A wet and windy Nowlan park was the venue, GBC and St. Patrick’s Ballyragget the contestants, in this Intermediate Hurling semi-final. Playing into a gale in the opening half, GBC found scores very hard to come by and a point from play each from Eddie Brennan and Philly Cahill was a worrying sight on the half time scoreboard. Ballyragget had eight points on the board, most of them from frees and our only hope was that the breeze might help to produce a GBC fight back.
In the tenth minute of the second half, a passage of play occurred that looked out of place in this otherwise dour affair. A good clearance found Philly Cahill in front of the stand and he fielded well before delivering a pin-point pass to Eddie in front of goal. With a neat flick he deflected the ball to the net and the neon sign in the corner read 0-10 to 1-4. Ballyragget went into all out defensive mode from there on and GBC could only manage one more point in the game, a good strike from Paddy Kennedy. Final score St. Patrick’s 0-13, GBC 1-5.
Dara Walton was the stand out player on the field. Team effort was good, but it was one of those days when if something could go wrong, it did.
GBC: PJ Trant, D Egan, B Murphy, D Walton, G Teehan, J Ryall, S Butler, J Murphy, P Cahill (0-2, 1f), N Millea, E Brennan (1-2, 1f), J Smith, W O’Connor, M Hoyne, B Ryan. Subs: P Kennedy (0-1), C Murphy.