Canal Court Hotel and Spa Down Senior Championship
Ballycran 3-5 Clonduff 4-16
Liatroim Fontenoys 1-12 Portaferry 3-19
Bredagh 0-8 Ballygalget 2-22
By Séamas McAleenan
The final round of games in the Canal Court Hotel and Spa Down Senior Championship went more or less as expected, meaning that there will be a play-off on Sunday between Ballygalget and Ballycran to determine a semi-final opponent the following Saturday (4 October) for holders Clonduff.
Saturday’s tie between Liatroim Fontenoys and Portaferry will have to be repeated in the other semi-final, although the Portaferry win at the weekend means they will get home advantage on 4 October.
Niamh Mallon, not surprisingly, was the difference between the sides on Saturday. As well as accumulating a personal tally of 11 points, the Galway All-Ireland winner was involved in both second-half goals, scored by Erin McGrattan. Portaferry channelled a lot of play through Mallon, who was among the nominations for All-Stars announced midweek.
Mallon scored her team’s first five points before Ciara Doran popped over a 45 and a free, against two early points from Aimee McAleenan. McAleenan and Dearbhla Magee (two) narrowed the gap to 0-7 to 0-5 around the 20-minute mark, but those scores were quickly cancelled by two from Mallon and one each from Gerra McGrattan and Ciara Doran (free), before Eimear McCarthy opened a huge half-time gap with a Portaferry goal.
The home side closed the gap on the restart with points from McAleenan and Magee, but a defensive mistake allowed Mallon to find Erin McGrattan for a 42nd-minute goal, and it was basically game over at that stage. Erin McGrattan added a third goal in added time, a similar scenario to the second.
Ballycran played with the wind in the opening half against group winners Clonduff and would have been pleased enough with their performance by the break, even though they trailed by 3-3 to 2-4. Ceallagh Byrne’s goal got Clonduff off to a good start, but Ballycran fought back with goals from Corey Smith and Chloe Savage. However, each was cancelled by strikes from Katie McGilligan and Paula O’Hagan.
Despite a second goal and a point from Corey Smith, Clonduff pulled away from the home side in the second half with five points from Paula O’Hagan, a goal and three from Sara Louise Graffin, and three fine late points from the impressive Niamh McConville.
Ballygalget needed to beat already relegated Bredagh in Cherryvale to stay in the title race this year. They did just that, eventually coming home on a 2-22 to 0-8 scoreline, with 11 different players contributing to the scoreboard.
