BRIDE ROVERS GAA NOTES.

 

GO FOR IT JOSH.

Bride Rovers is a Gaelic Games Club in East Cork but this week we are all horse-racing fans! On this Friday March 13th all eyes will be on the Cotswolds District in England and particularly on the famous racecourse at Cheltenham. At 4.40  the 2026  Foxhunters Chase will be run and ‘one of our very own’ Josh Ahern will be on board his father Garrett’s owned and trained King Alex. This is a huge and historic day for the Ahern family of Monanig -for Garrett, Josh, Linda and Chloe as the Foxhunters Chases is a prestigious race for National Hunt/Point to Point horses.  Back in 2012 and 2013 the Foxhunters Trophy came to the parish when Colman Sweeney, on board Salsify, won back-to-back contests. Josh Ahern is an all-round sportsman playing on our victorious County winning team last year. Getting to ride at Cheltenham is truly a dream come true for Josh and Garrett and all in Bride rovers hope that everything goes well on the day. Another horse with local ‘connections’ is the Terence o Btrained Cons Roc with a strong presence of Araglen and Kilworth owners in the Near or Never syndicate.

 

Our Junior B hurlers started their league campaign on Saturday afternoon with Sars the visitors to Pynes Field. There was a good wind up the field and we won the toss and played with the wind for the first half. Both teams exchanged points for the first 20 minutes with the teams were level five times in this period our scores coming two each from Ryan and Craig and one for Adam Hayes. Ryan got his third point of the day and when Craig finished a well worked move to the back of the net we finally enjoyed a 4-point lead. Sars got one back before Ryan got his 4th point of the 1st half but sadly suffered a bad leg injury shortly afterwards. Half-time was blown slightly early to allow for treatment to take place. When the game resumed Sars immediately started narrowing our lead and got the 1st three points of the second half to reduce the margin back to one, 1-7 to 9 points. Craig got another point but two more points from Sars saw the team’s level on the 40th minute mark. Adam got his second and Gearoid got a great point from long range. A point from Tom either side of two for Sars saw us holding onto a 1-point lead with ten minute to go. Sars got the next two scores to lead for the first time since the start of the game. Seamus got a levelling point for us with 5 minutes to go, and both sides went on the search for a winning score both defences were defending staunchly and neither side could find another score to see the game out in a draw on a scoreline of 1-12 to 15 points.

 

Our next division 4 league game takes place on Friday the 20th of March when we welcome Watergrasshill to Pynes.

Team & Scorers: S O’Flynn, R Barry, J Mannix, C O’Dowd, J O’Sullivan, A Hynes, G O’Connell, S Ahern, A Hayes, S Dowling, T Macak, O Kielty, R O’Callaghan, B Knox, C O’Callaghan. Subs J Powell, A Cronin, C O’Sullivan, E O’Connor, N Kelleher, F O’Flynn, G Gubbins, K Obi, M Manley. WE wish Ryan a speedy recovery from his injury.

 

CORK SENIOR HURLING LEAGUE DIV 2.

 

Bride Rovers senior hurlers accounted for a resilient Valley Rovers side in the first round of the RED FM sponsored Division 2 Hurling League at an immaculate Páirc Na Bride on Sunday with a noon throw-in. Despite the horrendous weather in recent weeks, the grounds at Pairc Na Bride were in great condition, the wonderful work done by the grounds committee over the winter in resodding the goals was tremendous and much appreciated.

Referee Aidan Hyland got proceedings underway at 12noon. Valleys opened the scoring and so after Paddy O’Flynn scored the equaliser. The next two scores came from placed balls, one for each team, Adam Walsh with the Rovers free. Two points from Valley Rovers followed before Shane O Connor scored with a well taken point following one his trademark forward runs. Paddy O’Flynn scored his second before Valley rovers scored a goal. But the Rovers response was swift, points from Ronan O’Connell, Adam Walsh (free) and Paddy’s third had the sides level with 19 minutes played. Both teams were defending well with Ryan Prendergast, Cormac O’Sullivan & Denis Cashman very solid in front of Cian Hogan. A flurry of points from both sides, saw the scores level at 0-10 to 1-07, the Rovers points from Kieran Kearney, Adam Walsh & the impressive Paddy O’Flynn with his 4th of the game. A long ball into the full forward line was expertly caught by Adam Walsh who blasted the ball to the net. Cormac Barry added a point to put the Rovers four up at half time. BR 1-11 VR 1-07.

