Even minus the influential services of last year's captain Donncha Sheehan and dual-star Conor Fitzgerald, Adare still cruised to an opening round win over Claughaun in the opening round of the Live 95FM Limerick Senior Hurling Championship at sun-soaked in Bruff.

AHEAD OF THE PACK: Michael Noonan, Adare fending off the Claughaun attack during their County Senior Hurling Championship match in Bruff last Sunday. Picture: Keith Wiseman

Disappointingly, what was billed as the feature contest of the afternoon turned-out by a wholly lopsided affair when the defending champions on top all through, galloping away to a hugely impressive 3-13 to 0-4 victory over the recent intermediate champions. Although Claughaun fired over the opening point, they failed to score for the rest of the first-half and Adare were in pole position by the interval, 3-6 to 0-1 ahead.

Those Adare goals were grabbed by the magnificent Diarmuid Sexton and Brian Foley, a younger brother of Limerick skipper Mark.

Adare - for whom Timmy Houlihan is back from Australia to command the last line of defence in place of Shane O'Donoghue - added seven points in the closing-half, and certainly look one of the principles in terms of the destination of the John Daly Cup next Autumn.

In the opening tie, Barry Foley produced a remarkable display, hitting 1-9 as Patrickswell came from the proverbial next parish to advance past Western Gaels. The 'gaels - who last won this championship 40-odd years ago - were ten points clear at the break, following a first-half in which Sean Herlihy and Limerick SF full-back Johnny McCarthy were both awesome on the scoring front.

On the re-start, it was Limerick SH captain of yesteryear and current panelist Foley who showed top form which eventually propelled the 'well to a 3-18 to 2-16 victory. One-time Limerick U21 ace Peter O'Reilly and former county minor Brian Geoghegan were those to hit closing-half goals for the eventual winners. Points by Peter Harty and young replacement Thomas O'Brien were also worth of note for Patrickswell.

Retired from the county scene yes, but not the club stage TJ Ryan. The Garryspillane captain was in fine fettle at Ballyagran where the 2005 kingpins put Tournafulla into the back-door route of the championship with a decent 1-17 to 1-11 win. Ryan was responsible for the Bouncers' second-half goal, while his younger brother Donie - Limerick's two goal super-hero against Waterford in last year's championship - collected a whopping eight points, including a beauty from a side-line strike.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment