Seniors beat Boden in League

Thursday the 19th of April and the Crokes Senior hurlers headed over to Pairc Uí Mhurchú to face Ballyboden in match 3 of the league campaign, with dark clouds threatening rain.  With a defeat and a victory in the opening two games, Crokes wanted to put in a good performance in preparation for next weeks opening Championship game against St Pats.  Unfortunately both sides were missing their Dublin Senior players, but the players on display did not disappoint the large crowd in attendance.

Crokes open strongly, with the defence in control, putting the Boden forwards under pressure each time the ball came into the Crokes half. As a result it took 17 minutes before Boden opened their score and, due to the Crokes pressure, they hit 7 wides during this period.  At the same time, the Crokes forwards were lively and notched up 7 points in the opening 17 minutes.  The rest of the half was nip and tuck with Crokes out scoring Boden 5 points to 4.  At the half time whistle, Crokes were leading 12 points to 5 points.  Kevin’s accurate free taking accounting for 5 of these points and a fine performance from Barry saw him scoring 3 points from play, while Jude scored two good points.  Dillon and Damien added a point each to complete the first half total.  The backs limited Boden to 5 scores, two from play, one from a sideline and only two conceded frees, typifying their disciplined opening 30 minutes.

Into the second half and Sean opened his tally with two points in a minute to set the tone for the second half. He continued in this vein and ended with a personal tally of 6 points, all from play, while Kevin continued to add to his tally with 3 more converted frees.  The Crokes backs also maintained their performance from the first half, dominated their opponents and limited them to 4 converted frees in the second 30 minutes.  When the whistle sounded for full time, Crokes held a winning twelve point margin with a final score of 0-21 to 0-09. 

Overall it was an entertaining game, with both sides playing with great intensity and the skill levels on show whetted the appetite for the Championship coming up next week.

You can view images of the encounter by clicking HERE or on the photo below!