By Daragh Ó Conchúir

CARLOW continue to make a serious impact on the Camogie world and the county's Minors beat a gritty Roscommon by 4-10 to 0-12 in the All-Ireland C final at the Coralstown/Kinnegad grounds.

Managed by Ger Power, senior boss Mark Brennan and Craig Wall, they showed the benefit of training with Brennan's seniors and indeed nine of the team are members of the squad that is preparing for the Intermediate championship this year, having annexed the Premier Junior and Junior titles in the space of 12 months.

Add in the brilliant win by Myshall in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club decider and Carlow's Camogie cognoscenti must be walking on air.

Ciara Kavanagh and Rachel Sawyer were the driving forces behind this latest success, with Kavanagh earning the player of the match award after a magnificent performance that yielded 1-6 of her team's tally.

Goals were the ultimate difference between the teams, with Ali Cushin, Emma Cody and Kavanagh billowing the Roscommon net. That helped them establish a 3-4 to 0-6 interval lead.

Roscommon threw everything at them in the second half but they couldn't get the goal that might have put some doubt into the minds of the Carlow players. Instead, it was the winners that raised another green flag, Sawyer displaying the experience of playing in last year's All-Ireland Premier Junior final by grabbing the fourth goal from which Roscommon could never recover, despite the outstanding efforts of Shauna Fallon in particular, who scored eight points.

Meanwhile, Clare booked their place in the A decider after a fantastic 3-12 to 0-9 victory over Dublin in Birr. Áine O'Loughlin did all the damage, scoring 3-3 and though Niamh Rock, Ciara Holland and Kerri Finnegan tried hard for the Dubs, their inability to nullify the O'Loughlin threat was their downfall.

It was 2-5 to 0-3 at the break after O'Loughlin had found the net twice and the full-forward completed the hat-trick 10 minutes after the restart after good work by Laura Foley and Aoife Power.

Kildare will play Antrim in the B final, after the Lilywhites proved too strong for Meath when prevailing by 3-9 to 0-9 and the Ulster crew enjoyed an extremely comfortable 4-19 to 3-6 victory over Laois.

Caoimhe Wright was in stunning form for Antrim, registering 2-9 and Charley McCarry carried on the excellent form she has been showing in post-primary competition by grabbing a brace of goals herself. Jessie Quinlan grabbed two goals for Laois and Amy Byrne another but they had too much of a mountain to climb.

Lea Sutton slotted 1-7 for Kildare as they cemented their final berth, while Caoimhe Shanahan and Caoimhe Maher also raised important green flags that kept Meath at bay. Caroline Quinn, with four points, and Niamh Daly with three were the primary scoring contributors for the Royals

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