Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel Junior Championship Round 1

Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel Junior Championship

Group A – Rd1. Sunday 20 Aug ‘23 by Jason O’Brien, Piltown PRO

Piltown 1-10

Dicksboro GAA & Camogie Club 0-18

Same clubs, same score, different teams, different day , same result , as the visitors from Kilkenny city beat the home side in a game that Piltown could have gotten a positive result despite the away sides dominance.

Piltown played with the wind towards the ‘Showfield’ end in the first half and Edel Long started the scoring with two points in two minutes , before Caoimhe Carroll and Aisling Browne levelled for the visitors. Heather Phelan continued her great scoring form with a 45 and a point from play in the 8th and 9th minutes to put Piltown back in front, but Dicksboro then hit 3 points in a row via the Hurley of the impressive number 14 Niamh O’Donoghue , 2 from play and 1 free.

It was a battle for the upper hand as both teams took the lead , then the other did, as Aoife O’Shea scored a fine point on the run before Sinead Carroll scored the final point of the half to leave the score Piltown 0-05 Dicksboro 0-06.

The Boro now had the breeze but as she did in the first half , Edel Long opened the scoring to level the scores, and straight from their puck out , Niamh O’Donoghue got possession and scored easily from around the 45. Emer Phelan got her name on the scoresheet next , as the away side started to move through the gears. Our own impressive number 14 , Heather Phelan then struck a quick two points to level it again. Dicksboro struck back again , as O’Donoghue was becoming more influential and herself and Sinead Carroll grabbed points to go one ahead. It was that kind of game, tit for tat ,you score , we score. But by the time Edel Long got her 4th of the game in the 42nd minute, the Boro had stretched the lead to 4 points, and it was slipping away from Piltown. But had it ? It looked like maybe it was game on again as the ball dropped to Heather Phelan on the edge of the square unmarked, and as Rachael Egan rushed to her, the ball went past Egan and into the net.. 1 point game ??? No, the full forward had hand passed it into the net , a massive let off for Dicksboro. And they took advantage as they tapped on the points and Piltown looked downhearted as they didn’t score for 13 minutes. And when Heather pointed a free in the 57th minute , it cut the lead to 7. Heather did get her goal though in the 60th minute. A deserved win for the away side ,and a good game between two sides that will be , no doubt, there or thereabouts at the latter stages of the championship. Final score – Piltown 1-10 Dicksboro 0-18.

Scorers.

Piltown: Heather Phelan 1-05 (1 45 & 3frees), Edel Long 0-04, Aoife O’Shea 0-01

Dicksboro: Niamh O’Donoghue 0-08 (1 free), Aisling Browne 0-03, Rose Kelly, Sinead Carroll 0-2 each,

Caoimhe Carroll, Isabelle Fahy, Emer Phelan 0-01 each