BRIDE ROVERS NOTES .

 GOOD LEAGUE WIN, LAST CHANCE FOR CORK.

Truly it’s’ high noon’ on the hurling scene with the All Ireland Champions gone and Cork in the ‘last chance saloon’ on Sunday next. A great week for the Fitzgerald family and a good win for our Seniors in the League. It’s 125 years this Friday since Fr Edmond Barry died.

RED FM SENIOR HURLING LEAGUE.

Bride Rovers 1 23 Lisgoold 1 13. On a sweltering hot afternoon our Seniors travelled to Pairc Lios gCul last Saturday to meet the home side in a real ‘local derby’ game. There was a fine crowd present to view the contest.  On one of the hottest days of the year so far the two teams produced  a fine game with 38 scores.  The first half was even enough with Adam Hayes playing well in the No 1 jersey.  Our point-scoring was impressive and a vital goal from Conor Barry was a superb score. In fairness Lisgoold stayed in contention but we won in the end with ten points to spare.  Team; A. Hayes, E. Roche, D. Cashman, K. Cotter, C. Hazelwood, J. Manix, S. O’Connor, C. O’Sullivan, C. Tobin, A. Walsh, C. Barry, L. Roche, C. Ryan, P. O’Flynn, D. Barry. Ourselves Corceys and Newcestown have all played 6 games -won 4 ,lost 1 and drawn 1 so the three Clubs are on 9 points. Our next game is against Blackrock at home  on My 31st. After that we are away to Courcey Rovers and home to Ballinhassig.

 REBELS GO DOWN TO THE LIMERICK MEN.  Having beaten Limerick twice in championship hurling last year we were well warned that the Shannonsiders were ‘waiting in the short grass’ of the Gaelic Grounds for us last Sunday. So it proved to be the case as Cork were overwhelmed in the first half. An injury to Declan Dalton early on was a big upset-he was replaced by Brian Roche who went on to play a solid game. Limerick were brilliant and nothing went right for Cork. With the breeze in the second half the Rebels tore into the game. The deficit was down to ten points with twelve minutes to go but a Limerick goal from a penalty halted the Cork revival. It’s simple now, well kind  of! – if we beat Waterford next Sunday we could be in the Munster Final v Limerick in Limerick. If we draw with Waterford we might qualify in third place in Munster and Tipp and Limerick would contest the Provincial Final. If we lose to Waterford- we’re gone -exit Stage Door Left, kaput just like Clare after last Sunday.  I don’t know but as an opponent of the Split Season I cannot see how we can promote hurling as it should be promoted when teams are out of the All Ireland Championship in May! It’s crazy –just like having no curtain-raiser. If the Minor games were played as in former years it would be something. Last year the Ticket prices in Munster went up by €5 and by another €5 this year and still no curtain-raiser.!

CLUB LOTTO.

Tickets can also be purchased from Club Members and in local business outlets. Remember a €90 Annual Ticket would make a great present for any GAA fan.. Thank you again for all your support.

WELL DONE  DENIS & CORK.  It was great occasion for our Club on Friday night last in Semple Stadium in Thurles when Cork Minor Hurlers won the Munster Championship. Well done to Denis Fitzgerald who played at full-back on the team. Cork looked well in control at certain stages but in the long period of added time (due to a serious injury) Waterford came thundering into  the game. In a hectic finish three goals wee scored before Cork won on a scoreline of 1 20 to 2 15. Denis was on the edge of the square all during the campaign but missed the Tipperary game due to injury but played a great role on Friday night. Well done and congrats Denis- you are continuing a great family tradition -his great grandfather Patrick was founder member of the Bride Roers Club in late 1928. Earlier that year , in July, Lisgoold beat Bartlemy by 2 4 to 2  0 and Pad Fitzgerald and his brother Johnny both lined out with Bartlemy. Denis and his Cork team-mates are now through to the All Ireland semi-final in a few weeks time and we wish them all the best. The second and third placed teams in Munster Waterford and Clare will play off with their counterparts in Leinster in two quarter finals.  To complete a fantastic few days for the Fitzgerald family young Jack, Denis’ brother, lined out with the Cork Primary game hurling team at half time in Limerick last Sunday -well done Jack.

