U10s do well in Wexford
The U10's participated in Naomh Eanna's 6th Annual Under 10 Hurling Festival in Gorey on Saturday which was preceded by a colourful parade of all 16 participating teams down the Main Street in Gorey. The team were placed in a group with Cranford of Wexford and Piltown and O'Loughlin Gaels from Kilkenny.
First match up was against the highly fancied O’Loughlin Gaels team who with the aid of a breeze went into a 1-1 to 0-2 lead at half-time. Mid-way through the second half the Crokes lads got their reward for a sustained period of pressure with a well taken goal that put them into the lead. However, O’Loughlins came back strongly and fired in two late goals and a point to leave the score at 3-2 to 1-2 at the final whistle in favour of the Kilkenny team.
In the next match against Cranford, the Crokes boys raced into an early lead with three unanswered points. Cranford responded with two points but another point and a goal from the Kilmacud forwards gave them a 1-4 to 0-2 lead at the break. With the breeze behind them in the second half the lads produced a quick brace of goals to effectively end the hopes of the Wexford boys and the final score read 3-5 to 1-3 in Crokes favour.
The third and final match of the group against Piltown was a thriller with the Crokes boys showing a huge amount of spirit in fighting back from a first half deficit to eventually overtake the Kilkenny boys. Losing by 1-0 to 0-1 at half time and facing the breeze in the second half the lads came out in determined fashion and were soon in the lead with two fine goals. However, Piltown soon reduced the lead to just one point with a goal of their own and both teams gave it everything in an attempt to end the group stages on a winning note. The Kilmacud lads prevailed by adding two late points to leave the final score at 2-3 to 2-0 to Crokes.
As a result of the two group wins, the boys qualified for the semi-final of the Shield where they faced fellow Dubliners Lucan Sarsfields. A hard fought first half saw Lucan going into the break with a slender lead of 2-2 to 2-0 but fatigue eventually got the better of the Crokes players as Lucan added four points to their tally in the second half to run out deserved winners.
A special word of mention must go to the Sean Kinsella, Anthony Quinn and Liam Wolfe from the under 9’s who helped us make up the numbers and performed extremely well throughout the tournament.
PANEL: Eoin Barr, Niall Bezeci, Paul Buckley, Cian Coleman, Dylan Crossan, James Dalton, Harry Doyle, Michael Gibbons, Stephen Horgan, Tom Kehoe, Sean Kinsella, Sam Kenny, Sam Lynch, Lorcan O'Connor, Anthony Quinn, Brian Rafter, Nathan Slattery, Liam Wolfe