It has been a sad seven days in our club with the passing of our great friend, colleague, supporter and sponsor John Mullins.  Tributes have flowed in from wide and far for John since the news broke last Monday of his sudden passing.  The esteem in which he was held was evident in the large crowds that attended both parts of his funeral ceremony and the number of people who paid tribute to an incredible man since his passing.

We would again  like to express our sincere sympathy to Siobhán, Michael & Sarah and extended family on the sudden and unexpected death of John.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with John's family at this time.  May he rest in peace.

At times like this, obviously match activity takes very much a back seat, but John himself would of course have relished days like yesterday when the Munster hurling championship got off to a cracking start.   Locally Castlemartyr have played two matches in the past ten days, with mixed results.  Here is a brief catch up summary.

- A one point loss on Saturday afternoon in Caherlag, in a game that the reds could certainly have won.  On reflection  a scoring drought during a period in each half was the downfall.  Leading by

 0-6 to 0-1 and looking comfortable after eleven minutes, a return of just one point in the next fifteen minutes proved costly as the interval scorebaord read all square at Castlemartyr 0-10 Erin's Own 1-7 - Barry Lawton and Billy McGann, having both scored 0-3.

After three quick fire points on the resumption, including two long rangers from Darragh Joyce,  the concession of 2-6 in the next eighteen minutes without response left us chasing the game at 3-13 to 0-13 behind. Sub Charlie O'Neill sparked renewed life into the attack with his 55th minute goal - Jack McGann's follow up deflected effort brought another green flag three minutes later and accelerated the comeback, but it just fell short. 

Overall,  like the Aghabollogue game a few weeks earlier the result could have been different. Despite defeat positives can be taken from really good passages of play.

The next game against Milford in Castlemartyr on Thursday week May 1st is one in which the reds will hopefully bounce back.

A rematch of last year's JAFC Final awaits on this Thursday evening for our footballers as they meet Carrigtwohill in the penultimate round of the Amarenco Divsion 1 league. Throw in at Paddy Walsh Memorial Park is at 7pm.   Eoin Coleman will be in charge here.

Castlemartyr go into the game on the back of a 1-13 to 0-7 win away to Youghal in their last match. After a close  first half, the reds took control early  in the second half with Eoghan Martin tallying with a quick fire 1-2 by the end of the third quarter.   Mike Kelly 0-4, Darragh Cashman 0-2, and 0-1 each from Daire Coughlan, Eoin Cashman, Bill McGann along with lively subs Charlie O'Neill and Cormac Lynch  contributed to the scoring.  Midfield second half dominance and excellent distribution by goalkeeper from Joe Stack were features of the win.

Carrigtwohill have been impressive so far in the  league, having won three of their four games - a run which included a six point success against Lisgoold last time out.  Hopefully our team can continue their own good run which has seen them record back to back successes in recent weeks.  An away  game against Midleton will complete the round robin fixture list early next month.

Our junior hurlers will return tot he playing fields on Tuesday of next week - making the short journey to Midleton to meet the locals at their new Park South venue- 7.30pm.  Midleton are currently flying high at the top of this division.

Congratulations to our own Finn Connaughton who recently lined out and scored for Cork in the Under 17 Celtic Challenge against Limerick.

The Munster senior hurling championship has already began like a blazing fire and it's hard to see things dampening down over the next few weeks..

  Here's wishing Ciarán and the Cork team all the best in Sunday's encounter against Tipperary. A win for either team would put them in  a strong position.