Kiladangan and Upperchurch into County Senior Hurling semi-finals
By Shane Brophy
2020 champions Kiladangan are back in the Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship semi-finals after ending the campaign of Clonoulty/Rossmore in a disappointing quarter final, 1-14 to 0-12 at FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday.
In their first game back at the venue since the death of their captain Dillon Quirke last month, Clonoulty will wonder what might have been as they were much the better side until the nineteenth minute when they led 0-7 to 0-2 when Aaron Ryan was sent off for a second yellow card inside four minutes.
Kiladangan took full advantage of the extra man in the second half but were far from impressive themselves and but for a man of the match performance from Tadhg Gallagher who scored 1-3, his goal in the 56th minute finally ended the Clonoulty challenge as they as good as ran out of bodies with top-scorer Jack Ryan forced off at half time through injury.
With top-scorer Jack Ryan struggling with injury, Clonoulty literally ran out of bodies as their traumatic campaign came to an end.
In the earlier quarter final, Upperchurch/Drombane reached just a second ever County senior hurling semi-final as they reeled off the last eight points without reply to beat a shell-shocked JK Brackens, 2-21 to 1-21.
A week after the ‘Church defeated Brackens in a senior football quarter final, they repeated the dose but this didn’t look likely on 52 minutes when they trailed by five points to a Brackens side that were full of energy and verve. However, the Templemore/Clonmore side flagged badly in the closing moments with Upperchurch powering into the last four off the back of 1-12 from Paudie Greene.
The victors led at half time 1-9 to 0-11, with Greene getting the scoring underway with a goal after just twelve seconds. However, Brackens responded well with Jordan Moloney and Lyndon Fairbrother to the fore, the latter contributing twelve points in total.
Brackens dominated the third quarter, despite conceding a 34th minute goal to Colm Ryan but cancelled it out two minutes later from Andrew Ormond and by the 52nd minute an inspirational David O’Shea puckout catch and point had them five clear but they wouldn’t score again as Upperchurch found momentum at the right time.