 tickets for sale. They can also be purchased online.
Please send the online link to family, friends and work colleagues and ask them to join upit’s on our social media pages and website.
With major development plans now being finalised we will
need extra income streams. All donations and subscriptions are very welcome. Purchasing a lotto ticket for just €2 is one step along the Pathway to 2028 when the Bride Rovers Club will mark its centenary.
CORK V WATERFORD
They used to say long ago that Cork hurlers were like mushrooms that ‘they could come overnight’ well it wasn’t exactly as quick as that but certainly after the results and displays against Limerick and Clare things weren’t looking great for the Rebel hurlers. Back in 1967 and 1974 we had shock results in Walsh Park and another one came on Sunday last. It’s years since I’d been to the Waterford City venue and certainly Cork supporters were well outnumbered by Decies fans. On the field of play though there was only one team in it as Cork tore the League Final and early round robin games form to shreds.
I was lucky to be there to witness the brave, gutsy and skilful display of the Cork team. From a club point of view it was marvellous to be there when Brian Roche made his Senior Championship debut with Cork, well done Brian and also to panellist Eoin. So now we face the car in a different direction next Sunday. I’d say straight away after half nine Mass in Bartlemy is over the thousands will head for Thurles.
Talk of ‘Dead Rubber’ games is gone, we want a win, Tipp need to win by at least seven points and have Clare do them a favour. It’s all to play for. Little did the men from Cork and Tipperary who gathered for a game in Glenagowl in the autumn of 1741 realise what they were starting!
GOOD WINS IN YOUGHAL
Congrats to local greyhound owners Willie Kelleher and Gerard Gubbins on wins in Youghal on Monday night. Willies ‘Corrin Julie’ and Ger’s ‘Hollyhill Abby’ both won their races and continue the good run of their owners this season
BARTLEMY IN SCIATH NA SCOL FINAL
Well done to the young hurlers of Bishop O’Brien NS, Bartlemy who defeated Glenville last week in there Sciath na Scol semi-final. Bartlemy now go on to face Leamlara in the final which will be played either next week or early the following week.
CAR BOOT SALE
Next Sunday in Rathcormac is car boot sale day. A huge crowd is expected. If any club members are available to do an hour or two anytime from 7am onwards please contact Billy or Mossy.
SCOUTS CELEBRATE
Well done and congratulations to the Rathcormac Scouting Unit who mark 40 years in existence this year. On Saturday week they have a Fun Day where everyone is invited along for a great family day out.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS WITH DRAMA WIN IN ATHLONE
Well done to Ballyduff Drama Group on winning the All-Ireland final in Athlone last week with their magnificent production of ‘Rabbit Hole’ produced and directed by Geraldine Canning - incidentally Ger’s great grandfather was James O’Mahony from Ballynanelagh. Two of the cast members, both living in Castlelyons, have strong connections with this parish. Grainne Kenny nee Barry, is granddaughter of Jack Barry formerly of Bride St. Rathcormac who was on our County Minor winning side in 1932. Ellen Quirke’s parents are Pat Quirke formerly of Lisnagar and Clare Daly from Ballynanelagh. Well done to all concerned.
SCRAP METAL COLLECTION
With plans now being firmed up the scrap metal collection will go ahead at the end of May. If you have, or know someone who has, a quantity of scrap metal to be disposed of please ring John on 087-9538077.
The plan is for the scrap collection to take place the last weekend of May if possible. Cars, trailers, bicycles, tractors, barrels, old feeding troughs, broken metal toys, galvanise, obsolete farm implements, batteries -basically all metal items are acceptable. Please ring as soon as possible. When the final details are worked out we will send out a Club Text so spread the news that all kinds of metal are wanted.
CLUB TEXT
At present we are expanding our contact base to ensure as many as possible are kept up to date with all Bride Rovers happenings. As well as the text service we have launched a WhatsApp group. If you have any problems getting the updated information on fixtures, lotto results and club news just contact our runai Mike, on 087-9808973 and it will be sorted out.
SYMPATHY
We extend our sympathy to Tomas Higgins of Conna on the death of his wife, Anne. Tomas has many cousins in our parish - his mother was Kelleher from Mellifontstown, Bartlemy.
FIXTURES
Friday, May 20th U14 hurling v Blackrock, Church Road, 7pm. Saturday, May 21st U10 football in Ballincollig at 12.30 SHL v Ballymartle, home at 7pm. Wednesday, May 25th U14 HC v Watergrasshill.
BRIDE ROVERS CLUB SPONSORS
Rathcormac Tyres, Fermoy