Battles to earn places in All-Ireland series 2 are hotting up

WITH the dust barely settled on Castletownkenneigh, the focus now is firmly on Eglish on August bank holiday weekend. The Tyrone village, whose progressive club is a vital cog in Ból Chumann Uladh’s structure, will for the second year host All-Ireland finals weekend series 2. 

The undoubted highlight will be the senior men’s decider on Sunday afternoon. As we stand, Martin Coppinger and Brian Wilmot on the Cork side and Thomas Mackle, defending champion and going for three-in-a-row, and Colm Rafferty remain in contention. 

Eglish has a seven-final programme with junior B and veteran men and ladies intermediate finals also in the adult grades while youth will have its fling in boys and girls’ U16 play-offs along with another in boys’ U12. 

Aside from the senior championship semi-final at Ballinagree, it was a week full of qualifiers, as inter-regional rounds brought selected grades down to final play-offs in many instances. Another big clash looms when the county junior B final is to be decided. Semi-finals at Ballinacurra and Clondrohid have left Conor Creedon and Willie O’Donnell the last two standing. Creedon prevailed over North Cork’s David Hubbard at the mid Cork venue, while at Clondrohid. Willie O’Donnell from the North East division inflicted the most agonising of defeats on South West’s David Hegarty, taking his only lead with his final cast after the Lyre man dominated virtually throughout. So it's Creedon v O’Donnell for the 2024 county junior B championship this Saturday at Firmount at 2.30pm.

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The novice veteran county championship for 2024 has gone to East Cork after Padraigh O’Brien from Castlelyons, the East Cork representative crowned a great campaign with the slimmest of victories over strong City challenger Declan O’Leary at Bweeng on Friday evening. It’s a North East-East Cork play-off now with junior champion Andrew O’Leary the favourite when they meet at Whitechurch. The winner will vie for veteran All-Ireland honours at Eglish. 

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The second women’s intermediate semi-final went ahead at Beál na mBláth on Friday and it resulted in another championship victory for Ellen Sexton as she seeks a season double having claimed All-Ireland U18 last week. Juliette Murphy made a good score of it for the first five before Ellen opened up to rise a bowl of odds approaching ‘Bradfield’s cross’. Murphy tried hard in the ensuing exchanges, but the young Timoleague exponent matched everything. It’s up to Hannah Cronin now, a finalist with fierce competitive instincts, to halt Ellen’s run in this week’s decider.    

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The boys U16 county rounds are nearing completion. Gaeltacht’s Ross O’Brien is on course for a double. The All-Ireland U14 champion was a clear quarter-final winner over Mid Cork’s Rhys Murphy at Kilcorney. O’Brien pitches up now against West Cork’s Daniel O’Sullivan in the semi-final. A quarter-final at Beál na mBláth saw North East’s Gerald McDonagh win from Conor Crowley (Carbery). McDonagh led by a shot approaching the finish before Crowley’s monstrous last brought it very close. North Cork’s Culann Bourke was next up for McDonagh. Their semi-final clash at Grenagh on Saturday had an anti-climactic finish when McDonagh suffered an injury and was forced to concede. U14 finalist Bourke, who along with Ross O’Brien made a seamless transfer to the 28oz for the older grade, led early but it was a close contest when matters were unexpectedly terminated.

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The girls’ U16 county rounds had worthy contenders from all nine divisions. A highly competitive series has seen some superb contests none more so than at Clondrohid last week when Laura Sexton, a winner of the grade two years ago, just about saw off the challenge of North Cork’s Jena Healy, who won at U14 last year. The lead changed on numerous occasions before Laura prevailed in the closing stages. Laura plays Carbery’s Maebh Cuinnea in the semi-final. Maebh and North East’s Abbie McDonald had a good joust at Beál na mBláth with little separating them early on. Maebh upped the ante over the second half of the score and won by two. On the other side, defending All-Ireland champion Emma Hurley, representing West Cork, and Gaeltacht’s Darcey O’Brien battled out an exciting semi-final at Beál na mBláth. Again, Emma’s finishing prowess was decisive as she edged ahead after an even start. The boys’ U12 final was pencilled in for The Inch road Dunmanway on Tuesday as Gaeltacht’s Eoghan Kelly took on South West’s Fionan Twohig.