The annual Bride Rovers U8 Hurling Blitz was held in the Main Pitch in Rathcormac on Saturday 26th September. The format of the blitz was changed this year to comply with the “small sided games” approach with a goal counting the same as a point. We had four visiting clubs on the day, 3 of the clubs brought two 10 aside teams, with St Catherines fielding one team on the day. In the end 9 teams took part in a total of 16 games, run off between 10.30am and 1.30pm in summer like conditions. The teams were split into two groups – Group 1 consisting of the older / stronger players and Group 2 consisting of the younger / newer players. The clubs represented were Bride Rovers, Lisgoold, St Catherines, Ballygiblin and Erins Own. The boys from Caherlag saw off the opposition to come out winners of Group 2. Bride Rovers won all their games to win Group 1. The day started with all the players being led around the field by a Piper from the Tomas Kent Pipe Band, thanks to John Fant for coordinating this on the day. We finished with presentations by Fr Seanie Barry and Billy Finnegan to the two winning teams with medals for all participants. A special thanks to all who assisted in the organisation and running of the event, to Paudie Collins for his assistance with the prizes, to the referees Michael Collins, James Birmingham, Daniel Dooley, Ryan O’Connor, Darren Moore, Damien Buckley, Adrian Buckley and Kieran Cahill, to the parents for providing the refreshments and to all the Bride Rovers supporters who came to see the young Rovers on the day.
Match Report:
Bride Rovers Group 1 Team
Bride Rover’s first match in the blitz was against St Catherines. An early score for Rovers gave us a great start and set the scene for the day with us reaching the short whistle with a lead of 7 points to no score. With some of the younger players coming on in the second half we still managed to extend our lead to finish with 12 points while managing to keep our opposition scoreless.
The next game was against the boys from Lisgoold. This game was much closer as it has been when we met on a number of occasions over the summer. However, we managed to get 5 points, and with our defence holding solid we only conceded two points.
We played Ballygiblin after the break. This was a tight game from the start with both sets of backs doing some great defending. Ballygiblin got the first score, but it didn’t take long for the Rovers boys to bring it back to all square. The Rovers came out on top with a score of 5 points to 4.
Our final, and toughest game of the day was against Erins Own. We took the lead from the start, but had a tough battle to keep it. With our Group 2 team finished all their matches and providing great vocal support from the side line, despite the best efforts of the Erins Own goal keeper we managed to get another score before half time. The second half proved as tough as the first but in the end we came out victorious with a 2 point difference – much to the delight of the players and all their supporters. Shaun Knox was presented with the cup by Fr Seanie Barry and thanked all his team mates for their effort on the day and encouraged them to keep up the training and listen to their coaches.
Bride Rovers Group 2 Team
Our younger “Under 8” boys togged out in the great colours of the Rovers as 19 boys gave it their all in three heroic performances for the youngest hurling team in the club. For some there was a lot of training done throughout the year and for others it was their first competitive outing.
We competed against three other clubs who provided great competition on the day. In the first game Rovers v Lisgoold there were some great exchanges of hurling and energy put in by both sides but Lisgoold finished the better.
However as we were warming up our hurling skills got better and in the second game against Erins Own, it was equally competitive and with some fine scores from the boys and brave defending from the backs we thought we were over the line for our first win of the day, but in the last 5 minutes of the game, Erins Own knocked in a few scores and the game ended in a draw.
In the final game of the day the young boys were overheard promising each other that they were going to give it their all and finish the day with a win and that’s exactly what they did. We played against Ballygiblin and it was another great game and we were victorious at the final whistle. Every boy on the panel played their part in all three games, they all played very well and should be very proud of themselves.
Well done to Bride Rovers and all the clubs who competed .
