GAA
City teams out of luck in hurling championship
It proved to be a difficult opening weekend to the senior and intermediate hurling championships for the city teams with Castlegar and Liam Mellows defeated in the first round of the senior by All-Ireland club champions Portumna and former kingpins Athenry respectively.
Castlegar faced an uphill battle and, already a man down with the dismissal of Dean Higgins, they trailed 1-18 to 0-8 just before half-time when Ronan O’Meara scored a goal for Portumna.
Cashel rallied, however, and an Enda Concannon goal before the break gave them hope, and they were just four points behind on 1-23 to 1-19 with eight minutes to go, before Portumna pulled away to win 1-29 to 1-19.
Liam Mellows’ suffered a 2-20 to 0-15 loss to Athenry in Gort on Saturday. A late scoring burst from Conor Hynes, Tadgh Haran and Aonghus Callanan at the end of the opening period saw Mellows enter the break 0-9 to 0-8 in front and when Callanan and Haran registered points early in the second half to extend this advantage to three, it looked as if they were well on their way.
However, Athenry subsequently began to kick into gear and an impressive haul of 2-12, including two goals from full-forward Jack Carr, in the second period saw them race to an 11-point victory.
In the intermediate championship, Rahoon/Newcastle lost out 1-16 to 1-10 to championship favourites Cappataggle; but Clarinbridge’s second string caused an upset of sorts when accounting for Kilconieron (1-13 to 1-11) in their intermediate opener and Oranmore/Maree saw-off 2013 Junior A champions, Craughwell.