Clonmel High School teams perform well in Rice Cup hurling blitzes

The High School, Clonmel entered two teams in this year’s Rice Cup for the first time, hoping to build on their First Years’ hurling county A title win earlier in the year.

The Rice Cup, an under 14 hurling competition for all CBS schools throughout Ireland, had 31 teams entered this year, with five blitzes, with 6/7 sides being played throughout the country to whittle down the competition to 16 teams and the knockout stages.

The High School’s A side competed at Dicksboro GAA club in Kilkenny and were joined in their group by Kilkenny CBS, Carrick-on-Suir CBS, Dungarvan CBS, Mullingar CBS and Ardscoil na Mara Tramore, and needed to finish in the top three to qualify for the last 16.

A win over Tramore was followed by a loss to Carrick CBS in the semi-final, meaning the High School played Mullingar CBS in a straight knockout game to see who qualified. After their best performance of the day, the High School got the win to advance to the next round.

The High School’s second team made the trip to UL’s fantastic 4G pitches on a wet and miserable day in Limerick, having been placed in a group with Thurles CBS A, Cashel CS, CBC Cork, Roscrea CS and Nenagh B.

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They opened with a match against Cashel CS and despite being level at half-time, Cashel’s first team prevailed. This set up a do-or-die tie with Roscrea CS and a strong performance saw the High School emerge as comfortable winners and go on to face CBC in the semi-final.

Christians proved to be strong opposition in the semi-final, and despite a gallant effort CBC advanced, leaving the High School in fourth place.

This was a great performance by this group in which they proved competitive against some of the top Harty Cup schools, and it bodes well for this group going forward.

Panel: Rory O’Reilly, Oisín O’Reilly, Cathal Butler, Jerome Phelan, Patrick Lyons, Aidan McMaugh, Ben Fuller, Nathan Wynne, Lukey Condon, Ben Roche, Conor Williams, Enda Condon, Billy Cooney, Darragh Beckett, Donal O’Callaghan, Conal Morrison, Enda Nolan, Charlie Byrne, Shay Scully, Eoin Lavery, Cian Mahadevaiah, Darragh Dempsey, Seb Hopkins, Sean Tom Nugent, Olan Doocey, Tom Dunphy, Finn Walsh, Fergal Bradshaw, Johncil Dsouza, Paddy Power, Jake Fennessy, Callum Condon, Harry Mulcahy, Conor Murphy, Liam Peters, Ali Hadoud, Conor Corbett, Sam McDonnell, Adam Blanchfield, James Williams, Hugh Carolan, Dylan Condon, Nathan Sukasuka, Michael Maher, Jamie Cahill, Freddie Wall, Jack Phelan, Oisín Sheehan.