Clon Hurlers make it Five in a Row
On Sunday May 3rd, Clonakilty played their 5th Carbery Junior Division 1 Hurling League Match against Randal Og in Ballinacarriga. Weather conditions were good but the pitch was understandably quite wet in patches considering the level of recent rainfall.
The game was evenly balanced for the first 10 minutes. Randal opened the scoring with a point after 3 minutes before Chris Kenneally opened Clon’s account with a point followed immediately afterwards by a pointed free by Brian White. Randal scored 2 more points from play that sandwiched a lovely score by Oisin Hassett. Randal then equalised. James Campbell was playing very well and set up Chris for a goal chance that rattled the crossbar. Randal came down the field from the rebound and scored to lead by 4.3 after 12 minutes. Ciaran Crowley and Cian O Donovan were delivering some great ball to the forwards but Clon hit 4 wides in the next 5 minutes. Then Chris scored a cracking goal from a brilliant pass by David Lowney that was rather controversially ruled out by a local umpire who alleged that Chris had stepped over the end line when catching the ball. Clon responded to this setback by hitting 2 points, a free by Brian and one from play by Matt Murphy. 0.5 to 0.4 after 18 minutes. Shane Deasy and Eoin McCormack were keeping the Randal Og dangermen in the full forward line at bay and then great work by David set up Niall Barrett for a pointed score in the 23rd minute. Randal responded with 2 points to level proceedings after 27 minutes. Chris scored another point before Randal equalised. Clon dominated the rest of the half and Matt buried the ball into the back of the net after fantastic work by Oisin. David tagged on another point to leave the score at 1.8 to 0.7 at halftime in Clon’s favour.
Clon opened the scoring in the 2nd half courtesy of a fine pointed score by Brian set up by Cian. Randal got a free from a point soon after . Then Brian scored a free after the hardworking Fionn McCarthy was fouled before Matt scored again to open up a 6 point gap. Randal scored a point before Brian sent over another free. Randal then got a good goal to narrow the lead to 3 before Jack O Mahony struck a beauty of a point. Randal went on to score the next two points to leave just 2 between the sides at 1.13 to 1.11 after 44 minutes. Kieran Calnan and Gary Finn came on for Eoin and Fionn at this juncture and helped to settle things down once again for Clon who dominated proceedings for the next 10 minutes. Randal were fouling a lot now and Brian scored 4 frees after fouls on Niall, David, Matt and Jack in the following 5 minutes. The two Shanes combined to stop a goal chance for Randal and Cillian White continued his recent great form with some very good clearances, one straight to Niall who fed Matt who scored one of Clon’s best points of the day. 1.18 to 1.11 with 7 to go. Then Gary Finn intercepted a pass to set up Brian for a superb long range point. In the last few minutes, Shane Collins was called on to make some saves but couldn’t prevent a consolation goal from a free in the last minute. The final score was 1.19 to 2.12 to Clon. 5 wins from 5 games now and a wonderful start for the team and management group of Seamus, Liam, Brian and Sean along with Conan and Dr Fiona O’Reilly.
Team was:
S. Collins, S Deasy, C O’Donovan, E. McCormack, J. Campbell, C. Crowley, C. White, J. O’Mahony, N. Barrett, M. Murphy, B. White, D. Lowney, F. McCarthy, C. Kenneally, O. Hassett. Subs were: K. Calnan, G. Finn, D. Kenneally, M. Hernandez, C. Coakley.
Scorers were:
B. White 0.10 (2f), M. Murphy 1.3, C. Kenneally 0.2, O. Hassett, N. Barrett, D. Lowney, J. O’Mahony 0.1 each.
