After so long waiting for the grading games to get under way, it was somewhat of a relief that all three of the U13 hurling teams to finally got to play at the weekend for the first time this year.  And all three teams certainly stepped up to the mark with 3 wins out of 3 visits north of the Liffey.

First up were T1 who travelled to Finglas on Thursday evening for their first grading game of the year battling for a place in Div. 1 of the hurling league this year against an Erin’s Isle team to whom they had lost twice last year.   From the off this time though, the Boden lads were on the front foot, and they never lifted the pressure, despite a typically robust challenge from the Erin’s Isle lads.    By half time Boden were leading 3:10 to 0:04.  It was more of the same in the second half with a great all round performance form the Boden lads, finishing 5:16 to 2:06.

Friday night saw T2 head across the city to St Anne’s Park to face Clontarf A in their 2nd grading match.  Despite the last round’s narrow loss to Naomh Olaf A in Stepaside, the coaches had seen plenty in that performance to give heart, and so it proved as again, the Boden lads went immediately on the attack, scoring a very creditable 3:04 against a good Clontarf team.  This one proved to be a real ‘game of two halves’, as the Clontarf boys spent the second half camped in front of the Boden goals.  However, an ‘all hands to the pump’ defensive effort combined with 2 quick breakouts yielding 1:01 for Boden saw this game finish out 4:05 to 2:07.

Finally while many eyes were on the exploits of our Feile team at home, On Saturday afternoon T3 made the journey across the city: again to St Anne’s Park, again to face Clontarf, this time in the form of their B team.  And again the Boden boys went straight on the attack and maintained the pressure on the Clontarf lads for the full hour, with their fantastic work rate finally finishing out 4:02 to 2:00 winners.

All in all a great weekends hurling for the U13 boys.  Well done lads!!!

Many thanks to Dave Rusk for the photos. For more photos, see here and  here