REPORTS: Senior camogie championship down to last four after brilliant quarter-final ties

FBD Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Quarter-Final

Clonoulty Rossmore  2-14

Éire Óg Annacarty   1-9

A blistering start from Clonoulty Rossmore which yielded two goals in three minutes was key to their success over neighbours Annacarty in Saturday’s FBD Insurance Senior quarter-final. 

Annacarty had the opening score of the game with a point before Sarah Fryday fired home a goal. A minute later the impressive Eimear Bourke had a second goal in a dream start for Clonoulty. 

Cait Devane hit three frees and Cora Hennessy a point from play to open up an eight-point lead 2-3 to 0-1 after just eight minutes. It was the worst possible start for Annacarty and they needed a response quickly. 

That came in the form of a brilliantly struck Eva O’Dwyer free which caught everyone off guard and was blasted to the back of the Clonoulty net. 

The goal settled Annacarty and Jean Kelly, Lucy Heffernan and Eva O’Dwyer added points. Clonoulty’s attack continued to look sharp with Eimear Bourke, Kelly Quirke, and Devane adding to their side’s first-half tally. At the break last year’s beaten finalist led 2-9 to 1-6. 

Trailing by six points Annacarty needed to get off to a bright start after the break but instead, it was Clonoulty who hit the first three points, two from Eimear Bourke and a free from Cait Devane who had a great battle with Jennifer Heffernan throughout the hour. 

Orla O’Brien was excellent in defence for Annacarty while also scoring three points. Sarah Burke was also solid on the opposite wing-back spot and pointed a free from distance while Eva O’Dwyer always looked threatening in attack. 

The Annacarty forwards however struggled to open up a resolute Clonoulty defence led by Eimear Loughman and Courtney Ryan and only managed three second-half points. 

The scores didn’t come too easy for Clonoulty either in the second half and they had to settle for three Cait Devane frees and two points from Eimear Bourke. 

They always had the cushion of the two first-half goals with their quick start proving very costly for the visitors. Annacarty will be relatively pleased in the manner in which they held many of Clonoulty’s big guns after the opening ten minutes but ultimately they didn’t have the firepower up front to cause enough damage when they did have possession. 

Clonoulty will now face familiar foes Drom-Inch in the county semi-final in two weeks. 

Clonoulty Rossmore: Teresa Burke; Lorna Ryan, Aoife Bourke, Moira Kinane; Courtney Ryan, Clodagh Quirke, Eimear Loughman; Bernadette Ryan, Sinead Ryan; Kelly Quirke (0-1), Cait Devane (0-8f), Cora Hennessy (0-1); Kate Ferncombe, Sarah Fryday (1-0), Eimear Bourke (1-4).

Subs used: Avril Quirke for Cora Hennessy.

Éire Óg Annacarty: Danielle Butler; Caoimhe Brady, Rosanna O’Donnell, Orlagh Walsh; Orla O’Brien (0-3), Ciannait Walsh, Sarah Burke (0-1f); Rachel O’Dwyer, Eibhlis McDonald; Jennifer Heffernan, Jean Kelly (0-2), Danielle Ryan; Leah Heffernan, Eva O’Dwyer (1-2f), Lucy Heffernan (0-1). 

Referee: Paul Carew (Lattin Cullen)