Round-Up: Go-Ahead Ireland U21 Hurling Championship

Ballinteer St John’s claimed the Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin Under 21 ‘B’ Hurling Championship title when overcoming Faughs by 1-17 to 2-7 at Marlay Park on Saturday afternoon. 

The hosts raced out of the blocks with a Joey Quirke goal in the 5th minute setting the tone and they pushed seven points clear thanks largely to the impeccable free-taking of Tommy Cullen. 

Faughs played their way back into contention through a Mossy Moore goal and a lively display from Eoghan Brennan but they faced an uphill task at the break as they trailed by 1-9 to 1-4, despite having played with the wind initially. 

Their task became more difficult as St John’s added three quick points at the start of the second-half but the visitors gradually trimmed their arrears with Moore finishing with 1-6 while Dessie Ryan raised a second green flag.

However, with both Cillian Gibbons and Cody Graham excelling in the central defensive positions, Ballinteer regained control late on with Cullen’s eleven points and further scores by influential midfielder Conor Quinn, Alan Moran and Max Caulwell seeing them over the line. 

In the ‘C’ Championship, Naomh Barróg impressed from the outset as they accounted for Fingallians by 1-17 to 0-12 in their semi-final clash at Páirc Barróg. 

The free-taking of Ben Flanagan was a constant source of scores for the hosts as he converted eight placed balls while a goal by Donncha Heffernan helped build a healthy 1-9 to 0-6 lead by half-time. 

Barróg continued to control matters through the displays of Matthew Sharry, Dylan Duggan and Daniel Connolly and with Heffernan adding two points to his goal, they eased into the decider thanks to a trio of Micheál Tierney points, an Aodhán Ó Donnchú brace and points apiece from Darragh Nolan and Kyle Comerford. 

The ‘D’ championship final took place in Skerries with O’Toole’s doing just enough to see off a battling Skerries Harps by 2-14 to 2-9. 

The visitors played with the benefit of the breeze in the first-half and were full value for their 1-9 to 0-4 interval lead with a goal from full-forward Eoin Finlay augmented by the free-taking of Scott Cassidy Walker. 

Harps were much improved upon the restart with the likes of Darragh Cullen, Ronan Geoghegan, Rory Boylan and Daire Geoghegan all to the fore with the latter netting at the end of the third quarter to bring his side back into contention. 

However, Joe Hoey scored a superb goal at the opposite end to effectively settle the issue and while Skerries replied through a Cullen goal and points from Daire Geoghegan and Matt Weldon, they arrived too late to spare them their fate. 

The victory was especially encouraging for the Larriers, given that they were without the injured trio of Conn Rock, Luke Webster and Ciaran Sheehy with eleven of their starting team playing minor hurling this year.    

U21 ‘B’ HC final: Ballinteer St John’s 1-17 Faughs 2-7. 

U21 ‘C’ HC semi-final: Naomh Barróg 1-17 Fingallians 0-12. 

U21 ‘D’ HC final: Skerries Harps 2-9 O’Toole’s 2-14. 

U21 ‘E’ HC semi-final: Round Towers Lusk 3-21 St Mark’s 2-9.