

The U10 and U9 Harps hurling team have been very busy in the last few weeks taking part in blitzes and Go-Games fixtures. They enjoyed a great win in the Fenians Blitz in Johnstown earlier in the month. Despite losing narrowily to Galmoy in the first game, they won the remaing group games against The Emeralds and Lisdowney. In the final they had a comprehenive win against the Fenians and there were many great performances on the night from all the team.
They also headed down to Newmarket on Fergus in Clare for thier annual blitz and again played very well loosing out in a a very tight final to Gort. The younger U9s won their section beating both the hosts and Tulla. All the players recieved medals after the games and a word of thanks to the host Club for their hospitality.
Last Monday evening, they played two matches in O’Moore Park as part of the expierience night. All teams paraded by behind the pipeband before playing games against Portlaoise and St Josephs and than finally all the children got the chance to climb the steps in the stand to lift the Senior Trophy. We look forward to the day when these young players get the chance to do this in a County Final. Great work is been done with this group of players and they are showing a lot of promise.
Report by: Barry Murphy
The Harps U14 camogie team under the management of Barney O’Connor and Sarah-Leigh Murphy won the county B championship on Saturday, beating Clonad in a hard fought final in Rathdowney. The Harps edged ahead in the first half and built up a good lead by half time. Clonad tried hard to get back into the game with notable performances from Sarah Fingleton, Emily Gowing and their goal scorer Rachel Fitzgerald, but found it very hard to breach a very strong Harps defense. On the other hand, the Harps were playing well all over the pitch and had players well able to break through Clonad’s defense and pick off scores. Harps Captain Jennifer Cass was the star of the show, sweeping up in the backs and supplying some great ball to her forwards and she also had a personnal tally of 1-1. Yeaneah O’Connell and Lorraine O’Dea proved to be invaluable to the Harps defense, while the mighty Molly O’Connor tirelessly ruled midfield along side her captain. But it was the ability of all of the Harps forwards to break tackles that made the difference on the scoreboard as center forward Shauna O’Dea scored 1-1, Corner forward Eimear Fitzpatrick scored 2 points, in the other corner Eimear Dunphy scored 1 point and the Harps top scorer Emily McGuigan scored 2 goals and 2 points.
Harps team;- Nessa McEvoy, Stephanie O’Dea, Yeaneah O’Connell, Teresa Fitzpatrick, Meave Bergin, Lorraine O’Dea, Meave McNeill, Jennifer Cass(capt)1-1, Molly O’Connor, Louise Walshe, Shauna O’Dea 1-1, Gráinne Phelan, Eimear Dunphy 0-1, Emily McGuigan 2-2, Eimear Fitzpatrick 0-2, Kate Campion for Eimear Fitzpatrick, Jeanne deToulgoet for Eimear Dunphy, Nicola Ryan for Louise Walshe, Meadbh Deegan for Emily McGuigan, Lauren McGuigan for Gráinne Phelan, Bronagh McEvoy, Róisin Phelan and Caoimhe Earls.
The U16 Hurlers beat Na Fianna in the last round of the league by two points last week, with this being their last match of the group. In the group they have won three but lost two. They might be in with a chance of progressing further, depending on this weekend results between other teams in their group.
This group played in a blitz hosted by Clough-Ballacolla last Saturday. The first team made up mainly of U9s did really well against Shanahoe and showed great spirit and determination against their opponents. Great performances on the day from Owen Cahill, Eoin Delaney and Rory Dunne in defence, Bobby & Charlie Murphy in midfield with Daniel Bowe and Keelin Carroll doing great work in the forwards. In the second game against Clough-Ballacolla, the older Harps selection also played great football against their local rivals. A special mention here must go to Stephen Murphy, Daragh Conroy, Gavin Ryan, Eoin Whelan, Kevin McNeill and Daniel Murphy who stood out on the morning along with the rest of the team. Keep up the great work lads.
Well done and a big thank you to all the boys who attended the St Kieran’s College Faith Fest Under 8 Hurling blitz held on Saturday 11th May in the College grounds. A squad of 24 took part with some great encounters with opposition from Camross, Erin’s Own, and Rathdowney/Errill.
Those who took part were; Liam Ryan, Rory Walsh, Liam Kirby, Martin Drennan, Darragh Townsend, John Paul Murphy, Bobby Murphy, Donal Deegan, Ross Deegan, Loughlin Curran, Simon Comerford, Jack Dunphy, Will Duggan, Jimmy White, Jamie Dooley, Eoin Murphy, Tom Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Cormac Dunne, Niell Stanley, Ethan Lafferty, Cole Brennan and Shane Shortall.
After the blitz all players were presented with medals by Kilkenny star Ritchie Hogan.
Training for the group continues every Tuesday evening from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.
The U12 team played their second hurling game for 2013 last Wednesday evening in Clonad when they took on the hosts, Clonad/Ratheniska. The opening half was close with The Harps playing very well with some fine shooting from Jim Kirby the pick of the action. For the second half the Harps practically put on a whole new team to allow all to get game time and again all competed very well. Key players on the night included goalkeeper Pauric Walsh, backs Daire Quinn and Bill Phelan with forwards Jim Kirby and captain for the night Tony Lee all working very hard. The year has started well for this group and they train every Friday evening at 6.30pm with games most Wednesday evenings. The following attended for the game in Clonad – Pauric Walsh, Odhran Delahunty, Daire Quinn, Bill Phelan, Billy McEvoy, Thomas Walsh, Ciaran Shortall, Lee Coffey, Lorcan Fitzpatrick, Mark Deegan, Tony Lee, Emmett Moore, Jim Kirby, Tiarnach Doheny, Mikey Monaghan, Ben Dunphy, Aaron O’Grady, James Duggan, Mark Holland, Conor Delaney, Oisin Fogarty, Patrick Daly, Jack Murphy and Oisin Doyle.