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13th March 2024

St. Killian’s Garron Tower (Antrim) defeated Blackwater C.S. Lismore (Waterford) by 4-13 to 0-13 in the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Paddy Buggy Cup (Senior B Hurling) Final on Saturday March 16th at Abbottstown, Co. Dublin.


Early Garron Tower blitz gives Blackwater Lismore too much to do

All-Ireland Senior Schools B hurling final: St Killian’s Garron Tower (Antrim) 4-13 Blackwater CS, Lismore (Waterford) 0-13

Report by Séamus McAleenan for the Irish Examiner newspaper

THREE goals in the opening 12 minutes set Blackwater Community School from Waterford an almost impossible task in this Masita Paddy Buggy Cup in Abbottstown on Saturday afternoon and a physically powerful St Killian’s Garron Tower emphatically completed the season on a high in winning the Danske Bank Mageean Cup for the first time in 60 years.

Ruairí Óg Cushendall wonder kid Joseph McLaughlin, who has already featured for Antrim seniors against Dublin and Galway this spring, led the Garron Tower charge, but his half-forward colleague Cormac McKeown picked up the Player of the Match award to add to the one he collected in the provincial final.

Oran McCambridge, with two of those opening three goals, was another to worry the Lismore defence, while at the other end the St Killian’s corner-backs John Scullion and Colla Ward closed out the threat of Stephen Murphy and Ben O’Sullivan.

Joseph McDonnell, Joseph O’Keefe and Jake Henley got on a lot of ball, but the gap the Tower opened in the first 12 minutes was just too much for the Waterford side to close.

McLaughlin hit the opening goal in the second minute, finishing a fine move involving Cormac McKeown and Oran McCambridge. Worse was to follow two minutes later when a high ball from Callagh Mooney was taken down for McCambridge to find the net. The third goal in the 12th minute was quite similar with McKeown’s high delivery dropping in on the Lismore goalie and McCambridge diverted it over the line.

Blackwater hit a decent spell with four unanswered points between the 20th and 27th minutes, but St Killian’s finished the half strongly with points from McCambridge and McKeown (two) and the Ulster champions led by 3-8 to 0-6 at half-time.

Lismore started the second half with three points inside six minutes from Charlie Lineen, Joe O’Keefe and a Cummins free, before McLaughlin landed three points in reply to get St Killian’s back on course. Although Murphy, Adam Cummins and O’Keefe then found the range, the gap was still 3-12 to 0-12 with 54 minutes gone.

The north Antrim side then slammed the door shut with a lightning move that put Orrin O’Connor through for their fourth goal.

Frustration led to two late red cards for the Munster champions. It mattered little because St Killian’s had already set off the celebrations around the pitch.

Scorers for St Killian’s: O McCambridge 2-1, J McLaughlin 1-8, 0-5 frees, O O’Connor 1-0, C Mckeown 0-3, C McAuley 0-1

Scorers for Blackwater: B Cummins 0-5 frees, J O’Keefe 0-3, 2 frees, A Cummins 0-2, S Murphy, B O’Sullivan and C Lineen 0-1 each.

ST KILLIAN’S: T McLaughlin, C Ward, C Devlin, J Scullion, A Birt, C McAuley, N Magee, C McIlwaine, C Mooney, C McKeown, J McLaughlin, O O’Connor, M Furey, O McCambridge, N Hynds.
Subs: E Ward for C Devlin (48), P McDonnell for M Furey (59), A McCambridge for N Hynds (60 + 2), C Graham for N Magee (60 + 3)

BLACKWATER: B Murphy, J Twomey, T Ahern, C Lynch, T Duffin, J Henley, C McCarthy, Joseph McDonnell, J O’Keefe, C Lineen, A Cummins, J Hickey, S Murphy, B Cummins, B O’Sullivan.
Subs: S Barry for C Lineen (50), H Quinn for J Hickey(59), Jack McDonnell for C McCarthy (60 + 2) M Redmond (Kildare)


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Posted in: News

Date: 13th March 2024