Feile Hurling roundup from Pat Hoyne
Basically it was a great few days, notwithstanding the results didn't go our way, the event itself was very much a success overall. It kicked off in the sunshine on Thursday 5th July when we took on Portlaoise, who we were hosting in Malahide for the weekend, in the first match. While the final score was 3-5 to 0-4 to our visitors, the match was very much in the balance until right before half time when a breakaway Laois goal put clear daylight between the two teams and they went on from there. Portlaoise didn't get it as hard again until they got to Croke Park on Saturday!
Most of the rest of Thursday was taken up with the traditional
Feile parade which went from Croke Park through city centre that
evening. And that night, in another of the great Feile traditions, the
Portlaoise players were allocated to the houses of their Syls
counterparts where they would stay for the rest of the weekend.
The rest of the group matches were played off in Broomfield on
Friday morning when Clonkill from Westmeath and Castleknock joined
ourselves and Portlaoise. Unfortunately we didn't get the rub of the
green in the first match against Clonkill who defeated us 3 - 7 to 3 -
3. Having fallen well behind by half time, our lads did magnificently to
claw it back to level pegging going into the last few minutes.
However two terrible decisions leading to two crucial scores against us
swung the momentum back to Clonkill who held out for a victory that
ultimately qualified them from the group. With just pride to play for
then against Castleknock in the final match, Sylvesters came through
with a victory on a scoreline of 4 - 5 to 1 - 3 to finish in third place
in the group.
Portlaoise topped our group with 3 wins from 3, earning them the
right to stay in Broomfield for semi-final on Friday evening against
Lucan. They won that comprehensively and went on to win the Division 2
final against St. John's, Belfast in Croke Park on Saturday by 2 points .
As anyone who was up there on Friday will testify, it was one hell
of a wet day in Broomfield and great credit is due to the players, of
all five teams, for the hurling they managed to produce in spite of the
conditions.
An event like this wouldn't happen without a lot of effort from a
lot of people, and in particular our U14 management team who did all the
'heavy lifting' in terms of arrangments for hosting of Portlaoise for
the weekend and catering for all the players, mentors, and assorted
others on the Friday. In the run up to and over the weekend, a wide
array of other people provided great assistance at various times in
firstly getting everything ready for the start, and then smoothly from
there to the finish. I'm sure the lads would have their own list of
people to thank but I'd mention in particular Brian Colgan, Michael
Stuart, Panner McCarthy, Eddie McLoughney, Jimmy Deneher; Frank Down,
everyone involved in the catering in Scoil Iosa on Friday; refs, umpires
& linesmen for all the matches; the club executive for their
support; Clonkill, Castleknock, and especially Portlaoise for all their
co-operation over the weekend; and the U14 parents who put up the
Portlaoise lads in their houses for the weekend - Portlaoise are well
used ot the Feile circuit and they proved to be brilliant guests but
I've heard we were excellent hosts.
Finally a special word of thanks from me to John Drumn for all his
particular diligence at every step along the way since last November
towards successfully hosting this Feile last weekend.
Pat