Report by Mary McCluskey
The U14 Camogie Shield Feile tournament took place on Saturday 18th June in the GAA Development Centre in Abbottstown.
Our club took a bus from Tom Ryall Park early that morning filled with our panel, mentors John Caldbeck, Mary McCluskey, Mary Ronan and our medic Ann Egan who, it must be said, was kept busy throughout the day. We were glad to have Ann on board!
On arrival we were brought to our state-of-the-art dressing rooms before embarking on our first game that day against Galway’s Carnmore. We beat them on a scoreline of 2-3 to 4 pts. Next up we played Clare side St Joseph’s Doora Barefield, again winning this match 3-6 to 1-1. We then broke for a lovely lunch which was provided on the day by The GAA in Croke Park.
Having come out top of our group we then met Cork side Ballinora. Unfortunately during this game, two of our players (Roisin Casey and Molly Butler) incurred injuries though thankfully nothing too serious. However Ballinora got the better of us on the day and beat us 3-3 to 1-3. Ballinora went on to win the tournament on the day.
After the initial disappointment of losing this game the girls quickly overcame their defeat, helped in no small way by being presented with lovely Feile tops. A big thank you to St Brigids Camogie Club for sponsoring these tops as a reminder of our participation on the day. Our training sessions since are alot brighter!! The Camogie Association also presented all participants on the day with 3 tickets each to the 2016 Camogie All Ireland in September. Hopefully we’ll have an extra reason to attend this year.
Boarding our bus home we looked forward to our pit-stop to Supermacs in Carlow for refuelling before finally arriving back to Kilmanagh shortly after 8pm. A special word of thanks to our driver on the day from Ger Ronan Buses who guided us safely to and from Abbottstown. Thanks also to our supporters who travelled separately on the day. It was good to see familiar faces on the sideline.
Sleep came easy to everyone that night!!
PANEL: Ellie O’Neill, Kelly Lanigan, Aoibhe Murphy, Caragh Keating, Roisin Casey, Lucy Egan, Isabel Caldbeck, Abby O’Keeffe, Margaret Maher, Tara Ronan, Kate McCluskey, Sarah Harrison, Molly Butler, Kate Everard, Katie Dunne, Cliona Teehan, Caoimhe Cahill, Caoimhe Young, Caoimhe Butler, Dearbhla Cullen.
MISSING: Faith Delaney, Reece Delaney, Hannah Murphy
