Champs Valley Rovers off to strong start in Carrigdhoun

BY JJ HURLEY

THE Carrighdoun Junior Hurling A Championship contenders revealed their hand at the weekend as the divisional competition received its starter's orders.

Last year's champions, Valley Rovers look to be in no mood to relinquish their title following a demolition job of Courcey Rovers in Belgooly on Sunday afternoon.

Despite losing four players to the intermediate team's efforts on the previous day, the current holders of the Con Murphy trophy reached into their rich reserves, with Sean McEntee contributing a total of 1-8 (7f) to the final tally of 2-25 to Courcey Rovers’ 0-10.  Also proving a handful for the Courcey's defence was the Valley number 14, Darragh Looney, who contributed 1-4, including a sublime point in the second half.

Valley Rovers started the game with four unanswered points inside the first eight minutes; the Courcey Rovers’ reply arrived a minute later when Jack O'Callaghan opened his side's account.  Depending on Callaghan and Stan Russell for the first-half tally of five points, Valley's total of 1-11 came from several different scorers, with some exquisite passing right through the lines.

The second half was a carbon copy of the opening 30 minutes, as Courceys failed to make any headway with the advantage of the wind or playing into the scoring goal as they only added five points. The Valleys had no such difficulty as they raced on to install themselves as the favourites for the title following the comprehensive victory.

Two teams who may have a say in preventing a two-in-a-row for Valleys, Kinsale and Ballymartle, met earlier on Sunday morning in Shanbally.

The league champions, Kinsale, had to settle for a two-point defeat (1-20 to 0-21), having played much of the second half with 14 men following the dismissal of Fionn Ahern. In addition, the Seasiders had a penalty saved by Dan O'Leary, who has given up his outfield berth to take up the goal-keeping berth for the current season.

Kinsale selector Sean O'Callaghan admitted that Ballymartle's experienced campaigners, including goal-scorer Patrick Dwyer, had deserved the victory, but Kinsale's young guns had learned from the experience.

Also on a learning curve in their second term in the A championship are Belgooly, who beat Shamrocks by 2-23 to 0- 14 in Carrigaline on Saturday night. This game had been far closer, with Belgooly only leading by a single point at half-time, and one white flag had only separated them after 43 minutes.

However, Eoin O'Donovan stepped up to the plate and put some distance between the sides, landing an impressive 2-8 in the second half. Full credit to Shamrocks, who had battled over the hour led by Mark Hitchmough but the Lower Harbour team had no answer for Belgooly's last 17-minute blitz.

This weekend the competition continues on Sunday, August 13th, with Courcey Rovers facing Ballinhassig in Kinsale at 2pm, Belgooly v Ballygarvan in Minane Bridge at 3.30pm, and Ballymartle v Carrigaline in Shanbally at 7pm.