Intermediate Hurling Championship (A)
Sat. Sept. 7th.

Blackrock 4 – 14 V Kildorrery 3 – 16. @ Glanworth​

Report:  Roger ryan

Played in brilliant sunshine on a well-appointed pitch before a large crowd, this game turned out to be a cracker with both sides sharing periods of dominance. The old adage, “Goals win games” certainly rang true as our boys shared 4 out of a total haul of 7. Despite a serious amount of wides, we still man aged to chalk up 14 points over the hour, 8 in the first half and 6 in the second half and thus secured a hard-earned victory by a point on a total score of Rockies 4 – 14, Kildorrery 3 – 16.

Ian O'Keeffe got us up and running with the first point of the game before Tadhg Deasy traded points with Kildorrery and then followed up with a typical Tadhg burst which yielded our first goal to leave the score at 1 – 02 to 0 – 01, with barely 4 minutes on the clock. Kildorrery reduced our lead to 2 points with 2 of their own but Lee O'Sullivan increased our lead to 3 points with a fine effort. A long-range free from his own 23 metre area was converted for a mighty point by goalie Ross Browne to push us ahead by 4, 1 + 04 to 0 – 03. Kildorrery had it back to 3 again and Eoin O'Farrell fired over a free to restore our 4 points advantage, 1 – 05 to 0 – 04. With the time showing 15 minutes elapsed, Kildorrery scored their first goal and reduced our lead to the minimum. Mark O'Keeffe with a point, put us 2 up again, 1 – 06 to 1 – 04. Kildorrery really went to town at this point and with 6 unanswered points, went ahead by 4 on a score of 1 – 06 to 1 – 10. Colin O'Leary reduced it to 3 with the next point, but Kildorrery kept up the pressure and with the next goal pushed ahead by 7 points with half time looming, 1 – 07 to 2 – 11. Eoin O'Farrell converted a 65 and Diarmuid Cormack delivered a real lifesaver with a cracking goal on the stroke of half time. Just 5 minutes we were 7 points in arrears and now thanks to these late scores we went for a break in a much better position being just 3 points behind, Rockies 2 – 08, Kildorrery 2 – 11. Some excellent defending by our rearguard, Gar Norberg in particular, prevented Kildorrery from scoring another goal at least.

The second half opened with Luke O'Donovan making an appearance. Kildorrery with 2 points increased their lead to 5, 2 – 08 to 2 – 13. Some judicious substitutions and positional switches by our mentors began to pay dividends and following a goal by Colin O'Leary and a point by Tadhg, we had reduced their lead to 1 point, 3 – 09 to 2 – 13. Eoin Coughlan's point was sandwiched in between 2 from Kildorrery, before Tom Grainger found the net with a beautifully crafted angled shot for our fourth goal. The score now read 4 – 10 to 2 – 15, leaving us 1 point ahead. Diarmuid Cormack added a point followed by a similar score from Tadhg and Eoin Coughlan . Kildorrey then scored their third goal to trail by just 1 point, 4 – 13 to 3 – 15. Ian O'Keeffe then traded points with Kildorrery to keep us ahead by the minimum, as the Ref blew full time to the great relief of players, mentors and supporters.

Scorers: Tadhg Deasy 1 – 03(02f), Colin O'Leary 1 – 01, Diarmuid Cormack 1 – 01, Tom Grainger 1 – 00, Eoin O'Farrell 0 – 02(01f, 65), Eoin Coughlan 0 – 02, Ian O'Keeffe 0 – 02, Lee O'Sullivan 0 – 01, Mark O'Keeffe 0 - 01, Ross Browne 0 – 01(01f).

Team: Ross Browne, Richie Laide, Gary Norberg, Jamie Ryan C, Lee O'Sullivan, Sean Healy, Elliott Cantwell, Diarmuid Cormack, Mark O'Keeffe, Eoin O'Farrell, Colin O'Leary, Ian O'Keeffe, Robert Cregan, John O'Sullivan, Tadhg Deasy.

Subs Used: Luke O'Donovan, Eoin Coughlan, Tom Grainger.

Referee: Brian Murphy.