What a day we had on Sunday for St. Patricks Day - First off we had our Minor hurlers in action in the morning with a fine performance against St Josephs Doora Barefield and then onto the local parade where we had a huge turnout from our young hurlers and coaches. After the parade, while the young folk queued for the now famous green ice cream our U12-14 hurlers headed for the arena for the inaugural Balla Ball (Ball Wall Hurling) competition.

The idea was simple - 3 touches to get the sliotar back to the wall - the games were balanced with skill set to win out over size and strength. The arena was transformed into a new age coaches dream - 8 color coded courts with more cones on display than the local shops selling the famed green ice cream.

As the clock hit 2pm the boys gathered for a quick briefing and demo of the rules in play with Liam and TJ providing a quick workshop

We had 32 entries - each boy was assigned to a group of 4 and a specific court and delegated a referee. Thanks to Mike Morey, Alex Morey, Caimin Morey, Ken McHugh, Billy Maxwell, John Reddin, John O'Meara and Stephen Corbett who officiated and to Orla and Alan who captured the event with lots of photos.

Each player played 3 group games up to a score of 9 with the group winner from each group progressing to the finals.

The finals threw up some cracking games and well done to our winners on the day:

Jack Fitzpatrick, Noah Conneely, Matthew Murphy, Cian Flannery.

Well done also to the runners up who were unlucky to lose out in 4 well contested finals

Rhys Feehan, TJ Finnin, Harry Loughnane, Blake Corbett,

Thanks to all who helped out in organising this event - the success of it can be measured by the number of boys who took part, the supporters who turned up and most of all by the young kids who were asking "Can I enter next year?"

We may have found a new tradition and a way to bring the great game of hurling back onto the calendar on our National Holiday!

Next major event is our star studded Easter Camp - More details here