Buzzers Stung at the death!
Cratloe's Junior Hurlers suffered the heartbreak of an injury time defeat after an enthralling finish saw Clooney/Quin take the County Junior B Championship in Shannon yesterday.
Sunny conditions adorned the venue and Cratloe decided to face into what slight breeze there was in the opening half. It was the Mid Clare outfit who starteed the more promising and opened their scoring with three points from play across their half forward line. Cratloe soon settle with Fintan Ward both from frees and play and Brian McInerney raising white flags. Cratloe found scores more difficult to come by however and trailed 0-7 to 0-4 at the interval. Clooneys additional points coming from the flawless frees of Kevin O Looney and corner forward Shane McMahon.
The second half resumed as the first ended with the Quin men largely first to breaking ball. Cratloe were punished with any indiscipline from O Looneys freetaking and drifted further from the contest as Quins Aidan Daffy at halfback and Michael Browne took a grip of the contest. With the final quarter remaining, Cratloe, who had trailed all afternoon, finally woke up to the occaision. Points from the introduced Joe O Connor, Brendan Reinsfort and Ward from placed balls hauled in Quins lead from 11pts to 0-6 to a one point margin.
On the verge of injury time it looked as if the Blues stole the tie when Clooney Quin's Conor McCarthys hand pass put his netminder Davy McNamara under pressure and Brian McInerney scrummaged the ball over the line. Clooney Quin surged up the field with a final attack on the stroke of full time and when Cratloe failed to deal with Aidan Daffy's long ball it was left to Paudie Hassett to pull to the net and retrieve a championship that looked to have been stolen from them.
It was a harrowing defeat for a Cratloe side which certainly didn't hurl to their previously shown potential and for at least one more year silverware has eluded the Buzzers.
Ar Aghaidh Linn
Cratloe's Junior Hurlers suffered the heartbreak of an injury time defeat after an enthralling finish saw Clooney/Quin take the County Junior B Championship in Shannon yesterday.
Sunny conditions adorned the venue and Cratloe decided to face into what slight breeze there was in the opening half. It was the Mid Clare outfit who starteed the more promising and opened their scoring with three points from play across their half forward line. Cratloe soon settle with Fintan Ward both from frees and play and Brian McInerney raising white flags. Cratloe found scores more difficult to come by however and trailed 0-7 to 0-4 at the interval. Clooneys additional points coming from the flawless frees of Kevin O Looney and corner forward Shane McMahon.
The second half resumed as the first ended with the Quin men largely first to breaking ball. Cratloe were punished with any indiscipline from O Looneys freetaking and drifted further from the contest as Quins Aidan Daffy at halfback and Michael Browne took a grip of the contest. With the final quarter remaining, Cratloe, who had trailed all afternoon, finally woke up to the occaision. Points from the introduced Joe O Connor, Brendan Reinsfort and Ward from placed balls hauled in Quins lead from 11pts to 0-6 to a one point margin.
On the verge of injury time it looked as if the Blues stole the tie when Clooney Quin's Conor McCarthys hand pass put his netminder Davy McNamara under pressure and Brian McInerney scrummaged the ball over the line. Clooney Quin surged up the field with a final attack on the stroke of full time and when Cratloe failed to deal with Aidan Daffy's long ball it was left to Paudie Hassett to pull to the net and retrieve a championship that looked to have been stolen from them.
It was a harrowing defeat for a Cratloe side which certainly didn't hurl to their previously shown potential and for at least one more year silverware has eluded the Buzzers.
Ar Aghaidh Linn
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