Ballinacourty and Stradbally reach Championship Quarter Finals.

The first two teams to reach the quarter finals of this years County Senior Football Championship were confirmed at the weekend when three delayed games in the third round of this year’s championship were played at Fraher Field.

Ballinacourty were first to reach the last eight when they easily accounted for last years beaten finalist’s The Nire.

Ballinacourty were always on top in the clash between two of the counties so called big three.

Mark Ferncombe proved to be Ballinacourty’s leading marksman on the night hitting five points of his sides tally of 1-15.

Ballinacourty lead 1-11 to 0-3 at the break. The games only goal came on twenty one minutes when Mark Gorman finished to the net after some good work by Patrick Hurney and Sean O’Hare.

The Nire who played minus a host of their leading players, faired somewhat better in the second half as Shane and Dermot Ryan as well as Craig Guiry shared nine points between them, but Ballinacourty who were without Gary Hurney for this game held out for a deserved win.

In the first of a double header at the Shandon Road venue on Sunday afternoon, Kilrossanty came out on top against Ardmore who finished the game with fourteen men after former Inter county hurler Declan Prendergast was sent off on a straight red card seven minutes from the break.

At the end of a very dour first half, Kilrossanty held a 0-3 to 0-2 advantage. Ardmore however could consider themselves to be very unlucky not to be at front at the interval as with the first attack of the game with just over a minute on the clock, Darren Mulhearne in the Kilrossanty goal did brilliantly to keep Clinton Hennessy’s show which appeared to be destined for the back of the net from reaching its destination.

The second half proved to be as equally as close as the first, and with the hour played it looked as though both sides would have to settle for a share of the spoils, but in added time at the end of the sixty minutes, Joey Veale standing in for regular free taker Paul Whyte who played no part in this game kicked a free from fifty metres to give his Kilrossanty the brace of points on offer, winning on a 0-8 to 0-7 score line.

The last game of the third round of games saw the previously unbeaten Clashmore take on Stradbally who were also unbeaten going into the game.

Both sides were into the game minus a number of players that would normally be first choice players for both sides.

After sixteen minutes, Stradbally held a 0-4 to 0-2 advantage. John Prendergast and John Coffey swapped early scores before Tadhg Bourke with a delightful score and Kevin Lawlor swapped scores.

However, Robert Aherne and Paddy Kiely were to hit the next two scores to give Stradbally a two point lead.

Declan Allen pulled a point back for Clashmore following some good work by Noel Smyth to pick him out. David Grey resorted a two point lead for Stradbally but a brace of frees from John Prendergast ensured that the sides retired at the break five points each.

Stradbally began the second half the better of the two sides as Shane Lannon and Robert Aherne hit scores to give the champions a two point lead.

John Prendergast pulled a point back for Clashmore before a long ball from Tony Grey on thirty nine minutes was finished to the net by the fist of John Coffey which gave Stradbally a four point lead.

John Prendergast cut Stradbally’s lead to three when he put over a free, but they were lucky not to go six points down ten minutes later when Eddie Rockett attempted to rattle the Clashmore net but he saw his shot rebound off Ciaran Bourke and go out for a forty-five.

Noel Smyth who replaced county minor panel member Paul O’Connell from the team named on the programme cut Stradbally’s lead to two, but on the hour mark Tony Grey hit a point to give his side a 1-8 to 0-8 victory.

Games in the fourth round of the league section of the competition are due to take place from this Thursday evening till Sunday afternoon.

In group one, Ardmore take on Stradbally, Kilrossanty take on Gaultier and Saint Saviours take on Clashmore.

In group two, Rathgormack are due to play Brickeys, An Rinn play The Nire and Ballinameela play Ballinacourty.

With the Waterford Minor hurlers set to play Limerick in the Munster Final replay tomorrow evening (Tuesday) in Thurles, should they loose they will be out again on Sunday and with a number of key players involved with a number of teams it will be interesting to see will the championship games go ahead as planned, or whether may the Sunday afternoon games will be moved around to allow people to support the minors if they so wish.

The best advice for supporter’s maybe to keep an eye on the County Board’s website and to keep an ear on W.L.R.fm for any announcement s made over the next forty-eight hours or so.