RATOATH CLAIM U17 COUNTY 7-A-SIDE COMPETITION Ratoath were crowned the first winners of the Meath U17, 7-a-side competition when they came out on top in the finals held in Dunganny.
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or the second Saturday running eight clubs who had won their regional qualifiers met at the Trim road venue to contest for the Matt McMahon Cup. The cup was donated by the McMahon family from Castletown whose father played with the club and was also an officer with the Nobber club. Group A of the competition include two of the pre-tournament favourites in Ratoath and St Peters/Pauls Dunboyne. Na Fianna and St Cuthberts made up the four team group and after all four sides played each other on a round-robin basis it was Ratoath and the Bohermeen parish side that emerged to the cup semi finals. Ratoath won all three of their matches while St Cuthberts caused a shock when overcoming the Dunboyne outfit by the minimum of margins to reach the last four. Although they did not win any of their matches Na Fianna proved a handful for all the other sides.The Enfield squad and St Peters/Pauls qualified for the shield semis. Group A Results : Ratoath 11, St Peters/Pauls 6 ; St Cuthberts 13, Na Fianna 9; St Peters/Pauls 16, Na Fianna 8 ; Ratoath 16, St Cuthberts 11;St Cuthberts 15 St Peters/Pauls 14; Ratoath 13 Na Fianna 9 Group B consisted of Walterstown, Killary Emmets, Gael Colmcille and Skryne. The Taramen seem to like 7 aside as they won the U15 competition the week before and also the equivilent at U12 and U14 in 2010, so it was probably no
surprise when they topped their section with a 100% record. The second spot and a place in the cup semi finals had to be decided on score difference after all three teams finished with one win each. Killary had the best score difference so finished second while the lads from Kells and Walterstown qualified for the shield semi finals. Group B Results : Walterstown 7, Killary Emmets 6; Skryne 8, Gael Colmcille 5: Skryne 11, Killary Emmets 9 ; Gael Colmcille 8, Walterstown 5; Killary Emmets 13, Gael Colmcille 7; Skryne 14, Walterstown 1. Once again four pitches were in use and all semi-finals were played simultaneously. The cup semis brought Ratoath face to face with Killary Emmets while Skryne came up against St Cuthberts. Despite a brave effort from the CastletownSyddan combined side it was the lads from Ratoath that reached the final. In the other semi, St Cuthberts once again surprised many with a well merited victory over Skryne to set up a repeat of a group match in the cup final. Meantime in the shield semis, a repeat of an earlier group match also evolved when Gael Colmcille overcame Na Fianna while Walterstown had the mininum to spare over the team from Dunboyne. Semi-final Results : Cup - Ratoath 14, Killary Emmets 9, St Cuthberts 17, Skryne 12 ;Shield - Walterstown 12 St Peters/Pauls 11; Gael Colmcille 8, Na Fianna 5.
In the Cup final St Cuthberts were hoping to reverse the result from the earlier group match and registered the first score. Although Ratoath equalised, the Bohermeen parish side had several chances to move ahead. However it was Ratoath, thanks mainly to Eamon Wallace, Adam Flinter and Adam Flinter who took the initiative and led 6 scores to 1 at the interval. St Cuthberts rallied well in the second period with great efforts from Ronan Galligan, Sean Power and Cian Farnan but could never close the gap and Ratoath deservedly won on a 12-7 scoreline. After the match Pat McMahon from the Castletown club and son of Matt, presented the Matt McMahon Cup to winning captain Darren Mulvanney. The Shield final was a closely fought affair and like St Cuthberts in the Cup final, Walterstown were trying to reverse the earlier group result. However the blacks fell short by one score as the boys from Gael Colmcille annexed the U17 Shield on an 11-10 score. Liam Ferguson, Mark Carrigy and Oisin O'Reilly were to the fore for the Kells side while Paul Donnellan, Robbie McDonnell and Joe Clarke tried hard for Walterstown. The captain of Gaeil Colmcille, Liam Beggy received the shield from Coiste FĂŠ 18 vice-chairman Michael Mullally, while PRO of Coiste FĂŠ 18, Ultan Fitzpatrick presented the medals to the victorious team.
Ratoath Gaeil Colmcille
St. Cuthbert’s
Dunboyne
Killary Emmets
Walterstown
Na Fianna
Skryne Darren Mulvaney with the McMahon Cup
Liam Beggy and Michael Mullally