Action on all fronts

With so many underage matches and Senior and Junior league games it’s really action on all fronts at present. We have players involved with five different Cork panels which is simply amazing.

Cork are under a bit of pressure in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship with just two games left in the round-robin section. On Saturday week the Rebels will have a ‘handy’ home game against the men from Mick Mackey’s country. Earlier that same Saturday Bride Rovers will take on South Liberties in the Tony Walsh Cup final. The Rebels’ last game in the series will be against Tipperary – I don’t know if the hay will be saved by then but sure we’ll see how things go! Our lotto jackpot reached €17,600 on Tuesday of last week so if you’re not in you can’t win!

LOCAL DERBY IN JUNIOR HURLING LEAGUE

Any stranger or tourist passing through the village of Castlelyons last Tuesday evening might be wondering at the sight of so many cars lined up at both sides of the road. In nearby Páirc Peadar Ó Laoghaire a hurling match was being played. Just a League game but a real ‘Local Derby Game’ hence the crowd.

Our second hurling team made the short trip to Castlelyons on Tuesday evening to play their third league match of the Amarenco JHL Division 2 campaign. It was a lovely evening for hurling and the lads started well, with points from Cillian and DJ straight from the off. Castlelyons respond with a point before three points from Jason, Adam and Conor had us leading 5 points to 1 after fifteen minutes.

The teams then went point for point and Conor’s impeccable free taking was keeping us in the lead with our next four points all coming from placed balls. That saw us with a good lead of 9 points to 5 approaching the break but Castlelyons got the last two scores of the half to leave the margin of just two points at halftime, 0-9 to 0-7.

The teams shared the next 4 points with Conor getting both our scores. Castlelyons then had a period of dominance and four points in a row for them saw them take the lead 13 points to 11. Credit to our lads who dug in, and two points from Seamus and Conor got us back level before the crucial score of the game came when DJ finished to the net after a brilliant run in from the wing to give us a three-point lead with 10 minutes left.

Our defence were coping well but Castlelyons never gave up and got the next two points to leave only the minimum between the sides with time almost up, but another pointed free from Conor and a final point from DJ saw us out to a 3-point winning margin after what was a very entertaining game. The final score was Bride Rovers 1-15, Castlelyons 0-15.

Team: R O’Riordan, L Collins, M Liddane, E O’Connor, S Ahern (0-1), J Mannix, K Cotter, F Collins, Conor Barry (0-9), Cillian Barry (0-1), J Pratt (0-1), DJ Cahill (1-2), A Hayes (0-1), F O’Flynn, R O’Callaghan. Subs: N Kelleher, L Forde, J Buckley.

On this coming Friday, May 3rd we make the short journey to Felix Sarsfield Memorial Park, Watergrasshill in another Division 2 JHL game.

WEEKLY CLUB LOTTO

Results for Tuesday 23rd of April. The numbers drawn were 6, 10, 14, 28 and there was no winner. Congratulations to our lucky dip €30 cash winners: Grace Kearney, Ballybrowney, Sharon Healy, Manor Mills, Jennifer Barry, Moulane, Nathan Buckley, Shanowen and Ann O’Neill, Fermoy. If your ticket has expired we would appreciate if you would enter again via online. Thank you again for all your support each and every week.

CORK U20S GOING WELL

Three out of three is the tally of the Cork U20 hurlers in the Munster championship. After a victory on a woeful evening against Waterford in Fraher Field the Rebels came from behind to defeat Clare. Last week in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh after a close game Cork got the better of Limerick. They face Tipperary tomorrow (Friday night) in Semple’s Field in Thurles with Clare’s Niall Malone as referee for a half 7 start. A win would put Cork into the Munster final on May 24th. If Tipp win Cork would still probably get to the provincial semi-final on May 17th. Well done to our own Denis, Cillian and Ronan who are on the U20 panel. Last year Clare weren’t too anxious Limerick SuperValu Sunday to they come in Páirc the had ‘deep Uí Munster no Chaoimh. south’ such final qualms. to play Last in They in above a sickening came in Ennis. Leeside The finish having Rebels to Limerick had lost lost out to lot the was Decies at stake in on Walsh Sunday. Park When so a Cork reeled off 1-3 without reply they looked back on course and seemed set fair for a win. However, it just didn’t happen at all and in a hectic, crazy, zany second half Brian Lohan’s men came out on top by two points. Six weeks ago a Cork hurler declared that in Cork this year ‘we have two players for every position on the team’ - fighting talk surely! Now halfway through the Munster campaign nobody knows who’ll start the next game! An evening match by the banks of our own lovely Lee the evening before Bartlemy races is an attractive proposition - and, oh yes, we’re playing Limerick!

It will be a huge task but two years ago we had only two wins from four wins in Munster and qualified for the All-Ireland series. It can be done but nobody said it would be easy! It has been a difficult start to the year, between the weather and many cancellations getting any sort of consistency has been hard to manage. It’s been the same for all teams but heading to Carrigtwohill on Friday evening last week the U14s knew a big performance was needed to get our championship off to a good start.

In what proved to be a very close match a huge effort was put in by every single one of our lads. Carrigtwohill got on the scoreboard first with two early points. Fionn C got a goal which settled us. Fionn L added two points and Cormac got on the end of a great team move and finished to the net. Half-time Carrigtwohill 1-3 Bride Rovers 2-2.

Our backs had put in a huge effort and covered for each other excellently. Carrig goaled early in the second half but points from Ciaran Fionn C (2) and Fionn L kept us in front. Then Daniel finished a great team move with a well taken goal. That left us five points up with 10 minutes left. It was backs to the wall as Carrigtwohill attacked in waves but credit to the whole team who limited them to a point from play and a penalty with time practically up.

Team: Cathal M, Alex, Danny, Zack, Nathan, Cody, Cathal O’B, Evan, Ciaran, Sean H, Fionn L, Sean F, Liam, Fionn C, Cormac, Dominick, David, Sean O'L, Luke, Jack, David and Sam.

REBEL ÓG U14 DIVISION 1 FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Carrigtwohill 3-5 Bride Rovers 3-6 CLUB MEETING

The next Club Executive meeting is on Monday week, May 13th at 8.30pm in the clubroom.

FOOTBALL FÉILE (U15) THIS WEEKEND

Premier 1 Group B Venue: Rathcormac, Pitch One Pitch Two, 12 noon Bride Rovers v Kiltha Óg Youghal v Inniscarra. 12.45pm Youghal v Kiltha Óg Bride Rovers v Inniscarra. 13.30pm Bride Rovers v Youghal Kiltha Óg v Inniscarra. Group games are 12 minutes a side. Semi-finals/ final Monday, 6th May.

CORK LOSE TO CLARE

Well done lads. We now play Douglas on Monday, May 6th at 4 in Douglas, hurling.

MINOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Bride Rovers welcomed Killavullen to a sunny Páirc na Bride last Wednesday for a round of the Rebel Óg Minor Football League. Killavullen won the toss and opted to keep all the elements to their back in the first half. It was close and tight and after 15 minutes eight points had been kicked equally between both teams. Bride Rovers increased the tempo up to the short whistle, adding 1-3 to lead by 1-07 to 5 points at the break.

After resumption of play it was tit for tat for the first fifteen minutes but from there on the lads defended strongly and finished out the match with a well worked goal to leave the final score at Bride Rovers 2-11 Killavullen 0-08.

Match squad: David O'Connell, Ronan Barry, Cillian O'Sullivan, Gearoid O'Connell, Oran Kielty, Tomas O'Riordan, Sean Dowling, Cormac Barry, Luke Harrington, Conor O'Riordan, Thomas Hackett, Shane Prendergast, Darragh Delaney, Jack Lynch, Eanna Lyons, Gearoid O'Connell, Darragh O'Farrell, Rudi Nagifwtha, Jack Mannix.

STAMPS

Do you have old postage stamps torn off letters at home in a drawer or press or in a box somewhere? If you have no use for them the Dominican Missions in Pope’s Quay in Cork would be glad of them. Ring John at 087-9538077 to arrange collection.

PITCH PROGRESS

Great to see the progress with Pynes Pitch No 1 in Ballybrowney. The grass-cutting on a regular basis has commenced and the surface looks great. Regular cutting will continue for the foreseeable future and hopefully in a few months we’ll see matches played there.

SENIOR GAMES

On Sunday, May 5th we play Eire Óg in Ovens at 12noon in the Red FM SHL with Mark Maher of the Barrs on the whistle. On Saturday week we host South Liberties of Limerick for the 2024 renewal of the Tony Walsh Hurling Cup Tournament final. Cork and Limerick will meet that night in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the Munster SHC. The South Liberties lads - the club of JP McManus, will be coming to Cork for the match so they’ll play the tournament final en route - the probable starting time will be around 1 o’clock. Tony Walsh was one of the greatest Bride Rovers men of all time - both as a player, officer, selector and supporter. The tournament cup is a fitting memorial to Tony.

U13 HURLING V LAOIS

It was a great day for the Juvenile Club last Saturday with three boys representing our club in U13 hurling. The trio, Ciaran O’Donovan, Sean Finn and Cody Scanlan were on the Rebel Óg East panel v Laois.

UNDER 16 V ST COLMANS

The U16s played a strong St Colman’s outfit (Cloyne and Russell Rovers amalgamation) on Monday last in Pairc na Bhride. The Rovers’ boys were still smarting from their previous match where they had underperformed against Aghada and looked to make amends. They responded strongly with captain Denis Fitzgerald, leading the way from centre-back. In the first half, playing with the breeze, Bride Rovers had a majority of the possession and created numerous chances but despite this went in at half-time with a marginal advantage.

In the second half they lifted their game to another level against the breeze and put St Colman’s under a lot of pressure, still retaining the majority of possession. Colmans fought gamely until the end but the Rovers boys won it by a deserved 7 points. All told it was a strong team performance with everyone playing their part - the three goals came from Jack Lynch, Shane O’Dowd and Matthew Kenny. Final Score: Brider Rovers 3-12 St Colmans 2-8.

Panel: Calum Somers, Eoghan Buckley, Jamie Walsh, Donagh Hurley, Eanna Lyons, Denis Fitzgerald, Darragh O’Farrell, Cathal Barry, Garry Quirke, James Larkin, Shane O’Dowd, Matthew Kenny, Adam Kelleher, Jack Lynch, Con McCormack, Finn O’Driscoll and Mark Hynes.

BRIDE ROVERS CLUB SPONSORS

Rathcormac Tyres, Fermoy Print and Design, Gerard Gubbins Construction and Veolia.