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As saturday morning came upon us, the excitement was building in Glenalbyn for the 11th Kilmacud Crokes FBD All Ireland U14 Sevens Competition. The teams were arriving in their coaches and warming up for the first matches which began right on schedule at 10 O'Clock, in Glenalbyn, Silverpark and Cólaiste Eoin / Íosagáin, with 32 teams competing to bring home the cup. A big thank you to FBD Insurance and Sean Fox for their sponsorship of this All Ireland event, which we greatly appreciated.
We welcomed our visitors who visit us every year, Pat Quill, Uachtarán Cumann Peil Gael na mBan, who was there to show his much appreciated support, and Wally Thompson, who was the chairperson of the Dublin Ladies Board when John Sheridan started Ladies Football in the club. Wally went on to become Uachtarain of Leinster and Uachtarán Cumann Peil Gael na mBan.
The craic started early with Bryansford creating a bit of a stir on the scoreboard from last weekend's activities at the men's sevens, and from there the banter started. Many teams come down to the sevens annually, as their end of year treat, and then stay over to go to the finals in Croke Park, indeed a Roscommon bus was spotted in Glenalbyn on Saturday, and around Croke Park on Sunday.
With plenty of fantastic football you would have to pinch yourself to see if these girls were really U14, they played with such enthusiasm and fight they could have played at any level. There was even the smell of deep heat, and some serious pre match physio spotted on the sidelines.
The early rounds were very heated and enthusiastic, and after finishing up in Silverpark and Cólaiste Eoin / Íosagáin it was back to Glenalbyn for the final stages of the competition, and the teams were led onto the pitch by our Piper, who, it was revealed was also an escort for a Rose of Tralee, among other accolades.
The Plate Semi-Finals saw Adare Limerick v Ballyhahon Forgney Longford ending in a 8-1 to 9-5 final score and Dungarvan v St Brigids from Antrim with final score of 3-5 to 0-2. The Plate Final found Dungarvan and Ballymahon Forgney battling it out with Dungarvan looking for another Plate Final win which they achieved with a final result of 10-9 to 7-6 a fantastic game of football with Ronald Malone refereeing this final.
Our Cup Semi Final's found Kilkerrin Clonberne, Galway and Dunboyne, Meath in a thrilling game resulting in a high score of 6-7 to 4-2 for the Galway side and in the other semi, Kilmacud Crokes and St Paul's, Laois both gave all they could in a very close match resulting in Kilmacud scoring 6-9 to 7-1. The Cup Final was a fast and exciting game with some amazing scores from Kilmacud Crokes and Kilkerrin Clonberne with Crokes taking an early lead. Both teams battled it out in a game which could have gone either way right to the blow of the whistle from referee Darren Malone with a final last minute score from Crokes to take the lead and finish 6-3 to Kilkerrin Clonberne's 3-11. Kilmacud Crokes won this completion for the first time in 2012. Great work from the Croke's Management team.
Player of the Tournament was Kaeisha Tobin #4 from Dungarvan who had been outstanding throughout the competition.
There were many people who helped us on the day, who's support we could not do without. Special thanks to the 12 referees for their commitment throughout the day and the Red Cross who were busy in the three venues and to Coláiste Eoin and Finín Máirtín for their pitch and facility and to the Kilmacud Crokes members who contributed all day from early morning to make this 11th 7s a memorable occasion. And of course this would never happen without the dedication of John Sheridan and his team.
You can see photos from throughout the day on our Facebook page,
Raffle winners : 2nd prize €100 went to Marty McCarron, Donegal, and 1st Prize of the Apple iPad went to Annie Sultan, Dublin
