South Leinster Juvenile Hurling C Final

Ballyhale VC......................1-7

Wexford CBS.....................0-7

Wasteful Wexford CBS paid a heavy price in O’Kennedy Park, New Ross last Wednesday as Ballyhale VC took the South Leinster Juvenile Hurling C title. The Wexford students had enough goal chances to win three matches but failed to take any of them and returned empty handed.

From the throw-in Ben McMahon passed to Philip Rawson and his stinging shot was somehow saved by Dean Mason in the Ballyhale goal. Three quick wides followed up as CBS failed to convert their dominance into scores.

To rub salt into it, Ballyhale opened the scoring with a converted free. CBS continue to struggle upfront and it wasn’t until the 15^th minute that Jack O’Leary passed to Chris Cowman and the later split the posts.

The Kilkenny teenagers tagged on another three points in the first half but were also guilty of some poor wides.

In the 25^th minute CBS full-forward Cian Rossiter was pushed over in the square and a penalty was awarded. Jordan Hayes’s effort was pushed around the post for a ’65 which came to nothing.

Moments later Jordan Hayes burst through the Ballyhale defence but his rasper bounced off the crossbar. Centre-back Cathal Kirwan surged up field to point and that left the half-time score at 0-4 to 0-2 in favour of the Kilkenny boys.

Ballyhale had two points within sixty seconds of the restart and they added a goal to their six points in the 33^rd minute which left CBS with a mountain to climb. However, they dominated the remainder of the game but just couldn’t find the net or enough points to get themselves into a position to win the game.

The points eventually arrived when substitute Gary Carroll was fouled and Jordan Hayes pointed and Chris Cowman’s clever sideline found Cathal Kirwan for his second point. Aaron Clancy placed Jordan Hayes for a point before Hayes was fouled and popped over the free himself.

With ten minutes to go, it was 1-6 to 0-6 and the momentum was with the Wexford lads but the goal didn’t arrive as Dean Mason made some good saves. Try as they might, CBS couldn’t get the scores they needed and Ballyhale ran out winners.

Wexford CBS: Adam Howlin (Shelmaliers); Ben Hayes (St. Mary’s Rosslare), Adam Dempsey (Faythe Harriers), Ryan McLoughlin (St. Mary’s Rosslare); Aaron Clancy (St. Martin’s), Cathal Kirwan (Faythe Harriers 0-2), Conor Graydon (Glynn-Barntown); Jack O’Leary (Volunteers Capt.), Ben McMahon (Volunteers); Philip Rawson (St. Anne’s), Chris Cowman (Shelmaliers 0-1), Luke Dowdall (Volunteers); Jordan Hayes (St. Martin’s 0-4, 2 frees), Cian Rossiter (Volunteers), Cian O’Connor (Clonard).
Subs: Gary Carroll (Faythe Harriers) for O’Connor, Stephen Doyle (Faythe Harriers) for Rossiter.

Ballyhale VC: Dean Mason; Billy Moran, Luke Ward, Jamie Barron; Jamie McLoughlin, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paraic Delahunty; Jack Walsh, Patrick Heane; Adam Masood, Michael Murphy, Paul Hennessy; Mark McNamara, Ronan Hayes, Sean Fitzpatrick.