Sports Review 2022: OCTOBER

It was finals month on the local GAA front, with The Downs crowned Westmeath senior football champions for the first time in 17 years after beating Flanagan Cup holders St Loman’s, Mullingar on a miserable afternoon for football. A goal from Niall Mitchell was the key score as Lar Wall’s troops got the breaks they needed on the greasy TEG Cusack Park surface. At intermediate grade, Shandonagh required a replay against a fancied Tubberclair side to claim the Peter Geraghty Cup, while in junior, an assured display from Ronan Wallace saw Multyfarnham edge neighbours Bunbrosna to the Hugh Daniels Cup. Moate All Whites, meanwhile, won the junior 2 championship, while defeated IFC finalists Tubberclair celebrated success in the minor (U17) football final against St Loman’s.

Barring the minor decider, county’s major hurling finals were settled on the weekend of October 1/2. In the senior ‘A’, Alan Mangan’s Castletown Geoghegan charges won the Westmeath Examiner Cup, with Niall O’Brien (0-8) and David O’Reilly (0-4) excelling for the Black and Ambers as they saw off the challenge of Clonkill. After three years as beaten semi-finalists, this marked Castletown’s 14th SHC win. Meanwhile, Fr Dalton’s made history by clinching the Mickey Power Cup (senior ‘B’), turning in a second half performance for the ages to leave Delvin mulling over a second consecutive defeat in a ‘B’ final. A superb long-range score from Fr Dalton’s Owen McCabe was the highlight of the afternoon.

Meanwhile, in the IHC final, six points from Mark Cunningham helped Ringtown to the Adrian Murray Cup at the expense of Raharney, while the latter forced a replay against Castletown in the minor (U17) Division 1 final. The Black and Ambers won the replay thanks to a late goal from Philip Reynolds. Elsewhere, Coralstown/Kinnegad (Division 1) and The Downs (Division 2) won their respective U19 football championship finals. Ringtown, meanwhile, opened their Leinster Club JHC campaign with victory over Longford’s Clonguish Gaels.

A host of other county semi-finals and finals were played in October. Raharney and Clonkill progressed to the Westmeath senior camogie final, and subsequently won their eighth final on the trot. However, a fantastic display from Clonkill’s Megan Dowdall meant that Raharney had to go through extra-time to see off the Loughegar girls. The following week, Delvin annexed the junior ‘A’ camogie crown with a win over Castlepollard, Denise McGrath scoring 2-4 for the winners. In provincial competition, Raharney met Kilkenny’s James Stephens in the AIB Leinster Club Intermediate Camogie Championship, but were defeated, marking the end of Pádraic Connaughton’s hugely successful tenure as manager.

On the ladies’ football front, Milltown retained the Jim Lyster Cup (SFC) when two superb late points from Gráinne Byrne saw off the challenge of St Mary’s Rochfortbridge (0-14 to 0-12); St Mary’s also lost the senior ‘B’ final to Garrycastle later in the month. Killucan ladies won the intermediate crown against neighbours Coralstown/Kinnegad, but fell at the first hurdle in Leinster against Carlow’s Old Leighlin; Milltown suffered a similar fate at senior grade against Tinahely (Wicklow). St Joseph’s, however, advanced in provincial competition with a drubbing of Wicklow’s Coolkenno and a quarter-final victory over Naomh Fionnbarra/St Anne’s (Louth), but they lost their Leinster semi-final to Muckalee of Kilkenny.

Elsewhere in GAA, Westmeath’s Ronan O’Toole was deservedly named the first ever Tailteann Cup player of the year, while six Westmeath players – O’Toole, John Heslin, Sam McCartan, Ronan Wallace, Jack Smith and captain Kevin Maguire – made the Tailteann Cup team of the year. Declan Kelly stepped down as St Loman’s senior football manager, while Westmeath’s senior footballers held the ‘Tailteann Trail’ and several other events to raise extra funds for a forthcoming post-Tailteann Cup trip to the Mexican resort of Cancún. On the schools’ GAA front, Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar and St Joseph’s, Rochfortbridge suffered opening day defeats in the Bro Bosco Cup (Leinster Colleges SFC ‘A’).

In soccer, Mullingar Town were held 0-0 by Monksland United in the CCFL Senior Division, before embarking on a 10-0 hammering of Willow Park’s ‘B’ team, with Jason Charles and Dan Beyo scoring hat-tricks. However, they lost out at home to Clara Town after a nine-goal thriller, and in the LFA Junior Cup, Town advanced 4-2 on penalties after a draw with Courtown Hibs.

In athletics, the Westmeath Schools Cross Country Championships got back in full swing after two years of Covid restrictions. Mullingar Harriers impressed at the National Cross Country Relay Championships, while Harriers’ Vinny Connolly won in the novice men’s category at the Leinster Novice, Junior and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country Championships in Dundalk. Local clubs, meanwhile, had a host of members participating in the Dublin City Marathon.

The month in boxing saw Olympic Boxing Club, Mullingar’s rising stars Niamh Keogh (silver) and Alfie Jordan (bronze) medal at the European Junior Championships in Italy, and clubman Patsy Joyce was selected to represent Ireland at the World Youth Championship in Spain. Mullingar Elite Boxing Club held a fight night in the Greville Arms Hotel. In taekwon-do meanwhile, three local stars – Ellen Worrell, Alannah Worrell and instructor Rodney Connolly – impressed at the Taekwon-do World Cup in Slovenia, with Ellen winning a bronze medal as part of the Irish junior black belt patterns team.

In swimming, two members of Mullingar Jets Swimming Club, David Hogg and Kevin Kennedy, travelled to Portugal to take part in the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships and did Ireland proud. On the handball front meanwhile, Westmeath had a very successful month which included the launch of the new Westmeath GAA Handball website, and the hosting of the Leinster WallBall Championships in Multyfarnham, where Aoife McCarthy won gold in the ladies’ open.

Elsewhere in sport, Mullingar Sailing Club hosted the GP14 Leinster Championships; Mullingar’s Jordan Dempsey garnered enough points to win the Formula Ford 1600 title at Donington Park in Derby; Mullingar RFC’s 1st XV defeated Longford and Dundalk in Division 1B of the Leinster League; Lakeside Wheelers’ cyclocross season moved up a gear, and members Ian Lambden and Dylan Franzoni represented the club at a Verge Cyclo Event in Clonmel; and the horse racing world noted the death of War of Attrition, the Mouse Morris-trained gelding which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud (between Delvin and Collinstown) in 2006.