RESULTS: Toomevara upset Kilruane MacDonaghs in county championship opener

Andrew Ryan of Toomevara battles for possession with Kilruane MacDonaghs' Niall O'Meara. (c) Sportsfocus.ie/Pádraig Hogan.

Toomevara upset defending county champions Kilruane MacDonaghs in last night’s senior hurling championship opener.

Jack Delaney starred for the Greyhounds, scoring 2-04 from play whilst youngster Darragh McCarthy impressed scoring 1-03 whilst also setting up Delaney for his first goal.

The three goals helped Toome to a 3-16 to 0-25 win to get their campaign off to the best possible start.

Speaking after the game, Toomevara manager Ken Dunne was happy with his sides performance and in particular Darragh McCarthy:

“Darragh’s a great player, he’s not 18 for another two weeks so a 17 year old with that kind of performance but we know that’s in Darragh.

“We probably thrown him in at the deep end a little bit but we have lost eight players that played county championship last year as well so we really didn’t have a choice.

“He’s such a great chap and he has so much energy, he’s a ball of energy, he has great speed and obviously he’s a lovely hurler.

“It was a class goal, he’s dangerous in there.”

Injuries meanwhile made life difficult for Kilruane MacDonaghs.

They lost Niall O’Meara at half-time due to a shoulder injury and was replaced by Craig Morgan who didn’t start the game as he looked to be hampered with a left thigh injury.

The Magpies also lost free-taker Willie Cleary to an apparent ankle injury in the second half.

Elsewhere in the same group of the county senior hurling championship, a late Luke Cashin free from close range saw Roscrea finish level with Moycarkey-Borris on a final score of Roscrea 1-18 Moycarkey-Borris 0-21.

In the Premier Intermediate hurling championship last night, St. Mary’s defeated Ballina in The Ragg 0-22 to 1-16.

St. Mary’s goalkeeper Enda Dunphy saved a penalty early in the second half which spurred on his side to comeback from three points down at half-time to take the victory.

Speaking after the game, Seamus Kennedy was delighted to get an opening round win:

“Yeah I think it was brilliant, I don’t think you could ask for much more on a Friday evening for club championship.

“It took us a long time to get to grips with Ballina, their tackling in the first half was unreal.

“We couldn’t get the ball out of the backs or past the midfield, it was very very hard.

“Cracking game, I’d say it was a great game to watch but for a long time it wasn’t looking great for us but eventually thankfully we got through.”

Elsewhere in the premier intermediate grade, Clonakenny came back from 7 points down after 55 minutes to draw with Newport 1-16 a piece.

Meanwhile last night’s intermediate hurling games saw Carrick Davins defeat Arravale Rovers 5-14 to 0-16 whilst Skeheenarinky were 0-14 to 0-07 winners over Ballybacon/Grange.