AIB Leinster Senior Camogie Club Final, Sunday, November 9th
Oulart the Ballagh (Wexford) v Thomastown (Kilkenny), Clane GAA, 2.30pm, Ray Kelly
62 years of senior championship famine was ended in Kilkenny this year when Thomastown came through in the County Final against defending champions Mullinavat writes Gerry O'Sullivan.
The four Farrell sisters provide a big part of the Thomastown challenge. Shelly Farrell along with Kate McDonald are on the present Kilkenny Senior team while Shelly’s sisters Meighan and Anna are on the Kilkenny Intermediate team both having captained their county to Minor All-Ireland success at Minor level. The fourth member of the Farrell clan, Ciara won an All-Ireland Minor title in 2012.
Thomastown captain Anna Farrell sums up their team, “I have played with most of these girls since under 8 onwards and we have won and lost together and I know that whatever happens in the final that these girls will give everything that’s in them until the final whistle.”
Wexford senior team boss Helena Jacob is between the sticks for Oulart the Ballagh who are no strangers to this stage of the competition having won the title on four previous occasions. They have not been pressed so far in either Wexford or the Leinster semi-final with the smallest winning margin in their three games to date being four goals.
No fewer than 10 of the Oulart squad have All-Ireland senior medals including the multi-honoured Ursula Jacob, Mary and Una Leacy, Ciara Storey and Captain Karen Atkinson and her sister Colleen.
AIB Leinster Intermediate Camogie Club Final
Camross (Laois) v Piltown (Kilkenny) Clane GAA, 12.30pm, Peter Dowd
Laois champions Camross have enjoyed a fairly trouble-free passage to the final having overcome Blackwater of Wexford and Thomas Davis of Dublin and notching 8 goals without conceding any in the process.
Camross have big game players in the likes of inter-county players, Sarah-Anne Fitzgerald (a winner of 4 Ashbourne cup medals with WIT) and Niamh Dollard who between them have collected 6 Soaring Stars awards, the most recent being those picked up last Saturday night in Citywest Dublin for their performance in 2014.
Body piercing expert Dawn Mortimer will be hoping to leave her mark at corner forward. Piltown have had a somewhat tougher road to the final with just three points to spare over neighbours Myshall of Carlow in the semi final. Free-taker and Kilkenny senior player Katie Power was on fire that day and scored 0-10 of her side’s 1-12 scoreline. With the weather in an unsettled mode at the moment Piltown will be encouraged following their victory in the first round over Birr played on a heavy sod. 15 year old Aoife Norris will fill the all-important position of goalkeeper for the Kilkenny champions.
