On one of the most bitterly cold,windy evenings I have ever seen towards the end of April ,when you wouldn't even put a milk bottle outside,the young ladies of Dunderry and Kilmessan battled out a one sided contest in a Kilmessan pitch that held up remarkably well despite the incessant rain that stung to the bone both during and for a few days before the game.
Such was the ferocity of the stinging rain that the referee had to abandon proceedings for a while to allow the elements to abate to a state that would allow the contest to resume in conditions approaching normality.
Make no mistake about it both teams are composed of hardy women and how they managed to even hold on to their hurleys ,much less exhibit the array of skills and fortitude on display was laudable .
Dunderry were the more mature,skillful and focused team and ,it seemed to me,had a considerate advantage in age and physicality over their opponents ,who seemed years younger on average.
Dunderry were never thoubled and in the time I was there Kilmessan didn't even register a wide ,never mind a score.
As far as I could count the combined Dunderry midfield registered about 6 goals and 5 points and this gives an indication of the mastery of our girls over the misfortunate opposition..
As you would expect Kilmessan were game to the end ,but were simply outgunned on this occasion.
I have managed teams over the years that got similar hidings and you just have to shrug it off and work damnable hard to get up to scratch ,as I have no doubt Kilmessan will do.
The final scoreline was 9 -8 to nil.
Team.
Aoife o Shea
Anna Stenson Blaithnid Keyes Aine Coogan.
Isobel Varley Michelle Smyth Tara Scanlan
Aoife Minogue Aisling Mc Donagh
Cara Woods Labhaise Martyn Anna Byrne
Ciara Casserly Tara Fleming Niamh Daly.
Replacements.Niamh Keaveney,Rachel Brennan,Hazel Carty.
The bandwagon rolls on and next up is the semifinal against Boardsmill next Tuesday I think.
This match will be the real test of this team and there is no reason why ,with the necessary self belief that this team should have by now,we should not prevail.
It will go to the wire and Dunderry's famous fighting spirit and defiance ought to see them through.So we pray.
I know that some of my readers are abroad and have left here many years ago.To help match the girls to the people they may have grown up with the following may help:-Aoife O Shea is Evelyn Gallagher's daughter,Aine is Christy's,Aisling is Terry's,Ciare is Joe Cassey's grand daughter,Niamh is Kevin's and Hazel is Declan's.
The other girls and their families are more recent arrivals and we are blessed to have such fine people in our midst.
Just goes to show how things change in such a short time.
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