Our Senior Ladies travelled to Ballykinlar for their first ever 7s tournament took place yesterday at Ballykinlar GAC in Memorial Park. The McCloskey Cup had been donated for this tournament by Paula Gibney, one of Ballykinlars senior ladies in memory of Fiona’s daughter Niamh, who passed away at the young age of 14 years old just 6 weeks after being diagnosed with a rare brain disease called Moyamoya.
Upon arriving in Ballykinlar our Ladies were welcomed to a cleary well organised carnival atmosphere with seven teams arriving at the same time from Derry, Antrim and Down to battle it out for the cup and a shield and, as anyone who was at the tournament will tell you, what a battle it was! The teams were split into two groups of four, with the top two teams in each group going into the cup and the others into the shield.
The Warrenpoint girls were grouped with Saul, Faughanvale and Teconnaught. The girls made an amazing start to the round robin stages winning their opening game vs Saul having been beaten and drawn with then earlier in the season, They were unfortunate not to beat Teconnaught to finish top of their group as they had the capability to do it, but after a slow start managed to have the resilience and determination to come back to draw the game at the end! This draw meant the girls ended up in a two way tie to who would progress to the Cup Semis, a huge points difference say the Ladies finish top with 49 points scored in three games.
Faughanvale were unbeaten which put them straight into the Cup while Saul and Teconnaught finished up in the shield.
The draws for the semi-finals were made and Tullylish played Faughanvale with Our Ladies taking on Limavady Wolfhounds in the cup. Faughanvale won their game and after a hard fought victory against a tough Limavady Wolfhounds side out Senior Ladies marched into their first ever final!
Faughanvale were formidable opponents having met our ladies in the round robin and narrowly beating the Warrenpoint side by 2 points. Neither team held anything back and it was a great match between them but Faughanvale remained unbeaten and were the first winners of The McCloskey Cup!
Congratulations to both Faughanvale and Teconnaught who were both great opponents and deserved the silverware on the day. We would like to wish Meabh O’Hare a speedy recovery and like to thank Ballykinlar for their hospitality and for inviting us as our Seniors Ladies thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to coming back next year.
Next up for the senior ladies is a Sevens Tournament hosted by the Limavady Wolfhounds club at the end of the month.
