{moszoomthumb imgid=136 itemid=61 caption=(Shelmaliers under 8
hurling team.)} Young hurlers making steady progress.
At present there are over 40 boys in the Under 8 age group in the club. All these boys are very interested in learning the skills of both hurling and football. This year the under 8s entered a league with five other clubs. These clubs in the league are St. Martins, Glynn Barntown, Our Ladys Island, St. Annes and the Faythe Harriers. Our team of enthusiastic young men is presently doing very well in this league which is great credit to their skill and determination.
The league concentrates mainly on ground hurling. Our first match was against St. Martins which our boys were very unlucky to lose by the narrowest of margins. Our second match was against Glynn Barntown where the Shelmalier team put in a much better performance winning by a four goal margin. We travelled to St. Annes for our third match where again the boys displayed great skill, unfortunately going down by a two point difference at the final whistle. In the last two matches against Our Ladys Island and the Harriers, the Shelmaliers proved by far the stronger team, winning both matches by comfortable margins. At the end of the first round the Shelmaliers are in second place and therefore it is all to play for in the second series of matches against the same teams, which is eagerly looked forward to by all the players.
It our policy that all our players participate in every match and this generally results in two or three matches taking place at the same time in each venue. This ensures that no player is disappointed at the end of the evening as each and every player has played an equal part in his team,s success. This can only help the skill level and confidence of all the players as they try to master the many skills of the game. In the years to come the club will have a great bunch of skillful hurlers and footballers tol ensure that its success will continue into the future.