THE story of the past week in Irish women’s sport has been the qualification of the hockey team for the quarter-finals of the World Cup with wins over USA and India. Even a 1-0 defeat to England in Sunday’s final group game couldn’t knock them off top spot in the group.
Many of the squad have played camogie at under-age level, but captain Katie Mullan has enjoyed success at All-Ireland level with Eoghan Rua in Coleraine.
When her hockey exploits allowed her, Katie played a key part in the rise of the Coleraine club at the start of this decade.
Eoghan Rua won their first ever Derry championship in 2010 and they went straight through to take the Ulster Intermediate crown.
Although she didn’t feature in either the county or provincial final line-ups, Katie came on as a substitute in the All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final against Lismore from Waterford in Cloughjordan and scored the winning goal in a closely-contested match.
She also came on as a sub in the All Ireland final, a 3-8 to 2-3 win over The Harps from Laois in Croke Park.
The following season, Eoghan Rua retained their All-Ireland Intermediate crown, although without the services of Katie, who had just won the first of her 144 international hockey caps.
However in 2013 Katie was more available to the club and she scored two goals in the Derry senior final victory against Slaughtneil. She also played and scored 1-1 in the Ulster senior club final defeat over Rossa and retained her place in the team for the narrow All Ireland senior semi-final defeat by Cork’s Milford
Eoghan Rua retained the Derry senior title in 2014 and Katie scored 1-4 in the final win over Slaughtneil.
At the weekend club senior coach Joe Passmore recalled these and other exploits from the UCD student who is currently taking a Masters in Biomedical Engineering.
“Katie would always have played if she was available and as the manager at the time she was a player I had to consider for selection, even when she was not as involved in training as the rest of the panel.
“She is physically strong, athletic and has a superb positive winning mentality. Because of her ability and the threat she posed I would have worked with her to accommodate her and her schedule.
“She played for Eoghan Rua when she could and was always honest and straight. I’d have loved to have her involved more frequently but hockey was her main sport. She would easily have been a fixture for Derry if she had played camogie regularly.”
Naturally the club and her former camogie coach has kept an eye on her progress in hockey and they are delighted with her elevation to captaincy of the Irish Squad at the World Cup.
“She is a popular member of our club among the players; the other girls always liked to see back for training and matches, and everyone in Eoghan Rua is really rooting for her this past week.”
All-Ireland Under 16 A championship
Galway 5-16 Tipperary 1-4
Limerick 1-7 Wexford 2-9
Cork 5-23 Clare 0-3
Dublin 1-13 Kilkenny 2-3
Holders Galway look very hot as they chase a fourth successive All-Ireland Under 16 A championship.
On Sunday they scored their third successive runaway win to top Group 1 and set up a semi-final against a Dublin side that surprised Kilkenny with a seven points’ victory in O’Toole’s GAA grounds.
Kilkenny had entered the game with a superior score-difference and needed just a draw to make the knock-out stage. However they found the Dublin defence in defiant mood and were only able to breach it on five occasions to score 2-3, while the home side’s attack totted up 1-13.
Cork, like Galway, finished their campaign in emphatic style, a 35 points’ win against Clare giving them top spot in Group 2. That means they will be facing Tipperary in the semi-finals in a fortnight’s time.
However at this point in time, it looks highly unlikely that Tipp or Dublin will be able to prevent a Galway v Cork final.
League Table All Ireland U16A Camogie Championship Group 1
Team Pld W D L PD Pts
Galway 3 3 0 0 100 9
Tipperary 3 2 0 1 5 6
Wexford 3 1 0 2 -33 3
Limerick 3 0 0 3 -72 0
League Table All Ireland U16A Camogie Championship Group 2
Team Pld W D L PD Pts
Cork 3 3 0 0 50 9
Dublin 3 2 0 1 4 6
Kilkenny 3 1 0 2 14 3
Clare 3 0 0 3 -68 0
All-Ireland Under 16 A championship results to date
July 8th : Tipperary 4-11, Wexford 1-6 ; Galway 10-26, Limerick 0-4, Clare 1-7 Dublin 1-14, Kilkenny 2-4 Cork 1-12
July 22nd : Tipperary 3-8 Limerick 0-2, Wexford 1-5 Galway 5-17, Cork 2-17 Dublin 2-7, Kilkenny 4-22 Clare 0-8
July 29th : Galway 5-16, Tipperary 1-4, Limerick 1-7, Wexford 2-9, Cork 5-23 Clare 0-3,
Dublin 1-13 Kilkenny 2-3
All Ireland U16B Camogie Championship Group 1
Offaly 5-12 Armagh 0-10
Laois 2-4 Kildare 0-9
BOTH Offaly and Armagh had qualified for the All-Ireland semi-finals on Sunday week be-fore the sliotar was thrown in at Kilcormack on Sunday afternoon, but the home side laid down an early marker with 1-1 in the first minute.
Armagh however responded with two points from Katie Comiskey before Offaly scored their second goal in the fifth minute. Comiskey settled the home side with two more points and the gap was down to five points at the interval, 0-7 to 2-6.
There were only two scores during the third quarter – points for Offaly. However they nailed the win with two goals inside 75 seconds around the 48th minute and then added a fifth goal right on the final whistle.
While Offaly deserved their victory, there wasn’t such a wide gap in general play as there was on the score-board at the end and there were good displays from Maeve Callaghan, Anita McKearney and Katie Comiskey, suggesting that Armagh can still resurrect their push for honours.
