29 August 2004 - O'Kennedy Park, New Ross Rapparees  2-8  Cloughbawn  2-11 Another disappointing day for our senior hurlers who never recovered from an early two goal start from our opponents Cloughbawn. It took us 20 minutes to register our first score and matches cannot be won with this sort of perfomance.   Many of our more experienced players failed to perform up to the standard that they have set for themselves, and so we have departed the championship for another year. We will have to sit down now and reflect on what has been happening to our performances on the playing fields and why we are being left behind by clubs with far less facilities and a smaller pick.   Senior Hurling - 25 July V Oulart / The Ballagh Rapps 0-16 Oulart 2-16 Our Senior hurlers got off to a good start against Oulart in Wexford Park on Sunday, playing with the wind in the first half we saw some fine displays from some of our most prominent hurlers - Declan Ruth was commanding in the full back position, Adrian Fenlon delivered some lovely ball from the middle of the field and his two points from sideline cuts from each side of the field were touches of class that were applauded by all in Wexford Park.   Tom Wall worked tirelessly at centre forward as only Tom can and at the interval we were ahead 10 points to 6. We began the second half as we had finished the first with plenty of determination and hard work and for three quarters of the game looked to be hurling strongly and comfortably until the scoring machine that is Rory Jacob fired and buried 2 balls in the back of the net - making the final score Rapparees 16 points - Oulart 2-16.   A disappointment for us as we had put in a fine effort and had some very fine individual performances and looked strong and balanced at times. However, with 7 points coming from the middle of the field - 2 from Adrian Fenlon’s sideline cuts and 5 points from Mossy Mahon’s frees – and another 2 or 3 points coming from Skippy Ruth and Ryan Quigley that leaves very little return from your forwards particularly when one David (Corkey) O`Connell scored 4 points. We had 3 forwards scoring for us whereas Oulart had 5 of theirs scoring for them - the only one held scoreless was Michael Jacob.   This is still a problem for us and one that we will need to address before the next round - but yesterdays performance was promising and a major improvement on the way we played against Monageer in the first round - the lads have all put in a huge effort since then - players and mentors alike - and for a long time last night looked as though they were going to do it.   Senior Hurling - 30 May V Monageer / Boolavogue Rapps 1-14 Monageer 2-8   Our Senior hurlers went through to the second round of the Championship on Saturday in Ferns - beating Monageer in a replay - 1-14 to 2-8.   I’m sure I’m insulting no one in Monageer when I say that the final score is not a true representation of the game - which saw the Rapparees with a very comfortable lead for most of the match. The half time score was 9 points to 4 in favour of the Rapps and in the first 20 minutes of the second half the lads had increased that lead to 1-12 to 7 points - however we took our foot off the pedal a bit then and let Monageer come back at us - a worrying feature which must be addressed before the next round.   But, often the first game of the Championship is the most dangerous - and thankfully that one is behind us now - with all players hurling a lot better than they did in the drawn game.   An excellent performance from Mossy Mahon who was the essence of accuracy on the frees and worked extremely hard around the middle particularly in the first half. The remainder of our county trio put in good performances as well with excellent delivery from Adrian Fenlon and staunch full back stuff from Declan Ruth.   My compliments to the three new additions - the two Marks - Gahan and Quigley and Jason Russell who did a trojan amount of work throughout the game - with Mark Gahan scoring a lovely point and Mark Quigley scoring a remarkable 1-1.   Our half back line and full back line got to grips much better than in the drawn game and all in all it was a performance and a result that we were happy with - but to coin a famous political statement - ‘a lot done - but more to do     Senior Hurling - 23 May V Monageer / Boolavogue Rapps 1-9 Monageer 1-9   Report to follow.  No, actually really the least said the better.   Team: Ronie Furlong; Eddie Tobin, Declan Ruth, Liam Boland; John Murphy, Ryan Quigley, Ollie O'Connor; Adrian Fenlon (0-2), Tomas Mahon (0-4); Tony Boland, Shay Deegan (0-1), David Morrissey; Eamonn Furlong, Corky O'Connell (1-2), Derek Tobin.  Subs: Deccie Ivers for Tony and Mark Gahan for Derek.       Senior Hurling - 18 April V Rathnure Rapps 3-6  Rathnure 3-13 Our Senior hurlers didn`t fare out quite so well against Rathnure in Bellefield on Sunday evening - losing by a 7 point margin - 3-13 to 3-6. It was a lack lustre preformance from the Rapparees not helped by the fact that both Declan Ivers and Jim Holden had to come off due to injuries early on in the game and we had to field without Adrian Fenlon who had picked up an injury earlier in Wexford Park.   Declan Ruth gave an excellent preformance followed closely by Ollie O`Connor and Damian Barron who is really making that corner back position his own. But overall it was mediocre stuff - with no urgency, no fire and no commitment - and certainly not the kind of hurling one would expect to see just one month away from the first round of the Senior Hurling Championship. Shape up lads or the Championship will pass you by for yet another year.   Senior Hurling - 12 April V Buffers Alley A one point victory over Buffer's Alley. Tomas Mahon weighed in with 10 points. Ronie made a return to the goal (that may have been coming for a while!) Ronan Furlong: Liam Boland, Jim Holden, Deccie Ivers; Tom Wall, Declan Ruth, Ryan Quigley; Adrian Fenlon, Shay Deegan; Anthony Russell, Tomas Mahon, Mark Quigley; Eamon Furlong, Corky O'Connell, Mark Gahan. Ollie O'Connor for Ryan, Pa Mernagh for Corky & Speedy Morrissey for Mark.   Senior Hurling - 27 March Oylegate 2-19  Rapps 1-7 Our Senior Hurlers went down badly on Saturday losing to Oylegate - 1-7 to 2-19.  Their lack-lustre performance was devoid of  commitment, determination and passion and would certainly leave one with little anticipation for the Championship.   Allowing for the fact that 6 of our key players were missing it was still a very poor and worrying effort - 1-7 is not enough to win any game either League or Championship and if we are not prepared to get our act together on this one the coming season will be a short lived. Despite our overall poor showing some individual players gave uplifting performances - Ryan Quigley in particular showed promise of returning to his former brilliance, Damian Barron gave another sound display from the corner back position.   Martin Murphy playing his first game with the Seniors in about two years showed flashes of the hurling that he had in 1996 when he was one of the best half backs in the County, and a very fit looking Davy O`Connell (Corkey) looked dangerous around the square every time the ball went into the area.   Scorers - Ryan Quigley 3pts/Shay Deegan 2pts/Davy O`Connell goal/Eamonn Furlong and Pa Mernagh 1pt each.   Senior Hurling - 20 March Ferns 5-9  Rapps 2-8 The senior hurlers recorded a good win in a gale away on Saturday - beating Ferns 5-9 to 2-8. In the storm like conditions it was indeed a game of two halves - and two amazing halves as Ferns didn`t score in the second half and their goalkeeper scored a goal and a point from the puck out - something that no-one at the game ever remembered seeing before. The half time score was 2 goals to 2-8 in favour of Ferns - the two goals for the Rapps came from Tony Boland and Mark Gahan and proved crucial.   With the wind in the second half the Rapps scored 3-9 in difficult conditions with very good performances from Adrian Fenlon -who seems to have lost none of his fitness in Sri Lanka - Ryan Quigley, Declan Ruth, Shay Deegan and others - well done lads - the first win of the season is always important.     Senior Hurling Challenge - Sunday 14th March There was a senior hurling challenge against Carnew Emmetts on the morning of Sunday 14th as well.  Carnew ran out 7 point victors.....