Senior Camogie Championship - Ballincollig Bow Out

St Catherine’s 0-17  Ballincollig 1-7

By Linda Mellerick Of the Evening Echo

ST CATHERINE’S ADVANCE IN EVENING ECHO CAMOGIE CHAMPIONSHIP

A SEVEN point victory for St Catherine’s over Ballincollig at Castle Road last evening keeps their Evening Echo Senior Championship hopes alive for another day as they enter the final eight.
This game failed to excite in any way with an unnecessary total of forty seven frees awarded ensuring a stop start sixty minutes. While the spread of frees proved more or less equal between the sides, eleven of St. Catherines total came from placed balls while Sinead O’Sullivan struck four for Ballincollig. Take that out of the equation and the game produced 1-9 from play.
It was Ballincollig that availed of the strong opening wind but St. Catherines more than held their own during the thirty minutes. Both defences withstood some strong pressure with Eimear O’Sullivan and Leah Weste in particular working hard to keep St. Catherines at bay.

With the score favouring Catherines 0-4 to 0-3 nineteen minutes in, a high free lobbed into the Ballincollig full forward line saw Linda Dorgan get the final mid-air touch to defy Andrea Mangan and push Ballincollig two ahead.

It was Catherines that were looking the more dangerous up front however and three Orla Cotter frees, one powerful strike against the wind, saw them take a 0-8 to 1-4 interval lead.
Sinead O’Sullivan, whose free taking along with Cotters was excellent on the night, opened Ballincollig’s revival attempts within a minute of the restart but it was Catherines, now with the wind, that raced into a five point lead by the nineteenth minute after Rachel O’Callaghan, Cotter (3) and Finola Neville pointed. Patricia Buttimer and O’Sullivan struck Ballincollig’s remaining second half scores with a plethora of frees, converted by Cotter closing the game out comfortably for St. Catherines.

Scorers for St. Catherines: O Cotter 0-12 (0-11 f), M Tobin 0-2, E Ronayne, R O’Callaghan, F Neville 0-1 each.  Ballincollig: S O’Sullivan 0-5 (0-4 f), L Dorgan 1-0, J Hennigan, P Buttimer 0-1 each.

ST. CATHERINES: A Mangan; O Neville, N Mulcahy, Y O’Neill; C Motherway, F Cotter, F Noonan; O Cotter, M O’Keeffe; M O’Regan, F Neville, R O’Callaghan; E Ronayne, M Tobin, A O’Regan.
Subs: J O’Keeffe for A O’Regan (42).

BALLINCOLLIG: A Sheehan; A Coughlan, E O’Sullivan, B O’Callaghan; C Irish, L Weste, A Cotter; J Hennigan, S Coomey; A Lovett, L Dorgan, K Greene; P Buttimer, E Casey, S O’Sullivan.
Subs: M Cronin for K Greene (37), R O’Callaghan for J Hennigan (56), J Hennigan for S Coomey (61 inj).
Ref: Walter Cole — Buttervant