2008 Reviews

Ladies Football Sat May 10th

Well done to our Ladies Footballers who beat Ballygarrett 7.13 to 3.4 in Bellefield on Saturday evening.

Junior Hurling Sat May 10th

Junior hurlers drew with St. Pats Camolin in Bellefield 2.12 to 1.15.

U14 Hurling Wed May 7th

Our U/14s had a good win on Wednesday night last beating Oulart in Bellefield 3.8 to 1.3.

Our thanks to Liam Griffin who did an excellent Coaching sessions with our U/14s and their mentors on Saturday morning.

Slick Rapps collect Slaney hurling crown in thriller © The Echo

THE UNDER-14 hurlers of Rapparees produced a slick display at Oylegate on Monday evening to regain the right to represent Wexford in the national Feile na nGael next month, after overcoming a game St. Martin's outfit in the Slaney Festival Premier final.

This particular Bellefield outfit boasts huge potential, and having captured county under-12 premier championship honours last year, this success shows that they are graduating quite well.

Kevin Ryan settled Rapparees when pointing a couple of frees without reply inside the first eight minutes. But, St. Martin's displayed good heart, and they were kept in contention through the solid play of such figures as Philip Waters at full-back, Calum Frankes at no.6, midfielders Edmund O'Byrne and Jack O'Connor (son of Wexford legend John), and attackers Darragh Kehoe and Donal Kelly.

Indeed, Kelly was one of the real stars of this highly entertaining spectacle, and he assisted Darragh Kehoe to get the Martin's off-the-mark with a pointed free on 18 minutes.

While Kevin Foley struck back with a point for Rapparees, the Martin's made a breakthrough on 23 minutes, when Kehoe reacted quickly to a shot coming back off the upright and bat the ball to the net, for a 1-1 to 0-3 lead.

However, the Rapps carried an underlying superiority throughout, and by this stage they had already squandered a few scores. That all changed in the closing stages of the half, as the Cathedral Town crew charged into an interval lead of 1-6 to 1-1 when points from Kehoe, Liam Ryan and Dave Galway (a quality left-handed strike) were added to by a superb goal: full-forward James Walsh (a son of Padge 'Skinner') giving a lovely lay-off for Sean O'Gorman to get the better of the magnificent Martin's 'keeper, Luke White.

The Martin's proved their character when resuming with a five-star point from centre-back Calum Frankes, who gathered possession in his own position before charging forward to strike over a real gem of a score.

The stronger Rapps dug their heels in again with another brace of points from Kevin Ryan, as he sent over a free, before adding a classy point from play (1-8 to 1-2).

The Rapps also had a fantastic goalie in Aaron Sinnott, and he came to his side's rescue when preventing Jack O'Connor and Donal Kelly from re-energising the Martin's challenge by effecting an important save.

Meanwhile, the small but tricky Niall McCrea added further spark to the Rapps' challenge for a first Slaney Hurling Festival Division 1 crown since 2003 when crafting a neat point.

But, these St. Martin's players are nothing but honest, and the phenomenal Donal Kelly broke through in the dying stages of normal-time to find the Rapps' net, and reduce the margin to a mere 1-8 to 2-2.

Try as they might, the Wexford district challengers couldn't get any closer, and Rapps' substitute Paddy Hore sent over a late point to seal the spoils for his side, much to the delight of selectors Damian Mahon, Padge 'Skinner' Walsh, Murty Dempsey and Declan Ivers.

Captain Timmy Dwyer (son of the late 'Hutchie') later had the honour of accepting the Slaney title from Des Croke, the Chairman of Coiste na nOg-Loch Garman.

Rapparees – Aaron Sinnott, Jack Flood, Michael O'Connor, Daniel O'Brien, Colin Nolan, Timmy Dwyer (capt.), Patrick O'Shea, Liam Ryan (0-1), Kevin Foley (01), Dale Galway (0-1), Seanie O'Gorman (1-0), Kevin Ryan (0-4, 3 frees), Fionn Carthy, James Walsh, Neil McCrea (0-1).

