Last week was a busy one on 3 fronts for the Kilmessan U-14 camogie team with games in the Meath U14A Championship, Feile na nGael 2012 and Leinster Community Games.

First up on Sunday was the Meath U14 final against Ratoath in Dunboyne. A superb 1st half performance by the Kilmessan girls, after which they led by 3-03 to 0-00, laid the foundation for an impressive win. In the 2nd half, Kilmessan defended brilliantly to hold off the expected Ratoath comeback and a late insurance point sealed a famous win on a 3-04 to 1-03 scoreline.

On Thursday the team headed for Dublin to represent Meath in Feile na nGael 2012. The Kilmessan girls were in Division 2D along with Kilmacud Crokes and Castleknock from Dublin and Inagh/Kilnamona from Clare.

Kilmessan's first game was against their hosts Kilmacud Crokes in Glenalbyn. Kilmessan girls got off to a slow start and trailed 1-02 to 0-00 at half time.
A much improved 2nd half performance just failed to peg back the Crokes and in the end it finished 2-04 to 2-02.
Later that evening the girls and their mentors took part in the Feile parade, led by the Artane Band. Large crowds lined the parade route from Croke Park to O'Connell St to cheer on all the teams and made it a memorable occasion for all those involved.

The next day was a miserable day for camogie with steady rain all day. Kilmessan's first game was against Castleknock.
In a close game both sides battled hard but at half time Kilmessan trailed by 2-01 to 1-01.
The 2nd half saw Kilmessan dig deep in the awful conditions and roared on by their large support, Kilmessan held their opponents scorless and added 1-01 to run out deserved winners in the end by 2-02 to 2-01.

After a short rest , Kilmessan's final game was against Inagh/Kilnamona from Clare. The Kilmessan girls started well and matched the Clare girls for long periods of the game but eventually lost out by 7-05 to 0-01. The scoreline doesn't reflect the enormous effort put in by a brave Kilmessan team and there was no shame in defeat to the eventual Division 2 outright winners.

Kilmessan's last game of a busy week was on Saturday morning in Carlow. They faced Lucan Sarsfields in the Leinster Community Games semi-final, minus 4 of the Feile squad who were overage for this competition.
Again the Kilmessan girls gave their all against their Dublin opponents who had themselves competed in Division 1 of Feile , but 5 games in 7days took their toll and in the end Lucan ran out 5 point winners 3-09 to 3-04. Lucan went on to beat Thomastown of Kilkenny in the final.

This bunch of girls played outstanding camogie all week and were a credit to themselves,their club and their county.

The panel was Amy Duffy, Ciara Brady, Joelle Smith, Laura O'Neill, Kate Stafford, Kim Farrell, Niamh Costello, Megan Thynne, Aine Brady, Aishling Walshe,
Nadine Doyle, Ciara Hickey, Emily Harlin, Hannah Loughran, Katie Walsh, Rachel Duffy, Deirdre O'Brien, Abbye Donnelly and Leah Dennehy.

Mentors were Aisling Carroll, Anto O'Neill , Alan Duffy and Niamh Carroll