Kerry 4-31
Derry 0-11

Kerry opened their Christy Ring Cup campaign with a 32-point drubbing of Derry at Austin Stack Park this afternoon.

When the counties met in the first round of the Allianz League on February 16 at Owenbeg, the Kingdom cruised to a 4-24 to 3-8 victory, but their winning margin was even greater on this occasion as they underlined their status as favourites to win the second tier competition.

Building on their Allianz League Division 2A triumph, the hosts had established an unassailable 2-18 to 0-0 lead by half-time with all but two of their scores coming from play. Shane Nolan struck their first goal after taking a great pass from David Butler to make it 1-12 to 0-0. Prior to that, Nolan, Padraig Boyle, Colm Harty and the returning Mikey Boyle had all raised white flags.

Harty added a second major on the stroke of half-time to leave 24 points in it.

Derry finally got some scores on the board through Ruairi Convery, Kevin Hinphey and Alan Grant early in the second period, but it continued to be one-way traffic as Eamonn Kelly's charges increased their lead.

A third goal from Daniel Collins with 10 minutes remaining saw the winners go a whopping 30 points clear, 3-27 to 0-6.

Kerry - T Flynn; B Murphy, T Murnane, D Fitzelle; S Weir (0-2), D Dineen (0-1), T Casey (0-1); D O'Connell, J Egan (0-2); M Boyle (0-3), D Collins (1-2), C Harty (1-2); P Boyle (1-3), D Butler (0-3), S Nolan (1-10, 0-5f). Subs: K Carmody for T Casey, A Boyle for D Butler, J Casey for D Dineen, P O'Connor (0-1) for C Harty, J Leahy (0-1) for D Collins.

Derry - D McDermott; M Warnock, L Hinphey, E McGuckin; P Cleary (0-1), K Hinphey (0-2), A Rafferty; B Og McGilligan, C Quinn; C McQuillan, A Grant (0-5, 4f), A Kelly; J O'Dwyer, R Convery (0-2), D O'Neill. Subs: S Farren (0-1f) for R Convery, C Convery for C Quinn, M O'Hagan for D O'Neill, N Farran for M Warnock, T McCloy for J O'Dwyer.

Referee - T Carroll. Tweet

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