GROUP A

NORTH TIPPERARY 0-14 CLARE BLUES 0-8

By Declan Fitzpatrick

North Tipperary defeated Clare Blues in Tubber GAA grounds in a nervous opening game to the round on Wednesday 2nd May.

Jack Lee opened the scores with a well taken free within two minutes from the start, Chris Monroe playing at corner forward followed quickly with a great point on the run. Jack Lee again converted a second point from a free in the fourth minute. It took a few more minutes for Clare Blues to get on the scoring sheet with a fine score from Michael Foley.

North Tipperary continued to dominate with Jack Lee converting five points from placed balls and another from play, Chris Monroe finished the half with two points from play.

Dan Ryan at centre forward and Roan Murphy at midfield also got their names on the score sheet with a point each, Cian O’Dwyer also clocked up two great points from play.

After the break North Tipperary started the scoring again with a converted 65’ from Jack Lee. However, Clare Blues seemed to get their second wind and dominated the next 20 minutes of the game lead by Sean Ronan with four points, three points from frees and another point from play.

Clare Blues had all the possession and were unlucky not to raise a green flag, Martin O’Halloran in the Tipp goal pulled off a magnificent keep the Tipp lads in front.

Logan Ryan and David O’Sullivan got their names on the scoresheet with a point each, but the Tipp lads rallied for the last 5 minutes of the game with Conor McGrath finishing the scoring with a great point from play. North Tipp secure the win with six points to spare at the end of a decent opening start to start of the Group A campaign.

Jack Lee received the award for Best and Fairest hurler for North Tipperary.

GROUP B

CORK WEST 3-16 CORK NORTH 2-13

A plusating match opened this year's Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge for Cork North and Cork West.

In a fiercely contested match, both sides had periods of dominance and only a 61st minute goal from Ray O'Hallorhan put the issue beyond doubt.

Both sides stated fast with the West leading 0-5 to 0-4 at the 10-minute mark. Exchanges were hard fought for the remainder of the first half with only two scores coming from play for the remainder of the half.

The West scored a fortuitous goal from a long range free to give a 1-5 to 0-4 lead on the 15-minute mark. From here on, the North dominated with the aid of a slight breeze with six unanswered from Conor Griffin, David Walsh, and frees from Brian O'Sullivan before the West got the last two points of the first half through frees from Aidan O'Donovan to leave the sides level at half time, West 1-7 to North 0-10.

The West ran out to an early lead in the second half, launching from the strong half back line platform of Ben Aherne, Eoin Collins and Conor McGoldrick and by the 45th minute held a 2-11 to 0-12 lead and looked to be cruising to victory, but the North responded.

A goal brought the scores back to two points, but the West and in particular the O'Hallorhan cousins responded with the next three points to take a four point lead into the closing stages.

A marauding run from Brian O'Sullivan and offload to Conor Griffin led to a penalty which Conor duly struck into the top corner. Credit to the West who again responded with the next two points and the game as put beyond doubt with O'Halloran’s second major in injury time.

GROUP C

OFFALY 0-11  LAOIS  0-5

Offaly enjoyed a great start to their Celtic Challenge campaign with a win over Laois on Wednesday 2nd May in Birr. JJ O’Brien was the only change made to the starting 15, who replaced Gearoid McCormack due to injury which also resulted in Peter Cleary stepping into the centre back position. Peter Cleary rose to the challenge and was outstanding gaining him the first Best and Fairest Award for Offaly.

Laois were the first to put a score on the score board but Offaly weren’t too far behind getting their first point of the match thanks to Mark Cahill’s free taken skills. Laois had given away 12 frees to Offaly’s seven frees in the first half which Offaly took full advantage of and ensured they would use these frees to their full potential and keep procession.

The heavy rain it made scoring more difficult resulting in Laois only getting one more point before half time, while Offaly put another five points over the bar to give them a good lead heading into the second half. Mark Cahill scored three of these points while Ciaran Egan and Padraic Watkins also contributed to these scores. Offaly led 0-6 to 0-2 at the break.

Offaly went into the second half determined to win the match and with substitutions being made early, lads knew what they had to do. Mark Cahill added two more points to the score board while Ciaran Eagn, Luke Wyer and Naill Lyons also got a point each.

GROUP C

DUBLIN PLUNKETT 3-9 WEXFORD 1-14

The Dublin Plunkett team began their Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge campaign with a one-point win over Wexford on Wednesday at the Wicklow GAA Centre of Excellence.

Playing with a strong breeze in the first half the Dubs faced a Wexford team that deployed a sweeper, but relentless pressure ensured that they got off to a good start with Darach McBride firing over a glorious point from 35 meters.

A goal came next from Captain Colm Behan who shot home from inside the large parallelogram. A pointed free from Wexford got them off the mark and they then slotted over another from play.

A fine run from inside forward Sean Elliott brought the next green flag for the Dubs with Mc Bride clipping over from the 21.

More frees from Wexford brought them closer but a speculative shot from wing forward Eddie Moran raised the third green flag for the Dubs.

Points were exchanged by the teams until half time ensued with Elliott (two) and Mc Bride seeing Dublin lead at the whistle 3-5 to 0-6.

A raft of changes at half time unsettled Dublin for a short while and Wexford capitalised with a host of points and a hard-earned goal but Dublin reset and Ian Sherry, Adam Moran (two) and Daniel Culligan helped them regain the upper hand. Going down the home straight and leading by just the bare minimum the Dublin team held on and showed immense character to take the two points.

