Whitty has last laugh at Boardsmill Road Hurling
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Stephen Bergin, Nora Daly, Willie Dunphy and Charles Dwyer were braving the cold and the wind at the Boardsmill Road Hurling Championships.Image 2 of 15
Vinny Guy presents the Meath Road Hurling Championship runner-up prizes to the Laois team of Stephen Bergin, Willie Dunphy and Charles Dwyer.Image 3 of 15
Enjoying the Road Hurling in Boardsmill were Sean Guy, Logan Eivers, Thomas Cribbin, Eoin Fitzsimons, Enda Byrne, Andrew Cribbin and Aoife Byrne.Image 4 of 15
The winning Trim team Alan Douglas, Stephen Doyle anbd Niall Murray receive their Road Hurling trophies from Boardsmill GAA chairman TJ Reilly.Image 5 of 15
Ladies Road Hurling champion Edel Guy recives her trophy from Boardsmill GAA chairman TJ Reilly.Image 6 of 15
Caroline Gibbons, Christine Fagan and Caroline Loughran receive their Meath Road Hurling trophies from Boardsmill GAA chairman TJ Reilly.Image 7 of 15
Maeve Fitzsimons, Eimear Guy and Orlaith Purcell were ready for action at the Boardsmill Road Hurling.Image 8 of 15
Culainn McLoughlin gets a good strike away at the Meath Road Hurling Championships.Image 9 of 15
Emily Conway shows how it’s done at the start of the Meath Road Hurling Championships in Boardsmill.Image 10 of 15
Emily Conway’s grandfather Michael Kennedy follows up with a great start at the Meath Road Hurling Championships in Boardsmill.Image 11 of 15
Daniel Lally, Jamie Brennan and Patrick Cully representing Longwood at the Meath Road Hurling Championships in Boardsmill.Image 12 of 15
Boardsmill’s own Jessica Ryall leads the charge at the Meath Road Hurling Championships.Image 13 of 15
Christine Fagan gets the Boardsmill team off to a great start at the Meath Road Hurling Championships.Image 14 of 15
Megan Loughran shows great technique at the Meath Road Hurling Championships in Boardsmill.Image 15 of 15
James Maguire from Longwood, Culainn McLoughlin from Boardsmill and James Murray from Longwood all ready to go at the Meath Road Hurling Championships.Boardsmill GAA hosted the Meath Road Hurling Championships on Saturday 26th February where Blackhall Gaels' Colm Whitty and the host club's Edel Guy were crowned individual winners.
The Trim team of Alan Douglas, Stephen Doyle and Niall Murray took the men's team prize, while the Boardsmill combination of Caroline Loughran, Deirdre Gibbons and Christine Fagan won the women's title.
Due to Covid restrictions the club were unable to host the competition the last two years at their usual time, around Christmas /New Year, so with this new date they were delighted with the turn out.
Forty-eight teams braved the strong wind and cold on the Ballyconnell Road to take part with the usual craic along the way.
Teams from Kildalkey, Blackhall Gaels, Trim, Killyon, Dunderry, Athboy, Rathmolyon, Na Fianna, Longwood, Kilmessan, Dunboyne and further afield Delvin, Ballinakill and Clough/Ballacolla lined out.
A record number of juvenile teams also took part which was fantastic to see as boys and girls as young as eight competed, all having fun and a laugh as the day went on.
Most of the fun of the day was traversing the ditches, hedges, gates and fences retrieving their sliotar!
There were prizes for under-16s with Na Fianna's Eoin Coffey taking the boys title with a fantastic score of 74 points, while Boardsmill's Anna Mai Cribbin scored 40 points to lift the girls title.
The experienced ladies team from Boardsmill of Deirdre Gibbons, Christine Fagan and Caroline Loughran led from the start defying the windy conditions and finished the course with a winning score of 97 points.
A nice moment for the ladies who played alongside the next generation of Boardsmill Camogie, their own three daughters; Leah, Brid and Roisin who finished with a good score in their own right. A sign of future Road Hurling winners no doubt.
The individual ladies was a hotly contested competition. Deirdre Gibbons, who was on the winning ladies team, and two times Road Hurling winner Edel Guy pulled away from the field and were on level pegging with only a couple of sections remaining.
However the All Ireland Camogie winner Guy pulled it out of the bag and ended up taking the spoils by four points.
The men's team competition was a more one sided affair with the Trim team of Stephen Doyle, Alan Douglas and Niall Murray leading from the front with consistent pucks at almost each section from each of the three players.
They finished up on a score of 207 points ahead of 198 from the Laois side of Willie Dunphy and Stephen Bergin from Clough/Ballacolla and Cha Dwyer from Ballinakill.
The men's individual battle for the Vincent Guy Memorial Trophy was a similar story to the ladies' competition, closely contested, by Blackhall Gaels dual star player Colm Whitty and Boardsmill GAA club secretary and dual star Cian Royston.
A hard fought battle ensued unknownst to each other as they went out at different times. They were on level par on a number of occasions however Whitty pulled away on section 24 after landing a fantastic long puck in the centre of the road and despite Royton's best efforts, he couldn't close the gap.
Whitty ended up winning by four and taking the trophy back to Blackhall Gaels.
"It's absolutely fantastic to be able to host the Meath Road Hurling Championships again, a sign of hopefully getting back to some sort of normality after the Covid crisis,” said Boardsmill GAA chairman TJ Reilly.
"The Committee would like to thank our sponsors of the event, Trimfold Envelopes Ltd for their generosity again this year, DC Distributors for the donation of sweets and crisps, Cara Quill for the donation of water, Fitzsimons Coaches for providing shuttle buses to and from the hall, the ladies in the hall giving out soup and bread, the residents on the road for accommodating the event, all the competitors for coming out and playing in such a windy day and all those who offered donations towards the event. "All going well we'll be back hosting the event around Christmas time later this year," concluded Reilly.