Club news 19 September 2017

Replays: Lightning, in contradiction to what the seanfhocal says, has struck twice in the fortunes of our senior players.Both our senior hurlers and our senior footballers drew their respective championship quarter finals.The hurlers won their replay with Carnew in their pursuit of the ODonoghue Cup while the footballers earned themselves another shot at the Miley Cup with a 2-8 to 0-14 draw against Baltinglass and as a result next week-end is in the nature of a nightmare for a dual club like Eire Og.The hurlers are down to play Glenealy on Saturday at 3.15pm in the Dacia Hurling Championship semi-final in Joule Park, Aughrim while the footballers are scheduled to meet Baltinglass in the replay of the Renault Championship Quarter-Final in the same venue at 2.30 on Sunday.There is an overlap of a number of significant players between the two games and this places us at a serious disadvantage against Baltinglass. Come and carry your flag for Greystones!

Adult Hurling: The observation of the man who found himself in Purgatory that he could have travelled further and fared worse would apply aptly to those who were in attendance in Joule Park on Saturday afternoon for the Dacia Hurling Quarter-Final.Spectators had little to complain about in the quality of the sporting entertainment on offer which would have readily held its own against and indeed even have exceeded much of what was to be had at home or abroad at the week-end.All the ingredients which contrive to make an entertaining no-time-to-avert-ones-eyes contest were here in abundance: end-to-end play and sustained full-blooded engagement, a plethora of cameos of caman skills which included strategic accurately timed blocking down of the sliothar, a roller coaster of changing fortunes and an ending which raised blood pressures to dangerous levels.

The game itself with its various twists and turns was somewhat of a purgatorial experience for the followers of both sides.The opening quarter had the Eire Og followers in the doldrums of despair.During this period the Clocha Liatha defence was totally out of sorts. It fussed and fumbled through basic error after basic error and to say the teams chances looked bleak would be putting it mildly.

Carnew had clocked up 1-3 on the scoreboard before the Eire Og lads had registered their 1stpoint. The team settled somewhat after that and began to make a match of it. However they found it hard to make any inroads into the Carnew lead which oscillated between 5 and 6 points to the break.The resumption saw little change in the pattern of the game and Carnew quickly added to their tally and at this stage with them playing with great confidence a Greystones win did not look at all likely. However our lads hurled doggedly on and had whittled the lead down to 4 points at about the 50 minute mark.Nevertheless it still looked unlikely that they could close the gap before the final whistle. The move of Chester to the centre of the field turned the game Greystones way and with just 4 minutes of regulation time left Carnews lead was a precarious 2 points.Then the selfsame Chester burst out of defence with a powerful run and with a number of the opposition in vain pursuit.He cleverly picked out the in-running Andrew Walsh who collected his accurately directed pass and drove it unerringly to the net from 15m out to leave the score Greystones 1-10 to 1-09 ahead (the Bray People video of the goal can be seen on the club website).There were no further scores but what agonies we suffered between that and the final whistle.

COMHGAIRDEACHAS to Shaun Hughes who played on the u-21 Wicklow team which was defeated in the final of the B All-Ireland Championship by Kerry.

Unprecedented and all as was our hurlers advance to the semi-final stages of the Dacia Senior Championship it cannot be allowed to completely overshadow the many events (which may be equally important in the long run to the clubs well-being and profile) and activities in which other club teams were involved recently.

CAMOGAIOCHT Adult Team:While it has to be admitted that this team is still in the process of finding its feet and is far from being world beaters it cannot be accused of being lacking in ambition and enterprise.The ladies recently travelled to Belfast to participate in a 7s blitz organised by the Naomh Eanna camogs who are more or less at the same stage of development as Na Clocha Liatha cailini.Teams from Limerick, Tyrone, Down and Antrim took part in the competition.15 enthusiastic and excited Eire Og ladies travelled so it was possible to enter 2 teams, one in Div. 3 which won the trophy having defeated the hosts in the final while the other team was beaten in the semi-final of Div.2.

Scorers were Ellie, Rachel, Bronagh, Christina, Thea and Angela.

The outing, embellished as it was by their 1stpiece of silver, was an experience thoroughly enjoyed by the players.

Ladies Football: Last week was a hectic one for our u-16, u-14 and u-12 teams.On Thursday last the u-16 cailini travelled to Blessington to take on the locals in the semi-final of the B Championship and after a game which was as exhausting for the onlookers as it was for the players they got over the line by a single point, 3-8 to 3-7.Their reward was a place in the final in Ballinakill on Saturday against Tinahely. Unfortunately it was a bridge too far for our girls as Tinahely proved to be in a class well above that of any of the opponents they had come across on their way to the Ballinakill showdown.Sadly there was no doubt at any time as to the outcome.

The u-12s, having defeated St. Nicholas on a score which lends credence to the cliche that goals win matches viz. 5-1(16) to 1-9(12) came away from the Centre of Excellence with the shield.

Despite having played with the wind in the 1sthalf Eire Og managed to be only on level terms at the break. Half way into the 2ndperiod they were 5 points in arrears and hope of victory seemed vain. Then the genie exited the bottle and the Greystones cailini scored a number of goals which ensured that victory would be theirs.

Ta moladh mor tuillte ag an bhfoireann (team worthy of our praise) as it was without key player Jane Merrin who was injured playing for the county in an u-12 blitz in Portlaoise the previous day. Five other girls from the team also played in this tournament.

U-14 Not to be outdone the u-14s reached the final of their championship but unfortunately were beaten, 2-8 to 2-4, by Carnew. In the semi-final in what was described to the notes as a fabulous game of football they overcame St Pats by a single point.Going into the last 5 minutes St Pats were ahead but a 1-1 in the run-up to the final whistle secured a win for Eire Og.

Except for the minors the cailinis competitive season has more or less wound down.

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