Bennettsbridge 3-19
Fullen Gaels 1-8

Bennettsbridge were crowned All-Ireland Club Junior Hurling champions following a comfortable 15-point victory over Fullen Gaels at Croke Park today.

As expected, the Kilkenny outfit possessed too much firepower for the Exiles as goals from Brian Lannon, Liam Blanchfield and Hugh O'Neill laid the foundations for their runaway success.

A converted Nicky Cleere free set the tone early on and the Kilkenny champions bossed proceedings from start to finish.

All their goals arrived in the opening period and Christy Walsh's charges went in at the break with a 14-point lead - 3-11 to 0-6.

The Lancashire side's woes were compounded when they were reduced to 14 men following the sending-off of full-forward Vincent Morrissey shortly after the resumption but they did manage to net a late consolation goal through substitute Tom Corcoran.

Half-forward Cleere finished as his side's top scorer with nine points, six of which came from placed balls.

Bennettsbridge - E Cleere; S Wemyss, R Lennon, J Moran; J Cleere, E Morrissey, A Cleere (0-1); D Wafer, K Blanchfield (0-1); C Wafer (0-2), S Morrissey (0-3), N Cleere (0-9, 6f); H O'Neill (1-1), B Lannon (1-0), L Blanchfield (1-1). Subs: Patrick O'Neill for K Blanchfield, Paul O'Neill for S Wemyss, W Murphy for H O'Neill, M Shiel (0-1) for B Lannon, E Fitzgerald for A Cleere.

Fullen Gaels - T Goulding; S Wallace, L Knocker, C Maskey; A Morrissey, J O'Shaughnessy, V Faherty; S Garry (0-1), R McEntee; A O'Neill, G Jacob, P Duggan; C O'Callaghan (0-3, 2f), V Morrissey (0-4, 2f), D O'Grady. Subs: T Corcoran (1-0) for D O'Grady, N Unwin for S Wallace, D Maskey for P Duggan, J Sheehan for G Jacob, D Walsh for S Garry.

Referee - J Keane.

Tweet

Most Read Stories