Offaly school wins camogie blitz

The annual camogie blitz for secondary schools in the locale of Southern Gaels and Drumraney camogie clubs was held on Wednesday 15th October in Caulry GAA grounds. This blitz was initiated just last year but it has turned out to be a very special event already, judging by the response of all four of the secondary schools who participated in both years of its being.

The participating schools were, Bower Athlone, Gallen CC Ferbane, Mercy Ballymahon, and Moate CS. In these initial years it was confined to students from first year up to and including Transition Year. It is planned to have a similar blitz for senior cycle students in the coming years as the participants of the initial blitzes progress to senior cycle.

All four teams played each other in a round robin. Two games progressed concurrently on the two excellently turned out Caulry GAA pitches, which meant all four teams were in action at the same time. After the round robin the two top teams progressed to the Cup final, with the other two teams playing each other in the Shield final.

Such was the competitiveness of the round robin, no team won all three of their games, with every team winning a least one. Mercy Ballymahon met Gallen CC in the Cup final, and Ferbane reversed their defeat to the same opposition in their round robin game. A similar thing happened in the Shield final where Moate CS reversed their defeat to Bower Athlone in their round robin game.

Teresa Small, daughter of Olive Browne, presented the Olive Brown Cup to Aimee Fitzgerald, captain of the Gallen Ferbane team, and Helen Seery, secretary of Drumraney Camogie, presented the Midlands Secondary Schools Blitz Shield to the joint captains of Moate CS, Aoibheann Kelly and Lucy Murphy. Southern Gaels sponsored the Olive Browne Cup and medals, and Drumraney sponsored the Midlands Secondary Schools Blitz Shield and medals. The Small family provided refreshment treats for all of the 96 players and their teacher mentors.

A special thanks to the teachers from each of the participating schools who promoted and managed the teams, to the two very busy referees on the day Kevin Jordan and Barry Bradley, and standby referee Seán Moran. Kevin Jordan of Southern Gael’s deserves a very special thank you, as he did all of the organising of the blitz. Its success is a testament to Kevin’s leadership abilities.

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Finally both Southern Gaels and Drumraney are especially grateful to Caulry GAA for the use of their playing fields and ancillary facilities.