Shels see off St. Fintans in Intermediate football.
The Shelmalier Intermediate footballers easily overcame St. Fintans by 5-14 to 0-3 in the championship on Sunday last in Piercestown. Having led by 1-8 to 0-0 at half time the Shels were always in control and led from start to finish. The Shelmaliers' scorers were Stephen Banville 1-4, Derek Walsh 1-1, Thomas Barron 0-1, Clive Lawlor 0-2, Terry Gainfort 1-2, Graham Power 0-1, Brian Malone 0-1, and subs Chris Gordan 1-1 and Colm Redmond 0-2.
Congratulations to Fergal Hynes who was the first winner of the club's website www.shelmaliers.ie quiz who correctly spotted our mystery players as Colm Tynan and Niall Tobin. Well done to Fergal and all those who entered the competition, we look forward to the next quiz, so watch out on the site for our next instalment. The few managers who are still failing to email detailed match reports and photos to shelmaliergaaclub@eircom.net please check the site to see which reports are still not submitted and submit them as soon as possible. We thank those many people who are making great efforts to get the information in on time.
A quick update on the progress of the development at Hollymount: You will be glad to hear that the building of the complex at Hollymount by Bushel Construction is progressing well. The roof structure including the portal frames for both the sports hall and dressing room blocks has been erected. The cladding is also completed on the sports hall. Most of the block work is completed at this stage. It is expected that the structure will be substantially complete by September and that the fit out of the building can then commence.
There was no winner to the club's lotto last week which stood at €9,600, with the following numbers of 3.10, 11, 17 and bonus 28 picked out. There were 9 lucky winners of the match 3 and they were Carl Burk, Elaine Farrell, Bea Clayden, Paul and Deirdre Tobin, Joe Carton, Ella O Connor, Ann Kehoe, Mary Whitmore and Hughie Murphy, each of whom received €17.
The Shelmalier under 14 hurlers travelled to Bunclody on Wednesday last where a win here would copperfasten our place in a County semi-final, and although the opposition have struggled in this division, the Shels, under pressure to win and short a number of regulars, were on their guard against complacency. However Bunclody, determined to end their campaign on a high note, came out all guns blazing and really put it up to our boys throughout the opening period. They had good hurlers in important positions and many of our boys didn’t seem fully focussed early on. When the half-time whistle blew we found ourselves six points adrift having played against the breeze. Shane Birney, Dean Corrigan , Stephen Dwyer and Pádraic O’ Leary had hurled very well but we needed many others to step up to the mark. What a turnaround! Our boys hurled up a real storm. We had pulled the deficit back within five minutes and went on to score an enormous 7-12 without reply to win the game easily. Shane Birney was on fire, coming out with a personal tally of 6-3. Our midfield of Dean Corrigan and Neil Rossiter asserted themselves and supplied good ball inside, which was well used by our pacy wing forwards, A.J. Lehane and Kevin O’ Connor. At the back Stephen Dwyer and Pádraic O’ Leary completely snuffed out the main threats of the opposition.
The Shelmalier minor footballers had to withstand a late goal for Ferns which setup a nail biting finish to this minor football championship game at Hollymount. On a wet and windy evening, the Shels playing with the help of a stiff breeze opened brightly with a Niall Stafford point followed by a very well worked Stuart Lacey goal to lead by 1-1 to no score after 10 mins. However, Ferns then started to play and looking the fresher side had amassed two goals and three points of their own to lead by 2-3 to 1-1 with 10 mins to go in the first half. The sides exchanged scores with Conor Walsh getting a point for the Shels before Ferns once again added two more points to leave the score at 2-5 to 1-2 with minutes left in the half. Things looked bad for the Shels at this stage but they managed to break through the Ferns defence for Niall Stafford to score a major just before the break to leave the scores at 2-5 to 2-2 for Ferns at half-time.
It was a different Shels team that emerged for the second half though. Looking far more committed and with James Gordon, who replaced Shane Murphy shortly after the break, playing as a third midfielder the Shels began to gain control of the middle third of the pitch. Switches in the forward line also began to benefit the home team with Joe Kelly and Conor Byrne both exerting a greater influence from full-forward and centre forward respectively. Slowly the scores began to come and with both Conor Byrne and James Gordon scoring two points each plus points from Brian Doyle, Stuart Lacey and Niall Stafford the Shels had forged into a 3 point lead at 2-9 to 2-6 with 10 mins to play. Brian O'Connor then stole up field for the insurance point with less than 4 minutes remaining. That score was to prove vital as Ferns capitalized on poor communication in the Shels full-back line to score a goal with almost the last kick of the game.
Luckily for the Shels, time ran out on the visitors with the score at 2-10 to 3-6 in favour of the home team.