Shelmaliers senior hurlers overcome by late St. Martins rally.

Shelmaliers in action against St. MartinsSenior hurlers knocked out of championship by St. Martins.

The Shelmalier senior hurlers just failed to a late St Martins rally in their bid to reach the semi finals of the championship for the first time when going down by 2-15 to 3-14 played in Wexford Park on Saturday last. The ‘Over the Water’ team started with the wind advantage and Tommie Barron had them off the mark with a quick point, which was quickly followed by a free from Chris McGrath. This was a much different team than the one that the Martins had beaten easily in second round of the championship. St Martins took the lead with a goal after defensive slip up in the sixth minute but from there to half time whistle it was Shels who dominated game. Eoin Doyle was completely out hurling Martins a goal after what looked like a hopeless ball had been hit in to cornerdanger man Barry Lambert and Tommie Barron playing well in half forward line getting good scores from play. Dessie Kehoe scored a great goal after 20 min and Chris McGrath adding another at 28 min after leaving his opponent trailing in his wake. The Shels had only one first half wide with some excellent free taking by Chris McGrath who got 0-4 from frees were well worth their interval lead of 2-10 to 1-5. Shels scorers in first half were Chris McGrath 1-5.Tommie Barron 0-3.Dessie Kehoe 1-0. Shamie Harding 0-1. David Walsh 0-1.      
St Martins started the second half more determination and tried to reduce  the Shels lead but they were meeting with great defensive play from Eoin Doyle, David Coney and David Walsh. However, St Martins scored 1-3 in quick succession to reduce to Shels lead to three points. A fine point from Chris McGrath from all of 65 metres gave the initiative back to the Shelmaliers, but St. Martins again struck back with three points and a goal after what looked like a hopeless ball had been hit in to corner to leave the sides tied at 2-14 to 3-11 with five minutes to go. In a period of outstanding hurling from both sides the Shels had a further point from Chris McGrath while St. Martins were able to score a further three points to leave a two point margin at the final whistle. The Shels can take great credit from this game as St Martins admitted after in the Shels dressing room that the best team had lost. Shels scorers in second half were Chris Mc Grath 0-3. Tommie Barron 0-2. Good performances from the Shelmaliers were Tommie Barron,David Cloney, Ciaran O Shaughnessy and Chris McGrath.

Shelmaliers Vs.                        Competition:

Team Line out.

                                                  1Dec Murphy

      2E.Doyle                3 Aidan Murphy            4Vinnie Parker

     5 D.Walsh      6     Brian Malone             7D.Cloney

                 8 Colin Kehoe       9 C.O Shaugnessy

    10  S.Banville          11  Alan Griffith         12Tommie Barron
 13    S.Harding 14       Dessie Kehoe              15C.McGrath

Replacements:,Ibar Murphy for Shamie Harding.

Fergie Parker for Colin Kehoe (injured).

Graham Power for Vinnie Parker.