Ballymore too strong for St. Helen's in U-16 title decider

On Monday night September 27th, the Ballymore U-16 team captured the championship title in great style after scoring a comprehensive win over St. Helen's Drumlish/Ballinamuck in front of a big crowd at the floodlit Clonguish grounds.

These clubs have been involved in a number of cracking underage games in recent years but on this occasion Ballymore were unstoppable.

They started the stronger with many attacks and Elaine Reilly got the first score from play following a great move out of defence involving Franchesca Kelly and Alison Smyth and this was followed with a free converted by Aisling Reynolds.

Ballymore added another point from play by Elaine Reilly before Aisling Reynolds got the final touch to score the only goal of the game. Elaine Reilly then fired over another point before St. Helen's registered their first score through Emma Farrelly.

But Ballymore finished the first half the stronger with further points from Amy Creegan, Elaine Reilly (3) and Aisling Reynolds (3) to hold a commanding 1-11 to 0-1 lead at the break. On the changeover Emma Burns scored a great point from play and Aisling Reynolds (free) and Elaine Reilly were on target again for Ballymore.

St. Helen's staged a brief comeback which yielded three points but Ballymore regained the upper hand with Elaine Reilly landing five more points with Claire Smyth also getting her name on the scoresheet.

This was a great achievement for the Ballymore team who have all come through the development squads in the club and have won U-12 'A', U-14 'A' and U-16 honours. Claire Smyth and Alison Smyth played solid in goals, while in defence Lisa Smyth, Ciara Kelly, Franchesca Kelly, Alison Smyth, Emer Heaney and Yvonne Murphy were flawless.

Joanne Browne and Aisling Reynolds played their midfield roles with superiority while in attack Amy Creegan, Emma Burns, Aileen Murphy, Ciara Harkin, Elaine Reilly, Melanie Smyth and Megan Reilly all performed very well. Most prominent for St. Helen's were Ellie Collum, Patricia and Catriona O' Hara in defence and Mandy Cassidy, Laura Burke and Emma Farrelly in attack.

Ballymore joint captains Joanne Brown and Claire Smyth received the trophy from Andy Kavanagh, Ladies Board Vice-Chairman while Elaine Reilly won the player-of-the-match award for her outstanding display, scoring the impressive total of 11 points.