Bride Rovers win U-21 hurling title to deny Cloughduv near perfect season
Bride Rovers 1-14 Cloughduv 1-10
BRIDE Rovers made sure that Cloughduv wouldn’t round off the season, a hugely successful year for the club, with another title win by seeing off the north Cork side in the County U-21 A Hurling Final last Sunday afternoon at Pairc Uí Rinn.
After a historic week for the Cloughduv club, that saw their junior side claim Munster honours just seven days previous, Cloughduv sent their U-21 side into battle with no fewer than six of that adult team’s wining panel lining out for what would be a magnificent hurling double.
Bride Rovers on the other hand came into this one full of confidence however after going without a game together in all of eight weeks the east Cork side would have been forgiven for being a little bit rusty as they went in search of their own little piece of history.
Despite this being a third tier competition at this age group the quality and commitment on show from both sides was impressive throughout as all those charged with representing their club’s went at it right from the off.
Cloughduv played the first half with a strong wind to their backs however they were unable to pull clear of a dogged Bride Rover’s side that looked to be weathering the trials of a first 30 against the wind.
Rovers opened the scoring with less than 60 seconds on the clock thanks to a tasty score from centre forward Brian Roche however the north Cork side were back on terms two minutes later when Cloughduv talisman Brian Verling registered his first on four frees in the opening half.
The game had a good even flow to it early on with the sides showing parity on no fewer than four occasions in the first half. Rovers struck the first major blow on six minutes when Conleith Ryan snuck in to score the first three pointer of the game. Cloughduv responded well and with a quick point before Brian Verling bagged his side’s only goal to put his side into the lead for the first time on nine minutes.
The game settled into a tit-for-tat encounter after that with the sides trading scores regularly – however it was Cloughduv that would lead at the interval 1-6 to 1-5.
Cloughduv were always going to be up against it after failing to make the most of the strong breeze in the first half and while the wind did seem to abate somewhat in the second half the boys in green still had a hill to climb – that said, the sides continued to trade points all the way to the 53rd minute with 1-10 a piece showing on the giant scoreboard.
Despite the tightness of the game Bride Rovers were looking just that little bit more comfortable and a last five minute blitz saw them bag the last four points of the game to deservedly take the win – sparking great scenes and a full rendition of what I believe was their club song the “Bold Thady Quill”
Cloughduv’s players will take a break now for the Christmas festivities before getting back to the hard slog in preparation for one of the club’s most important days, an All Ireland Junior semi final. Still some great days ahead in the 2018 season for Cloughduv.
BRIDE ROVERS: B Hogan; J Mannix, S Walsh, M Quinn; P O’Flynn, G O’Keeney, R Prendergast; S O’Connor, E Roche; C Barry 0-7 (4f), B Roche 0-4, DJ Cahill; K Kearney, C Ryan 1-2, J O’Keeffe 0-1. Sub: C Hogan for J O’Keefe (53).
CLOUGHDUV: C O’Driscoll; P O’Leary, P Buckley, S Flanagan; J Murphy, E Clifford, B Hinchion; A Twomey, M Walsh; D Walsh, W Ronan, E Curzon; B Verling 1-6 (6f), J Ryan 0-3, J Kelleher 0-1. Subs: D Dulea for W Ronan (40), L Wall for S Flanagan (60).
REFEREE: J Murphy (Castletownroche)