The other game in the group had no bearing on the qualification places, but Laois, with a couple of goals, edged a close encounter by a point.
Armagh scorers: Katie Comiskey (0-5), Sinead Quinn (0-2), Shannon Morgan (0-2), Aoife Forker (0-1)
League Table All Ireland U16B Camogie Championship Group 1
Team Pld W D L PD Pts
Offaly 4 4 0 0 67 12
Armagh 4 3 0 1 6 9
Laois 4 2 0 2 14 6
Kildare 4 1 0 3 -5 3
Meath 4 0 0 4 -82 0
All Ireland U16B Camogie Championship Group 2
Antrim 9-20 Westmeath 3-3
Down 0-1 Derry 13-17
BEFORE Sunday’s final round of games, Derry were guaranteed top spot in the table and Antrim only needed to stave off a heavy defeat to visiting Westmeath.
Neither team had any bother achieving their goals, both scoring emphatic victories to reach the semi-finals a week from Sunday.
Derry have finished top of the group and will now face Armagh in the semi-finals, while An-trim will need to beat Offaly if they are to set up an all-Ulster final.
Down have struggled at this age-group all season and a heavy defeat was expected. In fact the game spiralled out of their control at an early stage and Derry built up an interval lead of 7-10 to a single point from Niamh Sharkey.
Despite running their bench, Derry added a further 6-7 and look to have a great chance of reaching the final.
Meanwhile up in Ballymena Antrim also pressed home their superiority over visiting West-meath with a powerful opening half that saw them turn over with a 5-10 to 0-2 advantage.
Dunloy’s Aine McGill scored two goals and there was one each for the Brídíní Óga trio of Shauna McDonnell, Niamh McKay and Niamh Donnelly.
McGill completed her hat-trick shortly after the break and McDonnell, McKay and Roisin Ward fired home second half goals in a comprehensive win for the Saffrons hoping to reach the final for the second successive season.
Antrim : Aine McGill (3-2), Shauna McDonnell (2-2), Niamh McKay (2-1), Niamh Donnelly (1-3), Roisin Ward (1-0), Carla O’Neill (0-6), Rachel Bonnes (0-3), Caitlin Heggarty (0-2), Aoife Delargy (0-1).
West Meath: Meadbh McLoughlin (2-1), Sarah Ronan (1-0), Erin Core (0-2).
Derry : Catriona Toner (2-4), Aoife Doyle (2-1), Roisin Loughlin (2-1), Mary Ní Lochlainn (2-0), Roisin Gallagher (1-2), Caoimhe Kelly (1-2), Anna Cassidy (1-2), Maria Mullan (1-1), Sophie Diamond (1-1), Bronagh McCullagh (0-3)
Down: Niamh Sharkey (0-1)
League Table All Ireland U16B Camogie Championship Group 2
Team Pld W D L PD Pts
Derry 4 4 0 0 93 12
Antrim 4 3 0 1 36 9
Waterford 4 2 0 2 30 6
Westmeath 4 1 0 3 -53 3
Down 4 0 0 4 -106 0
All-Ireland Under 16 B championship results :
Round 1 : Derry 1-10 Antrim 1-5, Down 0-3 Waterford 6-14, Armagh 3-7 Kildare 3-4, Laois 5-18 Meath 0-1.
Round 2 : Kildare 1-5 Offaly 2-16, Meath 3-3 Armagh 2-14, Waterford 1-10 Antrim 3-10, Westmeath 1-4 Derry 6-10
Round 3 : Westmeath 5-15 Down 2-2, Derry 3-11 Waterford 1-5, Offaly 2-13 Laois 2-6, Kil-dare 2-11 Meath 0-3
Round 4 : Armagh 1-15 Laois 0-6, Meath 0-1 Offaly 5-15, Waterford 5-14 Westmeath 3-1
Round 5 : Antrim 9-20 Westmeath 3-3, Down 0-1 Derry 13-17, Offaly 5-12 Armagh 0-10, Laois 2-4 Kildare 0-9
All Ireland U16C Camogie Championship:
Tyrone 4-18, Cavan 4-4
Carlow 5-14, Kerry 2-4
Mayo 1-5, Roscommon 4-9
CARLOW continued their high scoring returns to top the table at this level.
The big surprise however was the heavy defeat of Mayo at home by Roscommon. Going into the game, all Mayo needed was a share of the spoils to join Carlow in the final.
Meanwhile Tyrone comfortably won the Ulster derby with Cavan with the teams sharing eight goals over the hour.
All Ireland U16C Camogie Championship
July 8th : Carlow 5-10 Cavan 0-1, Kerry 3-8 Mayo 4-4
July 15th : Roscommon 1-6, Carlow 3-12 ; Tyrone 5-4, Mayo 4-7 ; Kerry w/o Cavan
July 22nd : Cavan 0-2, Mayo 5-3, Roscommon 3-12, Kerry 3-11
July 29th : Tyrone 4-18, Cavan 4-4 ; Carlow 5-14, Kerry 2-4 ; Mayo 1-5, Roscommon 4-9
League Table All Ireland U16C Camogie Championship
Team Pld W D L PD Pts
Carlow 5 4 0 1 120 12
Roscommon 5 4 0 1 28 12
Mayo 5 3 1 1 5 10
Kerry 5 2 0 3 6 6
Tyrone 5 1 1 3 -79 4
Cavan 5 0 0 5 -80 0