Subs: Craig Kinsella for Neil McCrea; Paddy Hore (01) for James Walsh; Leonard Connolly for Fionn Carthy; also, Sean McGrath, Sean Cloherty, Jack Conroy, Dylan Furlong.

St. Martin's – Luke White, Dylan Meyler, Philip Waters, Jack Whelan, Adrian Ryan, Calum Frankes (0-1), Conor Foran, Edmund O'Byrne (capt.), Jack O'Connor, Donal Kelly (1-0), Darragh Kehoe (1-1), David Higgins, Gary Jordan, Ryan Murphy, Sean Stafford.

Subs: Jamie Carty for Gary Jordan; Chris Culleton for Colm Foran (inj.); Mark Hayes for Sean Stafford; also, John Greene, Dean Murray, Eoin Ennis.

© The Echo

Senior Hurling Sunday May 4th
Over a dozen missed frees was the tale of the tape as our lads went down to the Alley at home by 0-11 to 0-16. IT was a good tough performance other than that though which gives us hope for the championship.

Well done to the Junior A hurlers who are going really well this year. They came away from Bellefield on Saturday evening with a 3-11 to 2-10 win over Liam Mellows who are never esy to overcome. Keep it up lads.

On Thursday evening our Junior Footballers took on Blackwater in Bellefield and were beaten by the narrowest of margins 12 pts to 2.7 despite putting in a good second half performance.

Our Senior hurlers saved the day beating Ferns in Ferns 16pts to 1.8. This was a hard fought game in dreadful conditions reminiscent more of November evenings than April and our lads did extremely well to notch up the victory – with Adrian Fenlon and Declan Ruth working well in defence – Liam Boland and Peter O`Sullivan proving a good middle of the field combination and Tomas Mahon in sparkling form up front aided by Richard Murphy/Davy Morrissey/Shay Deegan and Cathal Murphy who all sent over some lovely scores. Keep it up lads you are going well.

Our Junior B hurlers followed suit in Bellefield later that evening at 5pm losing out to Oulart 3.16 to 1.7. We had quite a strong team out for this grade but we were promoted last year while Oulart were relegated so we're struggling in the higher division.

On Saturday morning our U/10 Camogie team played Craanford in Bellefield and unfortunately went down to the much stronger side 8.1 to 3 goals.

On Friday evening our U/14 footballers travelled to Piercestown to take on the Martins and beat them 2.5 to 1.4.

Congratulations to our Ladies Footballers who took on the Shamrocks on Thursday evening last and notched up a marvellous win 7.12 to 2 points. Well done to Michael Nolan our new trainer who had his charges in sparkling form - they are not called Starlights for nothing!

Our U/16 Camogie team played St. James last Wednesday evening in Bellefield final score was Rapps 5-6 St.James 1-3.Scorers for the Rapps were Leanne Hore 2-2, Susan Lynch 1-1, Ciara Foley 1-0, Hazel Denton 1-0, Nicola Davitt 0-3.

Our Junior Footballers taking on Marshalstown on Tuesday evening last and unfortunately losing out to them in what was a keenly contested game 1-8 to 1-10.

What a win for our first ever U/14 Ladies Football team under Manager Willie Nolan - they beat Castletown last night in Bellefield - 6.13 to no score. A marvellous result in their first game from these young and promising Starlets! We look forward to many more of these stalwart performances from our young hopefuls who are coming on in leaps and bounds under Selectors Willie Nolan/Jayne Mythen and Jim Breen. Well done to all concerned.

Our U/10 Camogie had a good win over Bunclody last week beating them 5 goals to 1 and beat Marshalstown in Bellefield on Saturday 7 goals to 1.

Unfortunately our Senior Footballers were not able to emulate the youngsters and went down to Bunclody in the All County League on Saturday afternoon 6 points to 1-7. Despite owning the ball and taking up camp in Bunclody’s area for most of the second period we were unable to convert our possession into scores. It makes no difference how you are playing if you cannot put the scores on the scoreboard but in fairness it wasn’t a bad performance considering we were missing players like John Hudson, Willie Hudson, Tomas Mahon, Adrian Fenlon, Tom Wall, Jason Russell, Ryan Quigley & Gary Brilly!

