The U6s travelled to Kilmaley last Saturday morning for their first blitz of the year. Opponents in waiting were Kilmaley with 6 teams and Ballyea with 2 teams. The ‘Bridge bucks were fielding 6 teams also ranging from mixed 5/6 year olds to 4year olds. Some lads hadn’t slept all week in anticipation of playing 2 of the best teams on the county, especially knowing that they had specifically requested to play the ‘Bridge as the the ‘Bridge have great hurlers at U6!

The rain that fell Saturday morning would have deterred many a seasoned hurler but not these boys, over 40 hurlers made the trek west.

Hosting the blitz and organising on the Kilmaley side was former Clare hurler Diarmuid McMahon who of course is married to ‘Bridge girl Sinead Crowe.

The ‘Bridge travelled with an army of coaches and parents also, and strategies on the sideline were plentiful with the amount of help at hand. Also the coach of the year prize is still finely in the balance. Coach Peter Kearney has made great strides in the last few weeks, even teaching the kids the Irish Haka. But coaches Mike Slattery, John Reddin, Johnny O’ Sullivan, Jim Corbett and Paul Fitzpatrick are not far behind, each declaring afterwards that their teams performed best and had the most hooks, blocks, tackles..!

Up and coming coaches Stiofan Fitzpatrick, David Casey, Tom Murphy, Jim Spaight, Paddy O’ Halloran and others that helped on the day will certainly have gained their stripes in trying to negotiate all that comes with an u6 blitz. There was a record amount of injuries in one match, the team was almost halved. Coach Reddin said he never saw anything like it. There were refusals to stand in for team photo, maybe in protest at the weather! There were sudden departures to the car for an extra tip to withstand the Kilmaley weather, leaving the coaches to figure out if they should deploy a sweeper system or leave Kilmaley with the extra man!

All in all it was a great morning and the goodie bags afterwards certainly topped off the day for our young lads.

Kilmaley will be making the return visit on Friday night 18th October under lights for the finale night for the U6s.

Thanks to Michelle, Elaine & Linda also for their fantastic help on the admin side, these things don’t get organized on their own..!