David Hegarty targets county run after South West junior win

DAVID Hegarty annexed the 2024 South-West junior B crown with a bowl of odds victory over Alex O’Donovan at Ballygurteen.

Going for a €2,000 total, the Lyre man’s opening three were the finest, going past ‘Dullea’s house’ and holding a lead that bordered on a bowl of odds. He rose the shot in the next exchanges to the ‘women’s lane’ but form dipped and O’Donovan lost no time in closing the gap.

Hegarty’s slump continued and soon O’Donovan took the lead but, in an instant reawakening, he lined two brilliant shots to ‘O’Donovan’s corner’ to take control again. With a finishing surge in keeping with his opening salvo, Hegarty closed it out with another fine brace past the line at ‘Burke’s’ to win by the shot. He plays the City champion in the county rounds quarter-final at Ballyvourney.

In a good contest in the novice veteran section B play-off at Lyre, David Nixon overcame Brendan O’Sullivan, by a bowl, for €1,100 total. In South West U18 at Timoleague, Rossmore’s Cillian Twohig won from Cillian Harrington, Kilbrittain, and Eoin Fitzpatrick won from CJ O’Brien. The final was then at Shannonvale on Sunday morning and it was Cillian Twohig, an All-Ireland winner in U14 in 2020, who is the new champion, defeating Eoin by a bowl of odds. At Fisher’s Cross on Sunday evening, in novice A, Eoin McCarthy defeated Gary Lombard, last shot, for €800.

***

The first of the men’s intermediate quarter-finals went ahead at Newcestown on Sunday and through to the last four after an unexpectedly easy passage is City contender Wayne Callanan.

Bantry’s Tim Young was the opposition at the Mid Cork venue and it was a day when virtually nothing went right after a well-played second shot kicked off the play, resulting in a very short effort. Callanan was assured, lining big third and fourth shots to rise a bowl of odds. He showed his pace again with a smashing fifth to ‘Mac’s cross’ and when Young missed that mark in seven, two bowls separated them. Young tried hard with a big eighth on the rise to ‘Allen’s lane’, but Callanan beat that too to hold his odds; that exchange set the tempo for the remainder of the score. The City man countered the best Young could offer and, when a massive 15th to ‘O’Brien’s corner’ increased the odds, the contest was over.

In a second-round score at Firmount on Friday, Paul Buckley overcame Billy McAuliffe for an €800 total. The Mid Cork man advanced to a quarter-final meeting with Patrick Stokes at Conna. Andrew O’Callaghan v Wayne Parkes was rained off at Baile Bhuirne on Saturday.

***

In senior women’s action, Ciara Buckley and Maria Nagle braved the elements at Macroom on Saturday to fulfil their Group B senior championship fixture. It was a wonderfully competitive joust between the Mallow and Rosscarbery contenders with the lead changing on numerous occasions. Ciara just edged it in the last shot. Catriona Kidney and Hannah Sexton are also in this evenly-matched grouping.

***

The inter-regional rounds of the 2024 U18 boys’ championship promise a feast of lively encounters. Very much in keeping was the opening preliminary fixture between Carbery and City champions that took place at Ballinacurra, Upton. Shane Crowley, unlucky in his U16 bid last year, is the Carbery standard-bearer in the higher age-group, and he took on the City’s Anthony Crowley, a towering performer on Ból Chumann’s youths teams in Germany a few weeks back. They delivered a superb contest that ebbed and flowed to the final exchanges. The City champion’s narrow early lead was reeled in by his Carbery rival by the half-way point. Crowley edged away again amid a flurry of top-class exchanges and held a forty-metre lead for the last shots. In a dramatic finale, Schull-based Shane unleashed the proverbial ‘rocket’ and it won the day by 40 metres in spectacular style. The interest in this one was reflected in the €11,000 total stake the contest went for.

There was further Carbery success in the corresponding U14 tie between the regions played back in. Carbery’s Darragh Crowley trailed by a bowl to City’s Jay Quilligan after two shots but upped his game considerably and finished with five excellent shots to win by a bowl and advance to the quarter-finals. Big hurdles have been overcome but it is a tough road to county glory and next up for the Carbery champions is a meeting with North East’s rising talent that include Bernie McDonagh U18. In girls’ U18 Carbery’s Abbey Caverley made it a hat-trick of wins over City rivals with a hard-earned last shot win over Dilly Barry-Twohig.