Lismore win cracking Camogie League Final

Lismore are County Senior League Champions for 2012 in Camogie after the emerged victors with the minimum to spare over Saint Anne’s at Fraher Field recently.

Lismore on the evening were captained by Laura Buckley and it was fitting that after the game she would be presented with the ‘Denny Buckley Memorial Cup’ put up in honour of her father who died a few years previously.

Both sides contained a number of players with some considerable inter county experience suggesting that a close game was going to be on the cards and those present were not to be disappointed by such expectations.

Throughout the hour the two sides were very evenly matched and had the game after an hour ended in stalemate, there would not be too many that would have argued.

At the break the two sides were all square on the scoreboard.

Shona Curran had given Lismore and early lead with a point but it was a short lived lead as Zoe O’Donoghue quickly hit 1-1 to give the East Waterford side a three point lead.

Shauna Kiernan pulled a point back for Lismore but Saint Anne’s soon extended their lead when Zoe O’Donoghue cracked her second goal of the game.

Despite trailing by five points, Lismore failed to throw in the towel and hit back with points from Ruth Geoghegan and Shauna Kiernan.

The later was then to hit a goal for Lismore before Zoe O’Donoghue had St Anne’s back in front. A brace of Aoife Hannon points had Lismore a point in front three minutes from the break, but the sides retired at the interval all square (2-3 to 1-6) after Niamh Rockett pointed for Saint Anne’s.

Lismore came out for the second half like Usain Bolt racing to the line in a 100 metre Olympic final. Ruth Geoghegan hit an early goal. Shauna Curran and Nicola Morrissey then hit points and it was beginning to look good for Lismore with just over a quarter of an hour to play.

However, the tide was to turn and Saint Anne’s soon began to eat into Lismore’s lead. Jennie Simpson landed a brace of frees and a brace of ‘45’s and Zoe O’Donoghue also landed a brace of frees.

Saint Anne’s had gone from five points down with just over a quarter of an hour to play to one up with time almost up.

Credit Lismore however. Just as they had in the first half after Saint Anne’s hit two goals, the Heritage Town side refused to throw in the towel and it paid off.

Shona Curran found the range with a free with just seconds of the hour to play and two minutes into added time their never say die attitude paid fruition when Nicola Morrissey struck gold as her side ran out 2-10 to 2-9 winners.