The hurling season in St Brigid’s got off to a successful start with the inaugural St Brigid’s U-12 Blitz held over the Easter break at the Dub playing fields. With teams from Antrim, Armagh and Down participating the first competitive hurling event hosted and participated in by the club proved a great success.
Targeted at the U-12 age group and attended by teams from Carryduff, Breda, Derrynoose (Armagh) and our own St Brigid’s players, we had over 70 kids enjoying a great afternoon’s hurling and criac. To promote fun, competition and skills promotion the players from the four clubs were mixed to form six ‘county’ teams (Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone) for 12-a-side. Divided into two sections each team got at least two games with the winners of each section playing each other in the final.
The final culminated with a strong Tyrone taking on the light-footed Derry side. Against a strong breeze in the first half the ‘Tyrone’ lads notched up an impressive 2-2 to 0-1 score line. Unfortunately on the resumption a heavy hailstone shower called an impromptu end to the proceedings with Tyrone finishing the overall winners. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come – it’s bad enough for them to dominate football without starting the hurly!
On the day, as the cliché goes, hurling and enjoyment were the real winners with over 70 kids (and enthusiastic parents and coaches) making new friends and learning new skills. A big thanks to the three other clubs who supported us in our first venture and travelled on the day – Carryduff, Breda and Derrynoose – we will repay the complement over the coming months. Also for our own St Brigid’s kids with a great turn out of 20 players on the day and some great performances – this was a splendid start to the season and introduction to competitive games under the St Brigid’s banner. On the day the following kids turned out to represent the blue and gold of St Brigid’s:
Garrett Mulholland, Ferghal Leyden, James Gildea, Mark Gribben, Eoin McCarry, Matthew McCartney, Ronan McGrady, Conall McCann, Christopher Kinney, Michael Webb, Aidan Fee, Niall Dillon, Cormac Doyle, Jack Dowling, Cormac McBride, Leo Mulholland, Cormac McGrady, Pearce McBride, Liam Maguire, Fintan Conway.
Of course thanks should also go to the hurling coaches – Justin McCormick, Peter Leyden, Gerry Mulholland, Seamus Doyle, Paddy Kinney and Oliver Lennon – for a well organised and successful day. And as the saying goes, behind every successful man there is a hard working woman, so a big thanks to all the coaching ‘widows’ who prepared the refreshments and cleaned up after 70 wet kids on the afternoon.
