Castlelyons defeat Youghal to qualify for East Cork U21 “A” Hurling Final.

Castlelyons 5-19 Youghal 0-14

We played Youghal on Sunday evening in the semi-final of the East Cork U21 “A” hurling championship in a well prepared Ballynoe pitch.  Mike Walsh was the Reitóir a no nonsense man who throws in the ball, gets out of the way, and lets em at it. The game started off at a high tempo and Barry Murphy was wide for us as were Aidan Joyce and Ollie Dempsey (both men with a lot of senior experience) for Youghal.  It was a point apiece coming up to the five-minute mark as Anto had tacked on one for us.  Then John Paul Murphy in goal sent out a great ball to Brian O Donovan he moved the sliotar fast to Anto Spillane.  Anto showed lighting pace as he cut through the Youghal defence and crashed a pile driver to the net.  Shortly after Brian O Donovan was involved again as he laid off well to Keith O Leary who delivered fast to Barry Murphy and once this lad gets the ball in hand and a run he is hard to stop and he scored another goal.

We traded points and when a ’65 hopped in the square and Barry Murphy finished to the net for his second goal we were on our way.  We were really watching the Murphy Show when Barry caught well, turned and showed fast fibres on a 50 yards run before crashing his third goal to the net.  Keith O Leary made a high catch and with a similar run finished to the net to leave the half time score Castlelyons 5-7 to Youghal’s 0 - 4.

Youghal did up the tempo a bit in the second half but there was no way through as Declan Varner, the O Leary twins and Colm O Neill ruled the roust in the back line.  Shane Fenton and Redmond Walsh did well also.  Brian O Donovan had some great touches and is improving as the year progresses.  Ronan Bransfield was on top all through at midfield and threw over 0-3 in a row in the second half.  Shane Moroney kept beavering away at centre forward to great effect as did David Beausang in the corner and Ml Geary keeps improving all the time.  Jack Barry declared fit before the game came on in the second half as did you Mark Spillane and had their moments.  John Paul Murphy in goal had a great hour in his first U21 championship as he fetched well and found colleagues when clearing the ball.

Youghal had good players in Aidan Joyce, Conor Hennessey, Darragh O Connell and the Cody brothers Ryan and Leon and county U21 panellist Ollie Dempsey.  Many of these players have senior experience and one would have expected a bigger test for Castlelyons.  There is no doubt we have a lot of cracking hurlers and we should rattle it in the final against Erin’s Own but we’ll talk about that another day.  Well done to the lads and also to our management outfit of Mark, Flynn, Michael Spillane, Ronan Fenton and Mark Murphy.

Team: - John Paul Murphy, Shane Fenton, Declan Varner, Redmond Walsh, Colm O Neill, Niall O Leary, Jamie O Leary, Brian O Donovan, Ronan Bransfield, Keith O Leary, Shane Moroney, Michael Geary, David Beausang, Anthony Spillane, Barry Murphy. 

Subs: - Jack Barry, Mark Henley, Seamus Moroney, Mark Spillane, Jack Buckley and Andrew O Neill. 

Scores: - Anthony Spillane 1-8, Barry Murphy 3-0, Keith O Leary 1-2, Ronan Bransfield 0-3, S Moroney, KJ O Leary, N O Leary, Ml Geary, D Beausang, A O Neill 0-1 each

Cork GAA Clubs Draw.

Congratulations to Clem and Daniel Carroll who have a ticket in the Cork GAA Clubs Draw and shared €500 as they took tenth prize.  Congrats also to Maurice Barry who won €150.  The Cork GAA Clubs Draw has been lucky for Castlelyons over the years as we have won so many valuable prizes including cars, holidays and iPads and money. It’s well worth a punt of €100 for twelve monthly Draws. 

An interesting week for Cork Hurling and our Lads.

