FOR those hard-wired into completing summer championships within deadlines and in time for All-Irelands, the prospect of five more added and all to be played during the holiday month of August looked, on paper, an almost impossible task.
The passing of the motion in February 2022 to run inter-regional rounds from preliminaries to finals in all four novice grades as well as junior C entailed a 42-score series within a very narrow timeframe. Yet, for the third year running Richie Fitzgerald and his trusty fixtures team have through a combination of persuasion, tact, an ultimatum or two and a good modicum of commonsense worked their way through the rounds to the deciding stages in all five grades.
Much of the action has been compelling with lower novice especially generating a level of interest in the regions that seemed unimaginable. Last week and weekend were the epitome with no less than 11 quarter and semi-finals down for decision all attracting crowds and stake-money too that is usually only the preserve of higher ranked grades.
On Saturday evening at Caheragh, the meeting of Mid Cork’s Trevor O’Sullivan and West Cork’s Kieran Hourihane in the semi-final round of the junior C championship had two strong contenders for outright honours in opposition. For a €6,100 total, they showed their paces in a terrific score that had both men at the front and looking good at different stages, with Bantry man Hourihane losing out to O’Sullivan, who will joust now with Alan O’Leary at Courtmacsherry for the county title. The second junior C semi-final that took place at City venue, Curraheen, on Sunday evening proved a disappointment for the South-West camp as Vincent Cahalane never got going against O’Leary. They played for a €15,400 total.
Saturday saw progress and elimination in equal measure for likely contenders in novice B both on the cusp of winning runs. Ballygurteen had a semi between West Cork’s Brian Horgan and Mid’s Kevin O’Cruolaoi, both with very legitimate aspirations to county honours. Before another packed road and for a €14,000 total, it was Horgan who showed his paces on the straight and a riveting novice B final now awaits between Horgan and David Crowley, Ballinagree, the North Cork champion.
Up in Newcestown on Saturday at noon, Gaeltacht’s Garoid Lucey put himself in the frame for county novice C honours. Facing the hard-beaten Drinagh man Daniel Hayes for a €3,100 total, Lucey took advantage of an early slip by the Drinagh man to rise a bowl of odds at ‘O’Brien’s cross’ as they played out from the village. It was Lucey’s turn to lapse then but Hayes, whose form on the day was not quite at the level that brought him a string of wins through West Cork’s regional championship and early county rounds, could not close the gap enough to come in front. The end result was that the Gaeltacht champion pulled away again and won by two. Lucey will not be able to afford any mistakes when he takes on North East’s Jamie McDonagh in the county final. That score is fixed for the North Cork venue, Firmount. McDonagh prevailed in his semi-final at The Bog Road against North Cork’s hot favourite Liam McCarthy.
Novice D has proven a crowd-puller and none more so than Lyre where a county semi-final clash of Colm O’Regan of Belgooly, Mid Cork’s all-conquering champion, and Kieran O’Driscoll just out of underage ranks but impressing hugely in adult grades when winning a sizable West Cork championship. A packed road saw a €23,000 total stake accumulated between the pair as O’Regan came from behind to march with confidence to the county final meeting with North Cork’s Martin McSweeney at Grenagh.
In novice A, Gaeltacht’s Liam Murphy is going great guns. At Castletownkenneigh on Friday, for a €1,500 total, he put the brakes on Pat Daly’s winning run. Murphy was in control for most of the contest and a two-bowl margin at the ‘netting’ proved too much for West Cork champion to overhaul. Murphy’s county final clash for the novice A championship will take place at Beal na Morrive in the North Cork division.
South West finally broke their duck at Clondrohid. They had gone down in each of the four novice grade county scores to North Cork opposition before junior C champion Vincent Cahalan beat Olan Noonan in a quarter-final to book a semi-final meeting with North East’s Alan O’Leary. The stake money at Clondrohid amounted to €6,900.
O’Leary, a county winner in the grade as recently as 2020 when he defeated Conor Creedon at Kilcorney, defeated Carbery’s Denis O’Sullivan in their quarter-final at Beál na Bláth. He was on the backfoot for all the early exchanges as O’Sullivan sought to make a breakaway. Good fourth and fifth shots yielded a 50-metre lead, and it might have been had a better run materialised with his sixth. O’Leary upped it with a massive sixth of his own and it was good enough for a first lead. It would herald a period of dominance then for the North East champion as a big cast to ‘Dan Joe’s lane’ gave him substantial odds for the last quarter. O’Sullivan rallied with excellent ninth and tenth efforts to regain the lead but once again lost control when O’Leary’s 14th went for the line. There was no comeback a third time for the Carbery man and O’Leary took the verdict by a big for bowl.
Another eagerly awaited shoot-out was the meeting of City’s Anthony Crowley and North Cork’s Conor Lucey in the county novice A semi-final. Carrignavar were hosts and it was a duel that lived up to its billing in terms of closeness and excitement, as Crowley advanced and plays Liam Murphy in the county novice A final.
