Craughwell junior hurlers end long wait

Craughwell 2-7

Annaghdown 1-9

THREE points in the final quarter ended Craughwell’s long wait as they clinched a first county junior A hurling title since 1969 at Duggan Park last Sunday.

Trailing by two points against the wind, scores from David Flaherty, Michael Farrell and Brian Callanan overturned the deficit in the closing stages in a contest that provided its fair share of entertainment.

Last week’s drawn match produced a high tempo second half and both teams took up from there in this replay as Annaghdown came close in the opening two minutes. A four man move involving Niall O’Keeffe, Colm Monaghan and Cathal Gaffney gave Niall Kineen an opportunity before being fouled and Jonathan Comer converted the resulting placed ball.

Annaghdown were showing their intent but Craughwell made a bigger impact 60 seconds later. Ross Spellman’s long delivery towards the danger area was caught on the edge of the square by Cian Larkin before he offloaded to the waiting Farrell who struck to the net for a 1-0 to 0-1 lead. And it could have been a second in the fourth minute when Dermot McMahon and Flaherty were involved resulting in Damien Rooney getting a shot at goal.

It was end-to-end! Annaghdown struggled for scores from play the last day but started Ronan Leonard this time and he proved a thorn in the opposing defence. Monaghan set him up for his first in the sixth minute and he would finish the half with two more. However, while white flags were proving difficult for Craughwell, they were having much more success chasing green.

Flaherty did open his account with a long range free but it was their second goal on eight minutes that put distance between the teams. Callanan’s fierce effort was stopped by Damien Comer before the ball trickled over the line. There was some debate about whether it crossed the white line but the umpires were adamant it counted and Craughwell were 2-1 to 0-2 clear.

Annaghdown were in trouble as the wind was with their opponents, but Craughwell finished the rest of the half with just two more Flaherty frees even though Farrell came close to a third major only for his run down the right to be hooked by Enda Mullarkey. Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.