Ballymore Ladies

Division 4 League
Vs. Balyna II
On Sunday 15th April, Balyna’s 2nd team travelled to Ballymore. Balyna were the only other team in the league to have won all of their games. They certainly gave Ballymore a game with a good spell in the 2nd half but Ballymore always looked like they would win it. The forwards were particularly strong on this day with Stephanie Harney and Woman of the Match Louise Burke putting in great performances.
Scorers for Ballymore:
Dawn Murray 3-6
Stephanie Harney 1-4
Louise Burke 1-1
Fran Burke 0-1

Ballymore 5-12 Balyna II 2-9

Vs. Rheban
Having beaten their closest rivals in the league on Sunday, the ladies then made the trip to Athy to face new entrants Rheban on Tuesday 17th. Ballymore never really got going in the first half, and it was probably Rheban’s enthusiasm off-the-ball that left the ladies finishing the first half up by 7 points.
A good talking to at half-time (John Hubbard seems so mild-mannered but he can be quite scary!) and the ladies ran out a different team. Everyone linked well from the goalkeeper up to the forwards and Rheban were extremely frustrated, the brunt of which was felt by Gemma Swords who had to be taken off winded. This only served to make Ballymore more determined that the opposition wouldn’t score and the ladies ran out easy winners in the end.
Woman of the Match went to Sheena Hubbard.
Scorers for Ballymore:
Dawn Murray 0-11
Stephanie Harney 1-4
Sheena Hubbard 0-3
Cleo Hubbard 1-0
Valerie Byrne 0-1
Sharon O’Donoghue 0-1

Rheban 0-0 Ballymore 2-20
(This was actually reported to the county board as 4-22 but we only counted 2-20!)

League – ladies undefeated after first round of the league
The ladies have now finished the league, beating all of the other teams and achieving the maximum 18 pts. The plan had been to split the league into two and have separate playoffs for the two groups. With Grangenolvan II’s withdrawal, there are only 6 teams left and the County Board have decided to have a full 2nd round of reverse fixtures so Ballymore Ladies have it all to do again starting in July!



Summer Cup Competition
Ballymore Ladies have decided to take part in the County Summer Cup Competition. This competition involves clubs from all of the divisions and is to be played without senior county players.
Every club involved is guaranteed 2 games. The Winners of Round 1 games will then comprise Pool 1 for the second round draw. The other teams will be Pool 2.

There’s nothing like a good competitive game and for Round 1, Ballymore will be hosting Division 1 league leaders Balyna!


U-16 League Final
Eadestown beat Na Fianna in the Div. 2 League Final on Tuesday, 1st May.
Held in Rathcoffey, the team included a number of Ballymore girls including Orla Hanlon at full-forward.
From the Ballymore Ladies club, Teresa Gorman played at centre-half forward and Cleo Hubbard came into the half-forward line helping Eadestown to a 4 point victory. Well done girls!


Mini-Marathon
Almost 20 girls from the team will take part in the mini-marathon on Monday, 4th June. All monies will go to the Hospice and PAWS so please support generously.


Exams
Good luck to all of the girls doing school and college exams over the next few months. Louise Burke is the only team member doing her Leaving Cert with Danielle Parker completing her Junior Cert.

Tug of War
Ballymore GAA held a sports day on the May Bank Holiday Sunday. Apart from the underage football and hurling games, there was also a Leinster tug of war competition.
13 members of Ballymore Ladies decided to partake in the ‘rope-pulling’ although all refused to weigh-in! There were 2 teams with the younger team members taking on their older rivals. Personally I think we were robbed, with Karen Balfe falling over laughing when heckled by the crowd!
Anyway, the ‘young ones’ took the cup which is now residing in Paddy’s with our welly match trophy. Thanks to Ballymore GAA for organising the match and providing the lovely cup.
The winning ‘Young Ones’ team:
Nicola Rigney
Amanda Conway
Sheena Hubbard
Stacey Balfe
Susan Foley
Stephanie Harney
Teresa Gorman