æThe Clash Of The Ash’ in Kingspan Breffni Park, Cavan

 

æThe Clash Of The Ash’ in Kingspan Breffni Park.

Kingspan Breffni Park was the venue for the 2009 Cavan Camogie Development Fun Day held on Sunday June 7^th. The good weather brought the crowds out and made for excellent playing conditions for the annual event which has grown from strength to strength each year with teams from all over Cavan participating.

A large contingent of players from the primary schools throughout county Cavan travelled to the event with many fine team performances. A lot of emerging underage talent was on show throughout the day with approximately 400 girls participating in the event.

The day started at U9 level with the Go Games Blitz’s and skills challenges, each team were given a county name and played over an hour of Camogie before being presented with medals. The added dimension of the skills challenge proved successful and experienced senior players from around the county were only to willing to show the U’9s how it should be done.

The U9’s were followed by the U11 Blitz which included twelve teams; Laragh, Kilnaleck, Redhills, St Claires, Lacken, Drumkilly, Virginia, Drumgoon, Ballyhaise, Bailieboro, Belturbet and Lisboduff. Drumgoon and Belturbet topped their sections and played in the U11 Blitz Final which was won by a strong Belturbet team. The U11 Player of the Tournament was deservingly awarded to Dearbhla Dolan (Belturbet) who gave a strong performance in all the blitz games.

 

Sean Kelly and the Parade in Kingspan Breffni Park, Cavan

 

The well known SÚan Kelly bag pipe player led the Primary School Finalists and U11 Teams around the pitch in a Camogie parade which preceded the 2009 Primary Schools Camogie finals. The Division 1 final Laragh v Redhills proved to be an exciting contest between two very skilled sides. Redhills went in favourites after beating Laragh twice this year however Laragh had their homework done and weren’t going to let this one slip. Laragh’s combined duo of Amanda Collins and Aideen Coyle scored 5 goals and two points while the Redhills scores came from the talented Megan Reilly(1:0), Sarah Sheridan(0:2) and Laura Mc Kiernan(0:1). Laragh’s Michelle O’Rourke was on top form and took the honour of Player of the Match to add to her teams’ success after winning 5:2 to 1:3.

The Division 2 final saw the amalgamation of Ballyhaise N.S. and Lisboduff N.S. fight hard against Drumkilly however Drumkilly had the upper hand around mid-field and took the title. Player of the Match went to Drumkilly’s, Kelsey Hartin who displayed some excellent Camogie skills.

 

Division 3 Winners – Crosserlough

 

The Division 3 final was contested between Crosserlough and Bailieboro, Bailieboro had a good run in the league with great displays of ground hurling. The Cosserlough side proved too strong for a brave Bailieboro team and deservedly took the Division 3 title, Player of the Match also came from Crosserlough, Shauna Lynch who had an outstanding match.

The Division 4 Final was a cracker between East Knockbride N.S. and Belturbet N.S., the Knockbride side got off to a great start and were ahead two nil at half time. The half time talk given by Belturbet worked a treat and the side quickly scored two goals to even things. Both teams battled hard and extra time was needed to divide them. In the first half of extra time Knockbride’s Niamh O’Reilly found the net however in the second half Belturbet replied with a goal. All looked to be over and a replay needed when Belturbet managed to get a goal in the dying seconds of the game. Final score 3:0 to 4:0. Player of the Match went to Knockbride’s Christina Myles who had an excellent game at mid field.

 

Some of the happy colourful faces at the Cavan Fun Day.

 

 

 

Colin the Camogie magician was busy face painting and balloon blowing all day and managed to keep the young and old entertained with his card tricks! The Primary Schools Art competition winners were presented their prizes on the day. Theis competition was run in the weeks leading up to the Cavan Fun Day to help promote Camogie in Primary schools. These were chosen from hundreds of entries from around the county who illustrated the title æClash of the Ash’.

Category A, Junior and Senior Infants 1^st,  Courtney O’Halloran St Clares N.S., 2^nd Nadine O’Brien, Redhills N.S. 3^rd Meave O’Reilly, Crosskeys N.S.

Category B, 1^st and 2^nd Class 1^st Chloe O’Reilly Crosserlough N.S. , 2^nd Chloe Fitzsimons Aughadreena N.S., 3^rd Daniel Swift Kilnaleck N.S.

Category C, 3^rd and 4^th Class 1^st Ryan Tierney Crosskeys N.S., 2^nd Peter Nulty Virginia N.S., 3^rd Gabriele Vaitkule, St. Clares N.S.

Category D, 5^th and 6^th Class 1^st Aoife McGorry Dernakesh N.S., 2^nd Lauren Doyle St Annes N.S., Bailieboro, 3^rd Joint – Vanessa Brady, Clifferna  N.S. and Niall Finnegan, Kingcourt N.S.

Category E, Special Recognition, 1^st Dale Thompson East Knockbride N.S. and 2^nd Stephanie FItzpatrick, Lisboduff N.S. The Cavan Juvenile Camogie Board would like to thank the art competition sponsors, Argues Londis, Easons and The Sports Shop Cavan for their support.

Overall the Cavan Camogie Development Fun Day was a great success and thanks must be given to the help from all the schools, clubs, and the caretaker of Breffni Park in the run up to the event and throughout the day.

Because of this help æThe Clash of the Ash’ can be heard louder and clearer than ever before in County Cavan!!