Our Senior Hurlers qualified for the quarter finals of the Leinster League beating the Carnew Emmets in Carnew last night 2.13 to 1.13. In a keenly contested and entertaining game we did well to get the victory without players like Tomas Mossy Mahon and Ryan Quigley. Eoin Quigley and Tom Wall were excellent in defense - Liam Boland was strong and commanding in his new position in the middle of the field and got some good scores from frees - up front both Mark Gahan and Aaron Ronan got raspers of goals whilst Cathal Murphy and Ed Tobin gave good performances and came away with 2 points each.
A good overall team effort with all 15 giving their best including our two subs Ronan Furlong and Mark Quigley.
All quarter finals will take place in a fortnight's time on Wednesday 23rd April.

On Sunday our Senior hurlers were away to Rathnure and gave a good account of themselves up to 10 minutes to the final whistle when a mistake was made in front of goal which put us 3 points behind and gave the Rathnure forwards a chance to get a run on us and finish strong 3.15 to 2.11. Not a bad performance considering we were without kingpins Fenlon and Ruth.

Our Junior A`s fared much better against Cloughbawn at 6pm at Bellefield on Saturday evening notching up 14pts to Cloughbawns 1-10 in an entertaining and more evenly balanced encounter.

Our Junior B`s were first up on Saturday evening at Bellefield and suffered defeat against a much stronger Ferns side who lined out a combination of their 1st and 2nd squads against our 3rd team who were never going to be at the races against that type of opposition.

Early in the second half we were leading this game by 0-14 to 0-6 and had just missed the best goal chance of the game so far. However Ouart had a purple patch after that and drew level. Fair play to our lads though we held it together to notch a vital couple of points towards the end and fought for every ball to deservedly keep a point.

Ed Tobin has a blistering first half where he could do no wrong and scored four points from play. Mossie was precision itself from frees.

Team: Ronie Furlong; Tom Wall, Adrian Fenlon, Tommy Foley; xxxx, Declan Ruth, Kevin Courtney; Liam Boland, Peter O'Sullivan; Ed Tobin, Tomas Mahon, David Morrissey; xxxx, Shay Deegan, Aaron Ronan. Subs: Ricky Fox, Ryan Quigley, Richard Murphy.

Unfortunately our Junior Footballers couldn't make it a hat trick on Monday in Bellefield only managing a draw against Realt na Mara.
This game was brought forward to 1pm to faciliate the St. Patricks Day Parade and was an evenly balanced game with the halftime score 1-4 to 1-5 favouring Realt na Mara.
The visiting team upped their game at the commencement of the second half bagging a goal in the early stages but the Starlights refused to be put down and did well to secure the draw at the final whistle 1-10 to 2-7.
Scorers: David Tyrrell 1 gl/Davy Morrissey 3pts/Michael Donohoe 2pts/1pt each Ollie Oconnor/Eoin Quigley/Mark Redmond/Oisin Carley.

Our Juvenile Footballers were the next up on Sunday morning at 11.30am in Bellefield and recorded their second win to date beating St. Annes by the narrowest of margins in a low scoring and dogged encounter 6pts to 5.

Sunday March 16th Senior Football
Our Senior Footballers got off to a good start in the first of their All County League encounters this weekend - taking on and beating the Shelmaliers on Saturday afternoon in Bellefield 1-8 to 1-6.
After a bad start which left the home side trailing at the halftime whistle 2 points to 1-4 the Starlights put in a spirited display from the resumption with some excellent scores coming from David Tyrrell and Davy Speedy Morrissey and good defending by fullback Liam Boland and halfbacks Tom Wall/Mark Quigley and Cathal Murphy.
Scorers: David Tyrrell 1-1/Davy Morrissey 3pts/Declan Ruth 2pts/1 pt each Rory O`Connor/Michael Donohoe.

The first competitive match of the season returned the right results with a 1-3 to 0-4 victory for the U16 footballers against the Duffry.

2008 REVIEWS