Castlelyons Notes (8th Oct)
- Oct 08,2024
Seniors Go Out Fighting
Last Sunday was a disappointing day on the huring front as both our adult teams left the championship. Our Junior hurlers lost out to Fr. O’Neills in the East Cork Final and then our Senior hurlers lost out to Glen Rovers by 2 goals in their County Semi-final that evening. It wasn’t meant to be our day and that is how sport goes sometimes. You get the highs and the lows. The Senior game was postponed 24 hours due to the Orange weather alert but that didn’t stop either team from coming out of the stalls quickly and both teams put on a great spectacle for the neutral eye. Glen Rovers took the early lead going into a 2point lead. Points from Alan Fenton and Leon Doocey helped reduce their lead and when Anthony Spillane fired the ball into the net after 9 minutes to send our supporters in raptures. 1-02 to 0-03 and the game heating up. Glen Rovers slipped into gear then and showed their danger in attack, a high ball slipped through our defence and landed to Patrick Horgan who fired past Jack Barry. We then suffered a big blow as Colm Barry limped off with a knee injury. Glen Rovers smelt blood and when their corner forward broke through our defence and headed for goal, Colm Spillane brought him down in the square and Hoggie buried the penalty to go 2-06 to 1-03 in front. Castlelyons didn’t lie down and began a fight back. Points from Anthony Spillane and Alan Fenton reduced the Glen lead only for disaster to strike again. Niall O’Leary, while surging forward with the ball only to be given an unmerciful shoulder into the head by his Cork teammate Rob Downey. I appreciate this may be a biased account of the game but Downey should have seen red for such a dangerous tackle. Thankfully, Niall was able to walk off the pitch after a few worrying minutes on the ground. This loss emboldened the team and to their immense credit we clawed back the deficit to 4 before the break. Leon Doocey had a huge chance for a goal before the short whistle, but the Glen keeper made a fine save to his right to deny us a 2nd goal. We gave everything we had in the second half and played some excellent hurling as we reduced the Northsider’s lead. James Kearney scoring a brilliant point as he burst through the middle for one and Alan Fenton being deadly on the frees. The Glen were rattled as we moved into a 1 point lead after 51 mins but this was as good as it was to get for us. Glen Rovers scored a decisive goal soon after and added on 4 more points to leave a 6 point gap at the full time whistle. 3-16 to 1-16. Pure disappointment when the game was over. The lads gave everything on the field and can keep their heads high after this fine performance. We showed that we are more than capable of competing at this higher level. The sacrifice that all the lads have shown over the last 2 years and to get Catslelyons back playing senior hurling has been immense. We have had guys travelling home from Dubai and Boston to be a part of this group. A big thank you to the management team of Noel Furlong, Brendan Hoare, John Healy and Mike Spillane for all the work that they put in throughout the year. It’s no easy task getting a team ready for Senior championship. We look forward again to next year and another crack off the Senior A Championship.
CASTLELYONS: J Barry; O Hallihan, C Barry, L Sexton; A O’Sullivan, N O’Leary, C Spillane (c); A Fenton, J Kearney; E Maye, L Doocey, K O’Leary; D Morrison, A Spillane, B Murphy.
Subs: D Spillane for C Barry (12 inj), J O’Leary for N O’Leary (23 inj), C McCarthy for Murphy (36), B Spillane for K O’Leary (57).
Castlelyons: A Fenton 0-9 (0-6 f, 0-1 65), A Spillane 1-3, J Kearney, L Doocey, C Spillane, C McCarthy 0-1 each.
Final Heartbreak for Junior Bs
We travelled to Caherlag on Sunday morning to take on a fancied Fr. O’Neill’s team in the East Cork Junior B Hurling Championship final. We were looking for our first win at this grade since 1991 and hopes were high. After a tough hour of hurling Castlelyons came up just short as we lost by 5 points to a young O’Neill’s who dropped down from Junior A last year. The first half started off as an even affair with both teams playing free flowing and attacking hurling. Shane Moroney, playing while on leave from duty in Lebanon with our brave soldiers, opened the scoring with a huge point from midfield. It was score for score in the 15 minutes. Fr. O’Neill’s had some dangerous and quick forwards but our defence was able to keep them at bay. Matthew Rosner and Shane Flynn both doing well. Scores from Peter Roche, Brian O’Donovan and Darran Tobin pushed us 0-08 to 0-06 in front and we were playing some of our best hurling all year. The turning point of the game came about 20 minutes in as O’Neill’s scored 2 goals within 5 minutes to go 2 points in the lead. Castlelyons finished the half stronger as we cut the deficit to 2 with fine scores from Shane Cotter and again by Shane Moroney. The 2nd half was a tighter affair and scores were harder to come by. Fr. O’Neill’s seemed to come by them a small bit easier. We managed to reduce the deficit to 1 point after 40 minutes with Colm O’Neill and Brian O’Donovan both splitting the posts. This was as close as we managed to get as the Ladysbridge/Ballymacoda outfit scored 3 points in a row to extend their lead to 5 As time was running out we went searching for a goal but the O’Neill’s defence stayed strong. We couldn’t find a breakthrough even as substitute Cees Kouwenburg did his best to force the matter but hewas fouled as he bore down on goal. Fr. O’Neill’s scored the last 2 points of the game to leave it 2-17 to 0-18 at the final whistle. Hugely disappointing result when we know this is a game we could have won. Well done to Fr. O’Neill’s. Thanks to the management team of Chris Cotter, Will Daly, Daithí Whelan, Ian Barry and Mark Spillane for all the work they did with the lads throughout the year. We will go again next year.
Team: G O’Neill, Oisin Morrison, L Moroney, M Rosner, S Flynn (0-02), C McCarthy, S Moroney (0-02), Colm O’Neill (0-01), P Roche (0-02), B O’Donovan (0-7, 0-05f), R Fenton, D Tobin (0-01), S Cotter (0-02), C McGann, J Cremin.
Subs: C Kowenburg for J Cremin 36 mins, E Barry for O Morrison 40 mins, R Feeney for C McGann 50 mins
U12s Win 9 Goal Thriller
Our u12s finished the year on a high last Thursday night after winning the Paddy Sheehan Cup under lights in Ballynoe v St Catherine's.
Playing against a strong wind in the 1st half our Backs and Goalkeeper,Josh Kinnane (Captain on the night) stood up against strong pressure from the home team. We went in at halftime 3-05 to 5 points down, but Hurling well.
After a few changes at halftime, the boys started the 2nd half on top, scoring goals from Cìan ×2 and Christopher. We were a point down with a few minutes left but 2 goals for Rìan and Cìan gave us the victory on a score of 5:9 to 4:7.
Thanks to the St Catherine's mentors for inviting us down to play and for the refreshments afterwards. A brilliant sporting game played by both teams.
Lotto
Numbers drawn on the 7thOctober were 7, 11, 16 and 26. There was no winner of the Jackpot. Next week’s Jackpot is €20,000. Make sure to buy your ticket to be in with a chance to win. Lucky Dip winners were Noreen Clancy, LNAP Hegarty, Billy O’Sullivan, Cathal O’Doherty, Kaye Moroney, Luke Healy, Johnny Joyce and Ita Ryan. The next draw will take place Monday 14th October at 8.00pm in the Community Centre.
Votes Of Sympathy
We extend our condolences to the Shanahan family on the passing of Con. May he rest in peace.
Sponsor
Thanks to our sponsors East Cork Oil for their continued support.
