The main event over the last weekend was the U14 boys hurling Feile. This year we played in Russell Park on the Navan Road in Division 2 of the competition. Feile is the Irish word for Festival and the competition always produces a great Festival of Hurling. This year was no exception. Having won the PJ Troy competition last year, our lads had high hopes going into the Feile. In the end it was not to be, as we lost our opening 2 games to St Brigids and Ballinteer. We had chances to win both these games but were unlucky, especially in the opening game. The lads showed great heart to put in a great performance in beating Castleknock in the last game to send the large crowd of Barrs supporters home with something to cheer about. Great credit must be paid to the management group with this team for the huge progress that is being made. There will be many good days for this team in the future!
Our under 14 Feile hurling team and Mentors 2013
Our Senior hurlers were beaten by St Pats in the Championship last Wednesday in Parnell Park in a game we could have won. With Ballyboden beating St Vincents, we now find ourselves in a do-or-die battle with Vincents later in the summer to stay up in the A Championship. Sometimes our lads are at their best when they are faced with this kind of game, so hopefully they will put the work in over the next few weeks to prepare for the match.
There was another festival type atmosphere in the bogies on Saturday morning where football took centre stage. Well over 100 children from U8s through to U11s showed off their skills in the different Go-Games leagues. These league are played in a non-competitive format, with skill development and inclusion being the important things. On Saturday afternoon our U16s easily beat St Judes in a top of the table clash in the bogies.
On Sunday, it was back to hurling action with 3 big games on. Our minors were well beaten by a strong Cuala team out in Shankill. It was a disappointing performance from our lads, who are capable of much better. The minors take a break now for a few weeks as many of them will be sitting exams in June.
In Clontarf our Junior Hurlers put in a big performance against group favourites Scoil Ui Chonaill, to fall just short at the end. For the second time in 3 years, Scoil beat us with the last puck of the game in this championship. This result means we will have to win our last 2 group games to progress in the championship. This is still possible if the lads put the work in.
On Sunday afternoon our 3rd team travelled to Cloughran to play Whitehall in the D championship. We had won our first 2 games so all the pressure was on Whitehall. They played very well and beat us comfortably in the end, but our lads fought back strongly in the last 10 mins. One win from the last 2 games should be enough to see us through to the quarterfinals.
