Donegal avenged last month’s Division 3 league final loss to Wicklow by handing the Garden men an 11-point defeat in the opening round of the Christy Ring Cup this afternoon.

It finished 1-17 to 1-6 at O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny, where the hosts never looked back after getting out to an early 0-7 to 0-1 lead.

Points from Gerard Gilmore, Liam McKinney (free) and Josh Cronolly-McGee would stretch the Ulster side’s advantage to seven (0-10 to 0-3) come half-time and they’d have the sliotar in Wicklow’s net within 10 minutes of the restart.

Richie Ryan raise the green flag that put 11 points between the sides and the visitors wouldn’t be able to claw back that deficit, with Willie Cash bagging a late consolation goal for them.

In Trim, Kerry were impressive in their emphatic 3-17 to 0-12 win over Meath.

After falling 0-12 to 0-3 behind, Meath got their deficit down to six with three unanswered points from Tom Shine (two frees) but those were wiped out by Kevin Goulding’s goal on the half-hour mark as the visitors took in a 1-14 to 0-6 lead at the interval.

The Royals landed the first three points of the resumption via Gavin King (free), Daire Shine and Joey Cole ahead of Jordan Brick smashing in Kerry’s second goal and another from Michael Slattery late on would put a seal on what was a 14-point in the end for John Griffin’s men.

Meanwhile, last year’s runners up Derry got their campaign off to a winning start against Roscommon at Celtic Park (1-22 to 1-10) in this afternoon’s later game.

After opening an early 0-7 to 0-2 lead with the help of a couple of Cormac O’Doherty frees, the Oak Leafers conceded a Jack Donnelly goal before netting one of their own through Joseph Mulholland.

The scoreboard read 1-12 to 1-7 in favour of the hosts at half-time and O’Doherty would send over a few more scores, including a ‘65’, to Derry over the line towards an opening victory.

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