Sports
Landers points the way for Beagh hurling
Beagh 1-18 – Kinvara 1-13
SOME fantastic point-taking from Beagh’s Padraig Landers lit up a damp, murky Saturday evening in Kenny Park, Athenry as last year’s beaten semi-finalists accounted for Kinvara in the last of the round one ties of the Galway senior hurling championship.
Landers’ ability to engineer pockets of space for himself helped the nippy corner forward fire over seven points from play, the final two coming in quick succession late in the second half to ease any sort of tension that was building in the Beagh ranks as Kinvara began to chip away at their once healthy lead.
Kinvara ‘keeper Colm Callanan had earlier fired in a 49th minute goal from a close range free to provide Ollie Bergin’s side with some glimmer of hope, and when Conor Kavanagh added a brace to also bring his tally to seven, there was suddenly only four points between the sides with five minutes left to play.
But, as they had done on a number of occasions throughout the tie, Beagh responded in assured fashion to the Kinvara scores, with Landers again displaying clinical accuracy when the chances arose. The defining moments of this clash, though, arguably occurred just before the interval when Beagh added 1-2 to their tally in stoppage time.
With the advantage of a decent performance in seeing off Craughwell a week earlier, Beagh began in confident fashion and were 0-3 to 0-1 ahead within seven minutes as a steady drizzle made conditions far from ideal. Kevin Keehan (free), Rory Gantley, and Joe Gantley were quickly into their stride with points while Steve Moylan, who departed through injury early on, replied for Kinvara.
The play was scrappy and at times Beagh over-elaborated, allowing Kinvara to draw level by the 17th minute as Conor Kavanagh clipped over from an acute angle before guiding over a free. In an instant, though, Beagh took a more direct line to goal and their two Adrians, Diviney and Tuohy, both registered fine points.
A snappy reply from Ronan Kilkelly kept Kinvara in touch, but their challenge was then hampered by some poor shooting as they hit three wides in succession. After Padraig Landers opened his account on 23 minutes, Beagh too were guilty of some wayward attempts before Adrian Tuohy opened up a three point gap on 28 minutes.
The injury to Moylan and lengthy treatment for Colm Burke proved to be Kinvara’s undoing, though, as Beagh struck killer blows in added time. There was a touch of good fortune to Keehan’s 32nd minute goal, as he attempted to pass but dropped the sliotar after a searing burst through the middle of the defence.
Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.