A busy weekend usually makes for a busy Monday morning at KCLR and Scoreline HQ so let’s take a look at some of the stories making the headlines for your Monday morning.
Champions once again
Ballyhale Shamrocks are Leinster club senior hurling champions for a fourth straight year, their 12th provincial title in total.
The Kilkenny champions surged into a 14-point lead at one stage but were pegged back by a dogged Kilmacud Crokes in the second half, the score cut to a single point at one stage. They did prevail, lift the Leinster title once again and can now look forward to a mouthwatering game against defending champions Ballygunner in just under a fortnight’s time.
However, speaking after the game, manager Pat Hoban admitted their performance simply won’t be good enough to beat the Munster champions. Meanwhile, joint manager of Kilmacud Crokes Kieran Dowling was asked after the game about what was said at halftime to inspire his side’s comeback, Dowling saying he simply reminded his players to go back to the basics.
While they may not have won the hurling, they did finish out as Leinster senior football champions, with Kilmacud beating The Downs 1-12 to 0-08 in the second game of the day at Croke Park yesterday.
County titles wrapping up
From events over the weekend, we need to say congratulations again to Mullinavat who claimed this year’s JJ Kavanagh & Sons Kilkenny U21 C hurling title with a win over Kilmacow on Saturday. James Stephens collected the Duggan Steel U15A football title with a win over John Lockes on Sunday afternoon with St. Lachtains taking the Gaeltec Under 16 camogie shield while Thomstown finished as U22 champions in Kilkenny with a 1-14 to 1-12 win over Conahy yesterday.
Also on Saturday, Camogie Association president Hilda Breslin was in town to assist with the Kilkenny Camogie All-Ireland medal presentation night at Hotel Kilkenny where she raised some good points about the association’s plans for 2023.
If 2021 was about getting games back and 2022 was about securing the commercial and sponsorship side of the organisation – new deals this year with Glen Dimplex – then next year is very much about attendance and getting more people into games at all levels, but especially the bigger games.
The Carlow U20 football championship continued over the weekend as well, a win for Palatine over Clonmore sealing a quarter-final spot against Mount Leinster Rangers next weekend. And while it’s not county, SETU Carlow’s freshers have a chance
High-scoring soccer & World Cup action resumes
Local first and Bridge United had a healthy 5-1 win over Fort Rangers in Kilkenny yesterday, with New Oak and Parkville hitting five each in the Nationalist Premier Division in Carlow too against Kilree Celtic and Hanover Harps.
All the results of the weekend are on Scoreline.ie this morning.
France and England are through to the quarter-final stages of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and will face each other this coming Saturday.
Olivier Giroud scored for the French to become their all-time top goal scorer as Kylian Mbappe added two more for the competition to beat Poland 3-1 yesterday. England looked good value for their 3-0 win over Senegal to set up this weekend’s big game.
Today we’ve got our third round of games in the last sixteen as Japan take on Croatia at three while Brazil will be seen as heavy favourites for their clash with South Korea at seven o’clock.
Tullow’s form continues
Kilkenny came from 15 points behind at half-time to secure a losing bonus point away to Ashbourne in Division 1A of the Leinster League on Saturday afternoon. Needing an inspired second-half performance to get anything from the game, Kilkenny looked like a completely different outfit as they managed to claw themselves back into the game and secure a losing bonus point with a 15-10 defeat.
Elsewhere, Carlow gave up a 23-5 lead to fall to a 24-23 loss against Mullingar while Tullow had a huge victory against table-toppers Wicklow, that one finishing 18-14.
Kilkenny’s women had their first taste of defeat this season having gone six-for-six in Division 4 of the Leinster League so far this year as they fell to a low-scoring 5-0 defeat on the road to Navan on Sunday. Tullow women had a two-try shutout win over Blackrock College J1s as they came away from Stradbrook with a 12-0 win to leapfrog the hosts into third in Division 1.
Boxing Delights
Lastly this morning on the boxing front, Paulstown Boxing Club had their 50th-anniversary celebrations over the weekend with an in-house tournament and some more good news for the O’Neill family. Club stalwart Ollie O’Neill was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the IABA while multiple-time elite national champion and Olympian Darren O’Neill has been voted onto the IABA board of directors following their AGM yesterday.
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