Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Premier Junior All-Ireland Camogie Championship semi-finals
Tipperary 0-15 Armagh 1-11
ARMAGH made an excellent start to the second semi-final of the premier junior double-header in Ashbourne on Saturday, replying to an early free from Jenny Grace with four scores in a row.
Former Cork star Jenny Curry, who won the first of her five senior All-Irelands 22 years ago and the first of her eight Allstars two years later, opened the scoring for the Orchard county. Ciara Geoghegan scored two frees, while Curry hit over a neat point from play.
It mirrored the start to the group game three weeks ago when Armagh made the better start, were hauled back during the middle third of the game and then swamped towards the end.
This time, though, the game was much more evenly contested throughout, with Curry’s late goal coming too close to the end to stop Tipperary reaching Croke Park for the second year in a row.
There was little to separate the teams over the first 20 minutes that ended 0-6 each. However, two pointed frees from Grace gave Tipp a two-point lead at the break before the score-for-score nature of the contest continued after half-time, with the dead-ball experts on both sides prominent.
Armagh keeper Ciarrai Devlin pulled off a fine save in the 47th minute to deny Tipperary sub Laura Shinners and keep the game in the melting pot.
However, Grace made no mistake with three consecutive 45s to extend her side’s lead to four points as the clock ticked towards added time.
Curry popped up with that late goal for Armagh, but the Premier county held on to put themselves 60 minutes away from winning this championship for the first time in 32 years.
Tipperary J Grace 0-9 (0-7f); O O’Brien 0-2; S Pembroke, C Brennan, A Fahie & E Flanagan 0-1 each
Armagh J Curry 1-2; C Geoghegan 0-6 (0-5f); S Quinn, L Donnelly & T Maxwell 0-1 each
Laois 2-16 Cavan 3-7
DESPITE Róisín O’Keefe hitting the net in the first minute, Cavan failed to reach Croke Park as group-form remained constant and Laois eased through to the decider.
Aimee Collier responded to the O’Keefe goal by hitting the net in the third minute and from that point Laois were never headed.
Cavan kept pace for much of the opening half, with O’Keefe bagging three points. However, in first-half injury-time, Clodagh Tynan scored Laois’ second goal and Collier brought her first-half total to 1-5 with an even later free as the midlanders changed ends with a 2-8 to 1-4 advantage.
The teams traded four points during the third quarter before Cavan struck gold with goals from Shanise Fitzsimons and Emma Plunkett inside a minute to close the gap to 3-6 to 2-10.
But the Laois response was emphatic, with the next six points, including four from Collier and one each from Tynan and second-half substitute Eimear Hassett, to put them into the comfort zone once more.
Laois A Collier 1-10 (0-8f; C Tynan 1-1;G Delaney 0-2; A O’Dea, LM Maher & E Hassett 0-1 each
Cavan R O’Keefe 1-3; S Fitzsimons 1-1;E Plunkett 1-2; A Coyle and N Keenaghan 0-1 each
