U11's Trip to Tipp on 21 April 2013

The trip to Thurles, by Joesph Neary

I woke up early on Sunday morning and got my hurling gear ready I was excited about the day ahead. Dad and I went to Crokes and met up with all the other lads. There was lots of activity at the club that morning and 4 or 5 buses left around the same time. We had fun on the bus and watched a movie called Real Steel. It took 2 hours to get to Thurles and I was happy when we arrived. We got off the bus at Drum and Inch and got ready for our match the sun was shining and we were all looking forward to the game. There were 2 teams and we both played 2 matches.

The matches were exciting and we were all happy to win them both. The lads played well and there were plenty of scores. I remember catching a ball and taking a shot for goal and the sliotar hit Niall O'Mahony on the helmet and went wide. On our team Brendan Scanlon,Brian Hayes, and Conn Lohan had great games in midfield, Rory O Mahony, Cian O Cathasaigh, Peter McDermott, Ciaran Browne and Jack Reddy stopped many attacks in defence

Up front Eoin O’Flynn, Pado Gibbons, Luke Gilleran, Dara McGabhan and Cathal Kennedy scored some great points and goals.

The other team included Dara Purcell, Michael Nealon, Sean Delap and Michael and Cian Donnelly, Charlie Owens, Shane Ryall, Michael Egan, Kyle Carragher, Jack Tiernan, Mark Kelly, Matthew Byrne, Mark Murphy, Eoghan Murphy, Ben Marnell, and they won their matches too.

After the match I was starving and we had oranges and milk in the dressing room. We then went to the hotel. We had chicken goujions and chips for lunch and ice cream for desert.

We jumped back on the bus and headed for the match. I sat beside Ben Marnell and Brendan Scanlon and we watched the match unfortunately Tipp had a great start and and we all cheered very loudly when Niall Corcoran was brought on. Dublin lost and Kilkenny beat Galway.

Then after the match we went on the pitch and got autographs and we took pictures. My Dad pointed out Marty Morrissey from RTE and I waved at the camera. we got back on the bus and had sandwiches and watched another movie. We arrived back in Crokes and I was sad the day was over. A big thank you to Fiona, Mark, Conor, Ferdia, Sean, Frank, Brendan, Dara, Peter and all the other mentors it was a day that I will always remember.

Joseph Neary (U11)