All-Ireland glory for Meath girls

Meath camogie scaled new heights at Croke Park when Blackhall Gaels player Jane Dolan climbed the steps shortly after 1.30 on Sunday to claim the All-Ireland Premier Junior camogie cup for the first time. Her journey from the celebrating players and officials along the sideline was a relatively short one, but it represented the culmination of six years of serious effort as Meath camogie wrote its own 'rags to riches' story. And while all that was happening, the man who plotted the success, former Meath hurling manager John Davis, was predictably doused with water by the players. Davis described the occasion as one of the best he has ever experienced in his years of involvement with county and club teams. He also divulged that there might have been some divine intervention on behalf of the Royal County as they survived a few hectic final minutes of Down pressure. "I have to go up into the stand to see my mother, she was in Knock yesterday and she was praying that we would win," Davis told the Meath Chronicle after he completed a number of post-match radio and television interviews. They probably weren't the only prayers uttered over the weekend and as the pressure increased in four minutes of second-half injury-time, battling Down reduced the deficit to a point. This was real backs to the wall stuff, reminiscent perhaps of Davy Crockett and his Texans at the Alamo, except on this occasion the under-pressure defenders survived and won the day. When Meath needed a hero they found one, goalkeeper Emily Mangan spectacularly caught the sliotar from a dangerous looking Down attack that could have produced an equaliser. When the sliotar was cleared it gave Meath one more chance to make the scoreboard tick. The Down goalkeeper advanced to clear the danger, but she was penalised for charging, a simple free from 20 metres was the outcome. At least it had a simple appearance for someone sitting in the pressbox - there was real pressure on Dolan, who had endured a torrid hour with at least two markers pulling out of her at all times. The long road had provided many harsh lessons, three successive semi-finals defeats, but all the disappointments were swept away when Dolan drilled the sliotar between the posts. The journey was over, for the moment.