An outstanding game from Raheny’s Adam Codd saw him win the Best and Fairest Dublin player on the night.

GROUP E

SOUTH TIPPERARY 1-20 WATERFORD 1-10

By Fergus McGrath

A powerful first quarter with seven unanswered scores from South Tipperary laid the platform for an opening round victory against Waterford at the St. Molleran’s grounds in Carrick on Suir on Wednesday night.

Although falling behind to an early Waterford goal South Tipperary gradually gained the upper hand helped in no small part by a goal from Jack Murphy, some classy points from Aaron Moloney and arguably the score of the match from wing back Noel Obitor to leave the half time score - South Tipperary 1-12 Waterford 1-3.

In defence Paudie Clarke, Jack Ryan Casey, David Fox, and Noel Obitor had impressive first halves for South Tipperary and they needed to be equally impressive in the second half as Waterford emerged after the break in spirited mood which manifested in points from Michael O’Floinn, Tadhg Ryan and Sean Lennon.  The midfield battle between South Tipperary’s Conor Vaughan and Lorcan Carr and Waterford’s Sean Lennon and Eoin O’ Reilly was intense with all four players acquitting themselves well.

The game played out with both sides swapping points in a sporting encounter in which South Tipperary ultimately emerged winners.

The Best and Fairest awards went to Eoin O’ Reilly (Waterford) and David Fox (South Tipperary).

GROUP F

MONAGHAN 5-12 LOUTH 3-11

Five goals helped Monaghan record their first victory in the Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge hurling league against Louth on Wednesday evening last.

Played in perfect conditions at Cloghan, both teams served up a warmly contested eight goal shoot-out that defied the cold winds present.

Louth opened the contest with the first goal from full forward Jack Tobin after good link-up play.

Monaghan soon responded with their own green flag from Mikey Carville, and a string of points by the Farneymen had them in front by 1-6 to 1-2 after 20 minutes.

Mikey Carville then bagged his second goal when a 65 amazingly dropped into the net and left Monaghan eight points clear coming up to half time.

Louth started the second half as they did the first with a goal, this time from Josh Murtagh. They then added another point to leave the score at 2-9 to 2-5 and a comeback on the cards.

Despite then a trio of Louth points from Sean Kerrisk, Monaghan regained their composure when Zach McArdle kicked the sliotar to the net from close range.

Emmett Walsh added Monaghan’s fourth major with an audacious back flick with the sliotar in the square, and the fifth came through James Slevin.

Louth grabbed a consolation goal from a Sean Kerrisk penalty, but the game as a contest had already been settled.

TJ Doheny (Louth) and Mickey Carville (Monaghan) won the Best and Fairest awards.

GROUP G

MAYO 3-10 ROSCOMMON 3-6

Mayo began their Celtic Challenge with an opening night win in Connacht GAA Centre. 

Mayo’s Oisin Greally was the key man scoring 1-6 with Mayo’s Best and Fairest winner Danny Hill leading from defence from start to finish at key moments throughout the game.

The visitors started the stronger with two early goals compared to Mayo two early points from captain Luke Connor and Oisin Greally. As the half moved on Mayo’s sharp shooter began to start picking scores before a ball broke to Mayo’s full forward Mathew Walsh around the square and was finished to the back of net giving the Mayo men a lead half way through the first half on score line 2-0 to 1-4. As the half continued Greally popped scored further 1-01 to leaving the score at half time 2-06 to 2-03.

In the second half Oisin Greally popped up with three points in second half keeping the Mayo men’s lead to four points before Roscommon got a gift from mayo with an easy goal.  

No more than Mayo’s Best and Fairest award winner, making huge tackles and clearing Roscommon’s pressure attack by attack with the help of his captain Luke Connor. With normal time coming to a close a long ball from mayo lead to mark o Grady popping with match winning goal to leave the scores 3-10 to 3-6 with only additional time to be played. Roscommon never gave up through this time looking to get the scores but Mayo’s defence unit stayed strong preventing any of these chances leading to scores. 

Mayo’s Danny Hill and Roscommon’s Michael Kelly won the Best and Fairest awards.

GROUP G

GALWAY TRIBESMEN 0-9 SLIGO 0-6

This game proved to be a very competitive one as indicated by the final score. In the first 12 minutes of the opening half it looked as if there would be only one team as Galway scored six points in a row without reply. Michael Munnelly got a point for Sligo and this added impetus into the Sligo attack. Switching Fionn Moylan into midfield helped matters too. Sligo had much of the play and added a second point from a free taken by Thomas Cawley. At half time Galway led 0-8 to 0-3.

Sligo had wind advantage in the second half. Scores remained difficult to come by but it was Sligo who put in a better performance and added three points to their tally, all from frees.

Despite a low scoring game this was a good contest with some terrific performances by a number of players. Sligo captain Niall Kilcullen played a leading role assisted by Fionn Moylan, Fionn Connolly, Eoghan Rua McGowan, Daire Cawley and Cahan Hallinan. Thomas Cawley was the leading scorer. Cahan Hallinan (Sligo) and Thomas Collins (Galway Tribesmen) won the Best and Fairest awards.

See www.gaa.ie/celticchallenge for fixtures, results and the full list of Best & Fairest Recipients.