Balyboden St Endas 2-12 Craobh Chiarain 3-11
The mix of Senior A and B hurlers” floodlit adventure came to an end last night with a narrow defeat to rivals Craobh Chiarain in the semi final at Pairc Uí Thuathail.
The first half was nip and tuck and there was little in it, despite the northsiders playing with a hefty wind. Colin Durkin and Niall Ó Riordáin were marshalling the opposition full forward line well and up front Dermot Daly and Tomás Ó Riordáin were battling hard with as yet no reward from open play. Boden missed a few frees but went in at the break only one score behind at 1-04 to 0-04, Tomás scoring two frees.
The start of the second half saw the Craobh up it a gear and two points increased their lead to 5 points. Then the tide turned in Boden”s favour when Daly latched on to a broken ball and fired to the roof of the net. Boden”s best spell followed and points from Daly and Barry Condron and frees from Tomás Ó Riordáin levelled the score. Tim Sweeney and Michael Griffin both got on the score sheet but a 21 yard free from Chiarains cancelled this hard work out. Chiarains latched on another point but Dermot Daly put Tomas in for Bodens second goal.
2 points up now, Boden were cruising but with 5 minutes remaining the killer blow came when the Craobh Chiarain full forward some how scraped a broken ball to Dermot Maguire”s net.
Boden desperately searched for an equaliser but in the end Craobh Chiarain added a final point to put the game beyond doubt. Craobh Chiarain will now meet hosts O”Tooles in the final on Friday night.
Team:
Dermot Maguire, Colin Durkin, Niall Ó Riordáin, Cathal Ryan, Sean Feeney, Mick Keville, Martin Kenny, Aidan Reilly, Barry Condron (0-01), Tim Sweeney (0-01), Ciaran Reilly, Tomas Ó Riordáin (1-08, 4 frees), Dermot Daly (1-01)
Subs: Michael Griffin (0-01) for C Reilly, Chris Nagle, Brian Cummins.