Well we were saying last week that it was an important one for Cork for hurling.  Sure enough it came as it went in a very tame manner.  On Tuesday evening Our U21 hurlers were never in it against Limerick although two late goals took a bad look off the scoreboard.  We did have a couple of players who done well including our own Anthony Spillane.   We were out hurled and ran out of ideas even the “fear ag scuabadh” didn’t work so wouldn’t it be great if we scrubbed the brush and used the hurleys to move the ball fast as the ball was so slow coming into the full forward line.

On Thursday we played Tipperary in the minor hurling semi-final.  Again it was like the Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations” good reading beforehand but it did not match reality on the day.  The Rebel Óg Squads and all new type training introduced over five years ago does not seem to be working as Tipperary with big strong lads hurling with free spirit won comprehensively.  Again our own Niall O Leary did very well and cleared an amount of ball especially in the first half and had a good hour overall.

On Saturday evening the seniors played Dublin in a winner take all.  Cork supporters who must be the best and turned Páirc Uí Rinn into an Old Trafford like set up with a sea of red and white around the stadium.  The support did matter as Dublin levelled it in the 66^th minute pushed on for victory but this time the “fear ag scuabadh”, Conor O Sullivan, did very well as he was the extra man when Dublin were reduced to 14 and Cork struck over the last few points to move along the qualifiers.  Here again our own Colm Spillane except for that terrible cruciate injury he received earlier in the year would surely have played a part in this game and we would have had an involvement in all three games.

Finally, on Sunday the Cork minor footballers were defeated by Kerry in the minor final in Killarney.  This was a very good display by Cork and they still have a chance later.  I believe there are a few good footballers among the hurlers who are now available and would add real strength to the panel and so hopefully something can be salvaged here.  We did not have any one from Castlelyons on this team and I believe the great Timmy McCarthy was our last representative on a county minor football team some years ago now.

Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship.

Many of our players are on down time after the great win over Courceys as they have headed for the States and the sun so, hopefully, with all the sea, sand, sun and things like that all will be well rested for the championship in a few weeks.  We drew Ballinhassig in Round 3 at last night’s draws.  Ballinhassig are a teak tough outfit and took us a little too easy last year in Pairc Uí Rinn.  They are the bookies favourites to win it out this year but I think we will have a strong say as we have improved.  We have a nice blend of players who are capable of doing the business too.  In order to do this there will have to be maximum commitment on and off the field and the best of luck to our management outfit in preparing the team for one hell of a battle in a few weeks’ time

Minors Hurlers in action this Thursday evening.

Our minor hurlers are in action on this Thursday evening in the Rebel Óg East Under 18 A Minor Hurling Championship as they take on St Vincent’s at home in their own back yard in the St Vincent’s Grounds at 7.30 pm.  We are presently lying fourth in the league on six points as we had three wins from four starts.  However, Vincent’s are bottom with no win from four starts.  They have a handy forward in Jason Galvin who will need a bit of watching and it is championship.  Of course, we are down Alex Henley though injury, Pierse Varner and Keith O Leary are on holidays but with the likes of Jamie, Niall O Leary and Barry Murphy we should have enough in the tank to take Vincent’s if we work hard.  Best of luck to the lads and their mentors.     

" style="text-decoration:underline;color:#336633">Castlelyons GAA - Weekly Lotto Draw - 4.7.16.   

This week’s Lotto Draw was held in the Community Centre.  The numbers drawn were 2, 5, 7 and 30.  There was no winner.  There were eight Lucky Dip winners of €20 each as follows: Kevin Daly; Maureen Spillane; Ellen Cremin; Con Lawlor; Noreen Spillane; James Bermingham; John Murphy; Martina Minihane. 

The next draw will be held on Monday 11.7.16 in the Abbey Tavern at 9.30 pm.

Our Jackpot is now €2,400 .

You can purchase tickets Online or at the usual outlets.  Thanks for your support.

Votes of Sympathy.

At our last Club Meeting votes of sympathy were extended to the McCarthy, Healy, Galligan families on recent bereavements. Solas na bhFlaitheas ar a nainmeacha go léir.

Castlelyons Main Sponsor: ZEUS Packaging Group