Granagh-Ballingarry ease past Na Piarsaigh in Limerick premier intermediate hurling championship

GRANAGH-BALLINGARRY secured their second win of this year's Lyons of Limerick premier intermediate hurling championship after recording a 1-20 to 0-12 victory over Na Piarsaigh's second team in Mungret on Sunday afternoon.

Helped along by their opponents being the third team observed to have chalked up 17 wides in the weekend's round of championship fixtures, Granagh-Ballingarry were always in control once they soaked up the city side's opening efforts and the game's only goal late in the first half put them into a lead that never looked like being overcome.

Although they settled for containment for much of the second half, the winners had enough finishers like Seán O'Connor, Cathal O'Keeffe and Luke Flynn to call on whenever they needed to keep their opponents at bay while Na Piarsaigh's efforts to fight their way back into contention depended heavily on drawing the fouls for Pa O'Neill to convert.

Having now lost all of their three outings, the Caherdavin club are now stranded with Glenroe, four points behind everyone else at the foot of the table and, even though the pair have a back match between them to fulfil, it looks as if their season's are now focused on avoiding relegation.

A high octane start saw Kevin Ryan give Na Piarsaigh the lead with a point but, after Pa O'Neill's goalbound shot was stopped by Denis O'Connor, they were overtaken by points  from Michael Russell and Darragh Casey before Marcus Hogan's equaliser.

However, the game settled down. After Granagh-Ballingarry got over dropping chances short and O'Neill putting the Northsiders back in front, they found their rhythm up front as a pair of Seán O'Connor points frees, and further scores from O'Keeffe, Eoin Lynch and O'Keeffe again opened up a lead of substance.

Josh Sheehan broke the sequence for the Caherdavin side with a point, but that proved to be their only score in a long tally of wides before the winners picked it up again.

O'Connor, with points from a free and from play, stretched the gap further and, after Luke Flynn caught O'Connor's lay-off to drive to the net on the turn, the big full-forward followed up with a point on the stroke of half-time to put his side ahead, 1-10 to 0-4.

Although O'Connor added another point straight from the restart, Granagh-Ballingarry were packing back into the middle third to close off the openings. Although O'Keeffe replied to O'Neill's first pointed one, Na Piarsaigh's marksman then sent over three points in a row.

Coming up to three-quarter mark, Granagh-Ballingarry moved up a gear and O'Keeffe pointed again. Although that was cancelled out by another O'Neill pointed free, as was Damien O'Donovan's by Hogan, Flynn and goalie Denis O'Connor's pointed huge frees and the gap was back to nine points.

The Caherdavin club lifted themselves for a final effort going into the closing minutes that yielded points for Alan Dempsey and Bradley Moran, but their wides count continued to stack up. Seán O'Connor twice, Russell and O'Connor's pointed free added to the margin which would have been even greater had Paudie Murphy's two shots on goal not been stopped.

SCORERS: GRANAGH-BALLINGARRY: Seán O'Connor 0-8 (3 frees), Luke Flynn 1-2, Cathal O'Keeffe 0-4, Michael Russell 0-2, Darragh Casey, Eoin Lynch, Damien O'Donovan, Denis O'Connor (free) 0-1 each; NA PIARSAIGH: Pa O'Neill 0-6 (5 frees), Marcus Hogan 0-2, Kevin Ryan, Josh Sheehan, Alan Dempsey, Bradley Moran 0-1 each.

GRANAGH-BALLINGARRY: Denis O'Connor; Eoghan Casey, John Kealy, Brian Sheehy; Ronan Mullane, Jack Cagney, Colm Noonan; Josh Mulcaire-Quille, Darragh Casey; Mike Russell, Cathal O'Keeffe, Seán O'Connor; Damian O'Donovan, Luke Flynn, Eoin Lynch. SUBS: Paudie Murphy for Josh Mulcaire-Quille (51 minutes), Davy Condron for Cathal O'Keeffe (60 minutes).

NA PIARSAIGH: Evan Condon; John O'Keeffe, Mark O'Connor, Conor Richardson; Kieran Ryan, James O'Brien, Ronan Benson; Alan Dempsey, Jim Beary; Pa O'Neill, Kevin Ryan, Kevin Daly; Marcus Hogan, James Daly, Josh Sheehan. SUBS: Bradley Moran for Ronan Benson (39 minutes), Dean McLoughlin for Josh Sheehan (51 minutes).

REFEREE: Tom McGlinchey (Newport).