Fantastic comeback by U15 Hurlers

U15 A Grade Hurling League

Castlelyons 3-13, Nemo Rangers 3-11

Last Wednesday night in Castlelyons our U15 Hurlers took on Nemo Rangers in the Eastern A Grade Hurling League. On a warm but breezy night Castlelyons lads performed a proverbial Lazarus transformation when they clawed back a huge deficit the second half to record a thrilling victory.

More noted for their football skills this U15 Nemo Rangers outfit were a big physical team with some fine hurlers in their midst.  Playing with the strong breeze in the first half Nemo made the most of this advantage as they got some fine scores.  Castlelyons lads tried hard but found it hard to contain the Nemo forwards. Nemo went on to score 3 goals and 8 points in this first half to race into a huge lead. Castlelyons forwards were living on scraps in this half but scored 4 extremely valuable points.  These scores came from Mark Spillane (2) Barry Murphy (1) and Conor McCarthy (1).  However, Nemo lead by 13 points at half time, a massive lead, and things certainly did not look good for Castlelyons.

The Castlelyons mentors make a few positional changes at half time in an effort to curtail the Nemo dominance. However, Nemo scored first in this half to put them 14 points ahead on the scoreboard and were looking home and hosed at this stage. Castlelyons lads were not to be outdone and began to fight for scraps and win the dirty ball in many places.  They improved all over the field and with it came a fantastic fight back. Our defence got much tighter in this half and our work-rate improved in all sectors. This resulted in a more plentiful supply of ball going into the forwards who slowly but surely began reeling off some fine scores and eating into the Nemo lead.

Nemo never gave up and battled toe to toe with Castlelyons for long periods of the second half. Castlelyons lads demonstrated great battling qualities in this half but it was their hurling skills that eventually got the upper hand of Nemo. With four minutes remaining Castlelyons drew level and from here on there was only ever going to be one winner. Castlelyons scored 3-9 in this half with the goals coming from Barry Murphy (2) and Conor McCarthy (1) while the points came from Barry Murphy (4) Seamus Moroney (3) and Mark Spillane (2). So a wonderful second half of class hurling from all of the Castlelyons players saw them claw back a 13 point Nemo lead to record one of their best victories of the year.

Team: -  John Paul Murphy, Thomas Gunther Quinn, Redmond Walsh, Michael Buckley, Peter Roche, Seamus Moroney, James McCarthy, Ian Riordan, Pearse Varner, David Morrison, Barry Murphy, Conor McCarthy, Shane Flynn, Mark Spillane , Brian O Mahony, Eoin O Neill and Seamus Morrison.

U 14 Hurling Championship

On Tuesday evening our U14 hurlers travelled to Grenagh to play them in the quarter final of the championship. Both teams were fairly evenly matched in the first half and our lads lead at half time on a score line of 2-3 to 1-3. We played far better in the second half and came out convincing winners on a final score of 4-9 to 2-7. Well done to all our players who all played exceptional hurling.

Scorers: - David Morrison 2-5, Seamus Morrison 1-1, Leon Doocey 1-0, Kevin McCarthy 0-1, Jack Kenny 0-1, Shane Cotter 0 -1.

Panel: -  Gavin O Neill, Peter Hegarty, Eoin O Neill, Peter Roche, Conor McCarthy, Jack Kenny, James Kearney, Kevin McCarthy, David Morrison, Shane Cotter, Shane Flynn, Leon Doocey, Seamus Morrison, Declan Morrison, Richard Morrison, Ian Gunther Quinn and Stephen Casey.

Congratulations

Congrats to Colm Barry, Colm Spillane and Anthony Spillane who won the Intermediate All Ireland with Cork against Wexford on Saturday last in Nowlan Park.

Fixtures

U14 HL v Shamrocks at Ringaskiddy on this Thursday 14.8.14 (Time TBA)

Main Sponsors SuperValu Fermoy.