Toome retain Junior 'A' title following thrilling clash with Roscrea
Toomevara 1-22
Roscrea 2-16
When the games of the year are reflected upon at the end of the year, those at MacDonagh Park in Nenagh on Sunday will rate this among them as Toomevara struck deep in injury time to retain the North Junior ‘A’ Hurling Championship title at the expense of Roscrea in a thriller.
The Rossies hadn’t won the North title in 31 years and it looked as if Toome, as tends to be their tradition, hit the front going into added time having trailed for much of the second half.
Roscrea, whose forwards struggled in the final quarter, then caught a break as sub Roddy Teehan raced into a breaking ball and blasted to the roof of the in the 63rd minute to put Roscrea a point in front.
Toomevara quickly leveled through a Paddy Grace free but when Glenn Loughnane landed a monster point in the sixth minute of added time, it looked like being Roscrea’s day but the Greyhounds still had another stride as Alan Ryan got on the end of an Aidan Cahill delivery and beat the advancing Kevin Dooley to flick to the net. In the next play, Pairic Shanahan pointed from play to double the lead but Roscrea still had one final chance when Glenn Loughnane played in Michael Ryan 21 yards out but he didn’t get a clean connecting as the ball rolled wide.
It was a exciting, frantic conclusion to what overall was a hugely enjoyable game, played in the right spirit between two very evenly matched teams and at a standard that wouldn’t be out of place at intermediate level, with some superb score-taking by both sides.
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