After a long wait, Minor Camogie got going in 2021 at the weekend, with the first round of Championship matches taking place. The minor league had fallen victim to the shortened fixture calendar and so November was the first competitive action of the year for the minor age groups although many of the team had gained valuable experience slotting into the different senior panels through the summer league and autumn championship fixtures. Once all the Senior campaigns had finished, the team came back as a minor group to prepare for the tough draw that they were given in their Division 1 group.
First up for the Minor A team was a talented Castleknock outfit at Pairc Ui Mhurchu on Sunday morning. The match started off at a fierce pace with every ball keenly contested. With scores hard to come by, the Boden girls edged ahead with a couple of converted frees and kept a 2 point gap to the water break. In the 2nd quarter, Boden had their best passage of play with some great moves to produce scores and some good defending to keep Castleknock at bay. At one point Boden were 6 points ahead, only to be pegged back and went in to half-time leading by 3.
Castleknock came out strongly again in 2nd half and closed the gap further but a goal from Boden restored their lead and they carried a 4 point lead into the final quarter looking in good shape to secure the victory. However, intense pressure from Castleknock on the Boden goal finally saw them raising the green flag to equalise. Then it got worse for Boden as Castleknock added another couple of frees as the game went into injury time (for a couple of lengthy injury stoppages.) With the game into the 5th minute of injury time and looking like it was slipping away from Boden who were trailing by 2, there was time for one more break up the pitch with a super goal restoring the lead which they held onto to see out the victory.
A great start to the Championship campaign and definitely worth waiting for! Next up in Championship is an away fixture to local rivals Naomh Jude.
Final score: Ballyboden St. Endas 2-12 Castleknock 1-14
Thanks to Liam Cunningham for photos
