AHL 1 – Ballyboden St Endas 2 30 St. Brigids 2 14

Long Fella Reports from PUM

A “portrait” of a summer’s evening greeted the senior A hurlers from St Brigids and Ballyboden for a league game (AHL1) at HQ on Wednesday evening. A gentle breeze fluttered the club flag from Greenacres towards Cremorne. With such excellent conditions, coupled with the carpet-like surface, it was no surprise that the sides scored liberally.

Boden opened well with a brace of points from Paul Ryan, his first full sixty minutes on return after injury. Shane Durkin and Conor Dooley combined superbly to find Daniel Glynn in space and a third point for the home side. Adam Kelleher, who had laid-on the pass to Paul for his second, was passed by Jack Lambert, and he made it four to nil. Brigids got off the mark with a cracker from the rail by David Fraine. The Boden tally kept rising with Cillian Kirwan, Paul (Kirwan pass) and cousin Niall (Paul lay-off), stretching the margin to six points. Brigids responded with Mark Kavanagh and club stalwart Paul Winters on the mark. Dooley and Barry O’Connell exchanged points, before Kevin Desmond and Dooley added a brace.

A well worked move opened up space for Boden and the opening goal from Durkin, Paul with the final accurate pass. Adding pain to Brigids cause, Dooley found Kelleher off his own high catch and yet another point. O’Connell and Kelleher exchanged points, and Adam confirmed his potent form with a follow-up white flag off a puck-out pass. Kirwan benefited from Glynn’s good work with his second of the evening. The half closed with Brigids trying for a goal from a close-in free, but goalman Conor O’ Donoghue in no mood to concede. Half-time 1.15 to 0.08.

With Kirwan working hard and efficiently in the Boden engine room, the large gathering on the rail soaked up the evening sun, expecting more Boden scoring, However Brigids re-entered the fray with goals as the target. Within a few minutes they bagged their first, after a dropping ball in the danger zone was not cleared by Boden. Killian Breslin latched onto the sliotar and found the onion-sack with an unstoppable shot. The Boden response was immediate with Niall running down the spine, finding Kelleher with his pass and he dispatching to Dooley, who flicked the ball to the unprotected net. 2.15 to 1.08. Glynn grabbed his third point, before substitute Timmy Hammersley entered the game with his opening point of five in total. The point-flow continued for Boden, Paul (puck-out pass), Glynn and Paul again. Winters added for Brigids, cancelled out by Jack Lambert hitting one from sixty metres. Timmy, then hit three in the five minutes, in between Darragh Kenny and John McGuire found the target. Winters got the gap down a bit with a bullet of a goal from a free, but the bird had flown in Boden’s direction with Timmy in excellent form and Fergal Ryan closing the scoring for Boden.

The form of Kelleher was the stand-out feature of the Boden scoring, but deeper in the team-sheet can be found foundations for this win. Rob Leddy was terrier-like in defence, providing good passes to the half-back line. Stephen O’Connor led the defence well, Kirwan had a really good evening, and Sean McDonnell slotted in well supporting the engine-room. Timmy enjoyed his evening’s outing with some really good points, resisting the temptation to go for goals.

Squad; Conor O’Donoghue, Rob Leddy, Barry McGuire, Luke Mulligan-Lynch, Sean McDonnell, Stephen O’Connor, Jack Lambert, Niall Ryan, Cillian Kirwan, Shane Durkin, Paul Ryan, Daniel Glynn, Adam Kelleher, Conor Dooley, Kevin Desmond, Matthew Nolan, Timmy Hammersley, Niall McMorrow, Darragh Kenny, Dean Curran, John McGuire, Conor Lowe, Fergal Ryan, Eoin Behan.

Thanks to John Kirwan for the photos. Click here for more