County Titles for Saint Anne's and An Rinn

The picturesque village of Ardmore was the setting for last Saturday’s Intermediate and Senior County Finals.

First up was the Intermediate final between An Rinn and Cappoquin were the prize on offer was the new Mamie O’Meara Cup presented in memory of the only Waterford lady to hold lady to win a Senior Camogie All-Ireland medal which she won while playing with Dublin and was also part of the Waterford team beaten in the 1945 senior final against Antrim.

The victors set a mark in the opening half of the game hitting an incredible 1-10 while at the same time conceding just 0-1, with Deirdre Fahey hitting the An Rinn goal and adding four other scores for good measure.

Cappoquin faired better in the second half. They came out of the traps fastest, hitting a point in the fourth minute from Lorraine Bray in the fourth minute of the half. Remarkably, this was to be the only score of the half till the thirtieth minute of the half when Jess Gavin Johnson found the back of the An Rinn net. Deirdre Fahey responded with a point for An Rinn, their only score of the second half and Jennie McCarthy in added time hit the final score of the game, a point for Cappoquin.

The senior game which followed was a repeat of the recent league final which Lismore won by the minimum margin at Fraher Field.

Lismore went into this game in search of a third County Senior final in a row, but did so minus the services of Aisling O’Brien, Grainne Kenneally and Ruth Geoghegan, three massive losses to any team.

A close encounter was envisaged ahead of this game and the players on the field of play did not let those with such expectations down.

In the league section of the championship, when the sides met, the sides drew with Lismore coming out as winners of the second game between the sides to advance to the final while the mid county side advanced to the final after they beat Gaultier in the semi finals some weeks back.

At the end of a very low scoring first half it was Lismore that held a narrow advantage, retiring 0-3 to 0-2 to the good.

The second half really saw the game open up score wise. Saint Anne’s Jenny Simpson had a hugely impressive game here and in the end, it was a goal ten minutes from time from a free struck by the Inter county star from thirty metres which went straight to the Lismore net that was the ultimate difference between two evenly balanced sides as it gave her side a 1-6 to 0-5 lead.

 Credit Lismore however, they kept going, but in the end were not able to overtake a Saint Anne’s side who were worthy winners on the day.

Lismore on the day were best served by Aoife Hannon who hit eight of her sides scores, while the winners had impressive performances from Jenny Simpson who finished her afternoons work with 1-2 to her name, Karen Kelly and Zoe O’Donoghue who both hit two points each and Niamh Rockett who finished the game with a point to her name.