BRENDAN KENNEALLY keeps us up to date with the Mid Cork junior hurling championship
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NEIGHBOURS Ballinora and Ballincollig have qualified for the MJK Oils Mid Cork junior hurling final after each recorded narrow and hard-earned two-point victories in their semi-final clashes over Grenagh and Inniscarra respectively. The Muskerry decider will be played at Ovens on Sunday, October 20th at 6pm.
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Ballinora 0-14
Grenagh 0-12
Ballinora, Mid Cork champions for the past three seasons, are through to another junior hurling final, as four late points turning impending defeat into a rather sensational victory in a semi-final at a wind-blown and very wet Ovens.
Ballinora, pushed to the pin of their collars by Donoughmore in the quarter-final and now barely surviving the Grenagh challenge, will certainly be battle hardened for the final but whether they are improving or not remains a matter of conjecture.
The opening quarter saw Grenagh get off to a lightning start with two points in as many minutes. They led by 0-4 to 0-1 after eight minutes with ace marksman David Coleman firing over three points and Dan Twomey following up with one from play.
Then Ballinora had a good spell – Alan O’Shea, Tommy Burns and Shane Kingston scores brought the sides level before Grenagh hit the front again with two points from a sparkling Dan Twomey to lead by 0-6 to 0-4 at the end of the quarter.
Ballinora’s Alan O’Shea was the most prominent player of the second quarter, his excellent points in the 21st, 23rd and 25th minutes helping his side to be level at 0-7 each at half time, David Coleman getting a fourth point of the half in reply for Grenagh.
The weather did not improve for the second half, ball control was difficult and the exchanges were intense. David Coleman put Grenagh in front, and pointed a free to double his side’s advantage after 43 minutes, as the scoring rate slowed considerably. Shane Kingston pointed a free for Ballinora but missed another before Dan Twomey had another point for Grenagh from close range after a David Coleman free landed in the Ballinora goal area.
Grenagh were forcing the pace now and they went three points clear in the 48th minute when Dan Twomey again pointed to push them 0-11 to 0-8 in front.
A surprise result and a shock championship exit for the champions was a distinct possibility now but Ballinora held their heads and just buckled down to the task. Substitute Ben Mayer pulled a score back in the 50th minute and an unnecessary foul gave Shane Kingston the opportunity to score a 30-metre free two minutes later, as the gap between the teams was the minimum. David Coleman then landed a 60-metre effort to put Grenagh back in the driving seat on 57, leading 0-12 to 0-10.
As so often in the recent campaigns, Shane Kingston proved to be the saviour for Ballinora. He collected the puck-out from Coleman’s point to send the sliotar over the Grenagh bar. In the 59th minute Kingston picked out the unmarked Neil Lordan with a cross-field sideline cut and the centre back held his composure and sent over the equaliser from 60 metres out.
From the puck-out Alan O’Shea fired over his sixth point to put Ballinora sensationally in front and to complete the misery for Grenagh Robert Quirke hit over an insurance point for the champions in the 61st minute to complete their get-out-of-jail late rally.
Scorers - Ballinora: A O’Shea 0-6; S Kingston 0-4 (3f); T Burns, B Mayer, N Lordan, R Quirke 0-1 each. Grenagh: D Coleman 0-7 (4f, 1 65); D Twomey 0-5.
Ballinora: Barry Crowley; Tim Forde, Mike Lordan, Pat Fitton; Barry McCarthy, Neil Lordan, Michael Quirke; James Byrne, Shane Kingston; Tommy Burns, James Keohane, Conor Quirke; Kevin Murphy, Darragh Corkery, Alan O’Shea. Subs: Colin O’Flynn for T Forde (inj, 16), Robert Quirke for M Lordan (inj, 36), Ivan Quirke and Ben Mayer for C Quirke and J Keohane (both 45), Danny Dineen for M Quirke (inj, 61).
Grenagh: James Walsh; Tadgh Walsh, Paul Ahern, Niall Coleman; Peter McSweeney, Paul BarryMurphy, John Lehane; Kevin O’Neill, Ted Twomey; Kelvin Cummins, Seán Joyce, David Coleman; Robert Coleman, Darragh Kenny, Dan Twomey. Subs: Dara O’Shea (blood, 21-22), Alex Kiely for N Coleman (ht), Ultan Duggan for D Kenny (41), Michael White for K Cummins (47).
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Éire Óg).
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Ballincollig 3-19
Inniscarra 2-20
The second semi-final was played at Blarney with a midday start and proved to be a high-quality, close encounter, vigorously contested in which two red cards were vital factors.
Ballincollig started well and led by 2-4 to 0-2 after 15 minutes, both their goals coming from full forward and captain David Bowen. At half time the winners led by 2-14 to 1-8 but had lost Conor Dalton to a 30th-minute red card and Scarra made good use of their numerical advantage in the third quarter.
The gap between the teams was down to three points by the 41st minute, 2-15 to 2-12, but then Ballincollig got through for a crucial third goal, Darragh O’Mahony the scorer.
Inniscarra lost Mark Linehan to a red card in the 47th minute but battled on and outscored the winners by 0-8 to 0-4 but were two adrift at the final whistle.
Ballincollig: Ronan Cambridge; Shane Murphy, Jordan Murray, Brian O’Sullivan; David O’Leary, Peter O’Neill, Shane O’Sullivan; Liam Jennings, Conor Dalton; Paul Cooney, Brendan O’Brien, Eoin Dwyer; Dillon Horgan, David Bowen, Jason Murray. Subs: Ronan Power, Darragh O’Mahony and Evan Cooke.
Inniscarra: Eoin O’Neill; Seán McLaughlin, Mark Linehan, James Buckley; Sean Quinlivan, Shane Buckley, Niall Buckley; Seán O’Donoghue, Conor Buckley; Kieran Rice, Jerry Roche, Colin O’Leary; Shane Linehan, Darragh O’Brien, Daniel Murphy. Subs: Cormac Dineen, Ardel O’Connell, Conrad Desmond, Aidan O’Mahony.
