Valley girls edge classic final

Westmeath Division 2 camogie league final: Delvin 2-9, Castlepollard 3-4

Paul Doolin reports

On a dark, cold and miserable Monday night week last (June 27) in TEG Cusack Park, the ladies lit up a dreary evening with an exciting game of camogie that was in the balance right up to the final blast of excellent referee Barry Nea’s whistle.

This was end-to-end stuff at times, and could have gone either way. But the scoring was excellent in the main, the play wholehearted and totally committed, and the goalkeeping of a particularly high standard. This gave rise to one of those games that you hope would go on and on, and which no one deserved to lose.

In the end, it was Delvin who made the better of their opportunities and possibly just deserved their narrow win and the opening trophy of 2022.

Castlepollard opened in determined fashion and were easily the better team in the opening exchanges, but they only managed one point from Caoimhe McCormack. They did, however, hit the post three times and encountered a virtually unbeatable Courtney Carroll in the Delvin goal.

Denise McGrath and Linda Kenny picked off Delvin’s opening points, but McCormack equalised from a free, only for McGrath to reply immediately at the other end with a white flag when a goal looked inevitable.

Emma Gilchrist levelled for ‘Pollard again with a super score, but again McGrath restored the narrow advantage from an equally narrow angle. ‘Pollard then got the break they needed moments later when Laura Kilcoyne whipped on the ball after a period of sustained pressure and it rattled the net.

McGrath was denied a goal at the other end by two brilliant stops from Jemma Maybury, but Delvin levelled before the half from a McGrath free and a point from play by Olivia Kelleghan, which could have easily been a goal. However, it was all square at the short whistle.

After the break, Delvin upped the ante, and after another McGrath free, Linda Clune was at the end of a wonderful move to net the Valley girls’ opening goal. But the response was immediate, with Caoimhe McCormack grabbing the ball on her own ‘65’ and slaloming through the Delvin defence to net a quite superb three-pointer in reply.

Five minutes later, McCormack repeated the dose with another marvellous green flag after a mix up in the Delvin defence.

McGrath could have had a goal at the other end, but the chance was repelled by Maybury again. This didn’t stop the Lakeland legend trying again, and from a long-range free she was the person in the right place at the right time to net and restore the Delvin lead.

Linda Kenny pushed that lead out to two with another notable score, but a Caoimhe McCormack free conversion left the minimum again between the sides as we headed for the finish line.

It was end-to-end stuff at this stage without the scoreboard being troubled, but as the game entered stoppage time, McCormack shot over a free to level again.

But they chose to go short, and the ball was whipped just wide by Lauryn Sheridan, and then on the break Linda Clune pointed to seal the deal for Delvin after a helter-skelter 60 minutes of breath-taking entertainment.

At full-time, Westmeath Camogie Board’s Sheila Devine presented Delvin captain Karen Gaffney with the shield.

Scorers – Delvin: D McGrath 1-5 (0-1f, 0-1 ‘45’), L Clune 1-1, L Kenny 0-2, O Kelleghan 0-1. Castlepollard: C McCormack 2-3 (0-2f), L Kilcoyne 1-0, E Gilchrist 0-1.

Delvin: Courtney Carroll; Mags McQuillan, Elaine Farrelly, Ruth Fitzsimons; Liza Zinchenko, Áine Newman, Emily Leavy; Karen Gaffney, Caoimhe Gaffney; Darcey Ryan, Denise McGrath, Ciara Higgins; Olivia Kelleghan, Linda Kenny, Linda Clune. Sub used: Lorraine Fleeson for Zinchenko (37).

Castlepollard: Jemma Maybury; Liza McCormack, Niamh McCarthy, Jeanette Kiernan; Aoife Gallagher, Lauryn Sheridan, Emma Lancaster; Ruth Daniels, Sophia McLoughlin; Laura Kilcoyne, Caoimhe McCormack, Emma Gilchrist; Emma Kilcoyne, Janette McCormack, Aisling Browne. Subs used: Sarah Fagan for Browne (h-t), Caitlin Devine for Kiernan (h-t), Zara Geraghty for J McCormack (inj., 55).

Ref: Barry Nea (Clonkill Camogie Club).

Player of the match: Denise McGrath (Delvin).