Intermediate Hurling

                 This match was played in the sunny Pairc Na Bride with a place in the Munster Intermediate Hurling Championship up for grabs. We were fortunate to have a home draw having travelled to Ardmore to face the Waterford Champions the previous week. The match started at a tremendous pace and the teams were level at 2 points each after 6 minutes. The Rovers scorers were Donal Ryan and Pat Walsh. After this initial scoring burst the defences tightened up and it was Broadford who scored next with a well-worked point on 14 mins. This seemed to create some urgency in the Bride Rovers team and almost immediately Brian Murphy scored a great goal following a fantastic pass from Sean Ryan. Points were swapped with Jerome O’ Driscoll getting 2 before Sean Ryan goaled following some good work by Ritchie Cahill. We were now leading by 5 points but we knew that Broadford would be a stern test and so it proved. With 3 minutes left in the 1^st half, a long ball into the square from a free resulted in one of the Broadford forwards getting a touch that resulted in a goal to leave 2 points between the teams. Almost immediately we went back down the field and Ritchie Cahill’s persistence was rewarded with a goal from close range. Further points from Jerome O’ Driscoll and Sean Ryan and 1 from Broadford left the half time score at Bride Rovers 3-06 Broadford 1-06. Overall it was a good first half performance but we knew the Clare champions were not going to be beaten easily.

            The 2^nd half began with Terry Broderick registering the 1^st score of the half after 3 minutes. We were hurling well with our defence supplying a lot of ball to the forwards. Broadford scored a point from a free before Padraig Murphy and Jerome scored a point apiece. A further point to Broadford left the score at BR 3-09 Broadford 1-08 after 10 minutes of the 2^nd half. For some reason it would be another 10 minutes before we would score again but again our defence proved strong limiting the opposition to 1 point. Points were exchanged entering the final 10 minutes with Jerome scoring from a free and a point from play for Broadford. The hurling was tough and with 10 mins remaining Broadford were reduced to 14 players. Good work by substitute Mike Hogan resulted in Jerome getting the final point of the game to leave the final score Bride Rovers 3-11 Broadford 1-10. The score line suggests a 1-sided match but Broadford were much closer than the score reflects. We will have to improve on this for the final but we had some good performances from Aidan Collins, Barry Murphy, Brian Murphy, Sean Ryan, and Jerome O’ Driscoll.   

Team Was Denny Fitzgerald,Pat Barry, Niall Fitzgerald, James Murphy, Barry Johnson, Barry Murphy, Aidan Collins, Padraig Murphy (0-01), Brian Murphy (1-00), Pat Walsh (0-01), Donal Ryan (0-01), Terry Broderick (0-01), Jerome O’Driscoll (0-06 0-03F), Sean Ryan (1-01), Ritchie Cahill (1-00). Subs: Mike Hogan, Colm O' Keeffe, Patrick O' Driscoll.