Shanballymore 3-16 Ballyhea 0-8.

We played our last game in the group stage of the Cavanaghs of Fermoy hurling league against Ballyhea last Monday night and came away with a very convincing win where the star of the show was full forward Richard Burke scoring 2-4 and showing great form in the second half.

After our win in the championship against Doneraile the night before we were short a number of players for this league encounter but with a strong squad to pick from once again the lads were going all out to get the win which would seal our place in the semifinal of the league. We had some excellent scores in the first half from Vincent Burke(1-1), Brian Sheedy(0-3frees), Rob McHugh(0-1), Brian O’Reilly(0-2), Richard Burke(0-1) and Eoin O’Regan(0-1) to see us lead by six points at half time 1-9 to 0-6.

Our second half display was outstanding with our defence again showing they won’t be conceding easy scores and our forwards getting plenty supply of ball to get the scores. In the first ten minutes of the second half Richard Burke had 1-2 scored and this really put the game to bed against a very young Ballyhea team. Brian O’Reilly and Vincent Burke followed up with two well taken points before Richard was on hand again to score a great goal after some good Brian Sheedy play out the field.

Eoin O Regan had our next point from a free before Richard again pointed from distance and this gave us a massive lead heading into the last few minutes. At this stage our back line were doing everything asked of them and Padraig Fitzgerald and Brendan Hayes were excellent with goalie Stephen Donegan also very sharp between the posts.

Thankfully all the subs got to see some much needed action in the second half and they all done very well after coming on and showed that the squad is very strong.

Well done to all the players in the league games played and this win sees us finish in the top four in the league and we now go on to contest the semifinal where our opponents will be Newtown, this semifinal will be played in two weeks and with a big prize for the league winners we will be going all out to make the final in late August.

Team: Stephen Donegan, Jonathan Dennehy, Eoin McHugh, Brendan Hayes, Jerome Fitzgerald, Sean Lynch, Padraig Fitzgerald, Robert McHugh(0-1), Colman O’Reilly, Brian O’Reilly(0-3), Brian Sheedy(0-3f),  Eoin O’Regan(0-3), Vincent Burke(1-2),Richard Burke(2-4), Kenneth Barry Subs Paul Palmer for Jonathan Dennehy, Dave Twomey for Brian O’Reilly, Brian O’Regan for Colman O’Reilly, Shaun Cronin for Brian Sheedy.