Cillian Tobin & Oisin Roche were introduced at half time. On the resumption, Adam Walsh pointed two frees to extend our lead to six points. But Valley Rovers were not out of it, and rallied to reduce the deficit. Further points frees from Adam Walsh, his eighth of the day kept the Bride ahead as the game entered injury time. Shane O Connor scored his second and despite Valleys strong finish, we held out to win our first league game of the year.

 

Cian Hogan, Ryan Prendergast, ⁠Denis Cashman, Tadhg O’Sullivan, Conor Hazelwood, Cormac O’Sullivan, Shane O’Connor (0-2), Davy Barry, Cormac Barry (0-1), Conleth Ryan, Kieran Kearney (0-1), Paddy O’Flynn (0-4), ⁠Ronan O’Connell (0-1), Adam Walsh (1-08) & ⁠Jack Mannix

Subs Used: ⁠Oisín Roche, Cillian Tobin & Conor O'Riordan

 

Conleth Ryan & Cian Hogan will continue their roles as joint captains for 2026 following on from the huge success of 2025 when both lifted the Jim Forbes Cup for the Cork County Senior A Hurling Championship.

SENIOR Debutants:

3 of our young stars in the club made their senior hurling league debuts against Valley Rovers. Cormac Barry & Jack Mannix started the game while Conor O’Riordan was introduced. All 3 can be proud of their performance and will contribute to the team in 2026 by increasing competition for places.

 

Div. 2 Hurling League - Round 2 v Na Piarsaigh(Away) on Sunday 22nd March at 2pm

Div. 2 Hurling League - Round 3 v Kanturk (Home) on Thursday 2nd April at 7pm. Last Man Standing

The senior hurling team wish to thank everyone who supported their Annual Last Man Standing Fundraiser. The first 2 weeks saw a huge wipeout of participants so down to the last few exciting weeks.

The Senior hurling team and management want to wish our team-mate Josh Ahern every success in riding King Alex at Cheltenham on Friday. This has been a dream of Josh’s for many years and caps off a memorable few months for him.

 

MUSIC BINGO. The ladies Club are holding a Music Bingo Night this coming Saturday night march 14th in the Rathcormac Inn. Please support this fund-raiser.

 

EAST CORK JHL DIV 1. Bride Rovers 1-21 Carrigtwohill 3-13

 

Carrigtwohill were the visitors to Pynes on Monday evening to round up a busy weekend for the Club. Carrigtwohill started brightly and had the ball in the back of the net from their first attack. The lads didn't panic and settled into the game Conor Barry got our opening score and our second score was a goal after a long range shot from Conor went all the way to the back of the net after Conor O'Riordan presence on the top of the square had been enough to put of the full back and goalie. Four more points, 3 from Conor and one for Seamus saw us into a five-point lead by the 15th minute.

Carrig responded well and rattled off 5 points in a couple of minutes to have the team's level again. We got further points from Shaun, Conor and Louie (2) before half time, but Carrigtwohill had responses with three of their own to level the minimum between the teams at the break 1-9 to 1-8.

Carrig got the opening two points of the second half, but Shuan and Jordan responded for us to restore our lead. Carrig then got there second goal, but the lads responded well with three points 2 from Conor and Shaun to restore our one-point lead 1-14 to 2-10. The team exchanged a point a piece and then we hit a purple patch and score 4 points on the trot to open a 4-point margin 1-18 to 2-11.

Carrig got a third goal with 5 minutes remaining to reduce the margin to the minimum. Twice we extended our lead back two points with scores from Seamus and Conor, but both times Carrig responded with points of their own to set up an exciting finish. Eddie got the last score of the game in the 60th minute to see us out winners on a scoreline of 1-21 to 3-13 after an entertaining match.

The next game in Division 1 of the league is on Tuesday the 24th of March when we are away to Fr O'Neill's.

Team  & Scorers; R O'Riordan, E O'Connor, O Roche, T O'Sullivan, A Buckley, L Collins, K Cotter, C O'Sullivan, C Barry (1-10), L Roche (0-2), S Ahern (0-2, S Knox (0-4), B Knox, C O'Riordan (0-1), E Cashman (0-1) Subs J Mannix (0-1), A Hayes, G O'Connell, C O'Dowd, M Manley.

 

 

HEALTHY CLUB NEWS. Message from Bride Rovers Healthy Club Team
Hi everyone!