FR EDMOND BARRY PP

This coming Friday May 23rd marks the 125th anniversary of the death of Fr Edmond Barry. FR Barry is rightly regarded as ‘the father of Gaelic games’ in our parish.  Born in Midleton in 1836 Fr Barry was appointed as PP of Rathcormac, Kildinan and Bartlemy in 1885 -a year after the GAA was founded in Thurles. A great writer, antiquarian and genealogist Fr Barry was initially not very interested in sport or Gaelic games in particular. He felt the games were too rough and un-regulated but when it wax pointed out to him that new playing rules and regulations were now in force he threw in  his lot with the fledgeling GAA Clubs in the parish. When official Hurling and Football clubs were affiliated Fr Barry soon became the driving force behind them. Even decades later these teams were proudly called ‘Father Barry’s teams’ He trained and equipped the twenty one a side teams. Aswell as that he was an able and vocal voice in GAA Administration on Cork County and well respected far beyond Cork. From 1886 to 1890 Rathcormac Football Club and Bartlemy Hurling Club were amongst the top teams in Munster. Tournaments attended by hundreds -sometimes even thousands, were very popular and Fr Barry’s teams were invited to such contests all over the place. The unfortunate ‘Parnell Split’ had a hugely detrimental effect on the GAA. The Split led to a situation where here different an distinct ‘County Boards’ existed in Cork.   A man of solid principles Fr Barry no longer entered teams from 1891 onwards and the once vibrant GAA Clubs in the parish withered away. For the last decade of his life Fr Barry concentrated on writing and research. He died at his home, Bridge House, Rathcormac on May 23rd 1900. Two days later his mortal remains were shoulder to Bartlemy Church where he was buried. Though 125 years have passed since his death the flame he lit burns brightly today and his proud legacy lives on.

SCOREBOARD. Our manual scoreboard in Pairc na Bride was originally erected by Brideview Homes and has served us well over the years. Recently a Club decision was taken to install an electronic scoreboard and this will be coming later in the year.

 

UNDER 8’s in ACTION.  Our under8 boys played in a monster blitz down in Castlemartyr last weekend. There were some great performance - a few lads are well on the way to Pat Ryan's panel in the not too distant future! WE played Midleton, Youghal and Kiltha Og in games which produced a feast of great hurling.

 AMARENCO EAST CORK JHL Div 1.

Our Junior A hurlers played their last game of the East Cork Division 1 league on Monday evening when Castlemartyr were the visitors to Pairc na Bríde.  It was a lovely evening for hurling and the lads made the most of the conditions putting in a fine performance with a total of ten players getting on the scoresheet.

John Buckley was a constant threat for us and finished up with 2-4, Conor O’Riordan was in brilliant form  after coming on and scored 2-4, -he was unlucky to miss out on a hat-trick when denied by a fine save from the Castlemartyr keeper.  Overall, this was good performance from the entire team and a fine way to finish the league campaign with a 4 25  3  10 win.

The result leaves us finishing in 7th place in the league table and we’ll be relying on results elsewhere to now avoid relegation after we started the league slowly before finishing off with two wins.

Team & Scorers: J Pratt, T O’Sullivan, Jordan Mannix, E O’Connor, K Cotter, L Collins, A Hynes (0-1), Jason Mannix (0-1), Cormac Barry, Cillian Barry (0-1), E Cashman (0-5), S Knox (0-4), A Hayes (0-4), C Swalbe-O’Sullivan, J Buckley (2-4) Subs: J O’Sullivan, N Kelleher, C O’Dowd, C O’Riordan (2-3), Jack Mannix (0-2), G Gubbins, O Roche, M Manley

UNDER16’s BUSY.

We had three games scheduled for this past week but due to both Youghal and Eire Og being unable to field we had both of those games awarded to us.

That left our P2 game v Na Piarsaigh as our only game for the week.. 

The game started brightly for us with Darragh Costigan scoring a goal from a rebound following a great run and shot by Fionn Collins....strangely this was considered a square goal. It was a strange game with handling poor by both teams and the hard pitch leading to the sliotar bouncing over lads heads! Points in the first half from Tadhg, Finn and goals by Míchàel and Mark saw us well in contention. 

In the second half Na Piarsaigh took the initiative  with some poor defending costing us goals. We upped the intensity in the last ten'minutes and Finn scored form a penalty. Oliver scored a goal from a rebounded free to leave us a point down with a minute to play. We defended a final Na Piarsaigh attack and countered with Luke and Jeff finding Finn to nail the match winning point. 

This leaves us top of the P2 football league. 

We've had 19 fixtures for the Under 16 lads since the end of February so are glad of the break!! We'll train during the next month while Exams are on as this will be the only opportunity to develop tactics etc. 

FIXTURES.

 24/5 under 12 HL v Lisgoold home 12.30

24/5 under 13 HL v St Colmcilles, home,  5pm

27/5  under 13 FL v Ballinora away at 7.30pm.

 

 

BRIDE ROVERS CLUB SPONSORS are; Rathcormac Tyres Fermoy Print & Design Gerard Gubbins Construction and Veolia.