Meath away to Kildare and u-17s pick up bonus point
Meath will play Kildare in the Christy Ring Cup in Newbridge on Sunday 22nd May while the other semi-final between Antrim and Down will be played on Saturday 21st May. Meath under-17s were in action last night.
Meath opened their campaign in the new-look u-17 Celtic Challenge last night when they hosted Dublin (Clarke) in Trim.
Meath produced a fine performance but were on the wrong end of the 0-22 to 2-10 scoreline as they lost by six points.
Under the rules, Meath gained a bonus point as they scored two goals, but they missed out on another bonus points as they lost by six points, a five-point (or less) defeat would have earned a bonus points also.
The Celtic Challenge is a new hurling championship aimed at 16 and 17-year-old hurlers who are not sitting State Examinations this summer.
Some 38 teams including county and regional sides will take part across seven groups that are determined on a geographical and developmental basis.
There will be up to 1,000 players involved in a programme of 110 matches that take place over seven weeks.
There will be 22 county teams and 16 sides that represent regions from within Tier 1 hurling counties such as South Kilkenny, Waterford City and West Limerick.
After an initial round-robin group phase of matches, teams will be graded on their performance and will then be assigned to one of five Divisions for the preliminaries and the play-offs where again they will compete against teams of a similar level of ability.
The five Divisional Finals will be played on Saturday 18th June at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny.
Cups have been named after victims from among the 14 people killed on Bloody Sunday at Croke Park on 21st November 1920: Michael Hogan (age 24), John William Scott (14), William Robinson (11), Jerome O’Leary (10) and Michael Feery (40). The trophies and medals have been sponsored by the Past Hurlers’ Association.
The Celtic Challenge will feature a number of new initiatives on trial for the first time in Gaelic games.
There will also be a ‘Best and Fairest Award’ that will see referees after every match choose one player from each team selected on the basis of their skill level as well as the respect they showed to the playing rules, match officials and their fellow players.
An inter-change policy will be used instead of permanent substitutes which ensures every player on a squad can be involved in a game.
An innovative scoring system will be in operation for the group stages that will award a bonus point for a team that scores two or more goals while also awarding a losing bonus point for a defeated team that loses by a margin of five points or less.
GROUP C
Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Dublin 2, Dublin 3.