The U14 Hurlers travelled to Portaferry early on Saturday morning in hope of ending a four-year drought of success. After a close encounter in their opening game it took an Oran Murney speculative shot from way out on the side-line from to ensure victory over Carryduff.
The blues next fixture was an hour away, giving Loughlin Duffy & Dermot Donnelly a chance to see a very strong and impressive Castlewellan sweep Ballyvarley and Carryduff to one side and end up with a very impressive score in doing so.
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa’s next opponents were Ballyvarley. It was some inspirational point scoring from the young Ruairí McIntyre and a goal apiece from Alfie McDonald and Oran Murney that enabled the blues to establish a healthy lead which proved to be sufficient as Ballyvarleys two late goals were just not enough to snatch victory from the ‘point side. Both Castlewellan & Cumann Pheadaír Naofa had won both their opening matches which sent them through to the final and decide which of them would go on to represent their county at National Féile in June.
Having seen how dangerous Castlewellan could be, Warrenpoints midfielders Darragh Austin and Tiarnan Kelly along with Matthew Duffy, James Sweeney and Mark Campbell effectively shut out their opposition limiting the powerful solo runs and long striking that had reaped benefits for Castlewellan earlier that day. With the forwards Tiernan Burns, Ruairí McIntyre and Oran Murney having free of the Castlewellan half back line. Conaire McMahon opened the blues account when he was quickest to react to a loose sliotar on the edge of the square and smash it to the net and when McIntyre pointed an absolute beauty of a free it seemed to lift everyone spirits in self believe. Two further points from the fantastic midfielder Kelly and McIntyre were quickly followed by another McMahon goal as Castlewellan were limited to a single point for the opening half of the game.
The sides quickly swapped ends and having established an eight-point lead Cumann Pheadaír Naofa knew that Castlewellan would be going all out to reserve the deficit. But when Murney knocked over two points it looked as though Castlewellan’s hope of victory were starting to diminish very quickly. It was with tremendous shouts of joy and elation that the players parents greeted the final whistle and see captain Tiarnan Kelly receive the winners’ plaque and in doing so see the club win only it’s third title in this competition. Overall this was a superb combined team effort with everyone in a blue jersey putting in a man of the match performance.
U14 Manager Loughlin Duffy and Dermot Donnelly were rightly proud of the team effort everyone put in and are eagerly looking forward to heading to Craughwell, Co. Galway on 8th June for National Féile na nGael.
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa: – J Donnelly, S Crawford, M Campbell, J Sweeney, M Campbell, M Duffy, O Ruane, T Kelly, D Austin, R McIntyre, T Burns, O Murney, C McMahon, A McDonald, T Vorobjov
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 1-3 Carryduff 1-1
(scorers: Tiarnan Kelly 0-2, Oran Murney 1-1)
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 2-5 Ballyvarley 2-1
(scorers: Darragh Austin 0-1, Oran Murney 1-1, Alfie McDonald 1-0, Ruairí McIntyre 0-3)
Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 2-5 Castlewellan 0-1
(scorers: Tiarnan Kelly 0-1, Conaire McMahon 2-0, Oran Murney 0-2, Ruairí McIntyre 0-2)
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