Ballyduff Lower's Jack Kennedy makes a spectacular catch above his team-mate Anthony Whelan and Tallow's Donnchadh Mulcahy during their Waterford SHC clash at Fraher Field. | Photos: Michael Kiely
Tallow 2-14; Ballyduff Lower 2-11
Let’s call a spade a spade. In October when the county senior hurling champions are crowned and people look back over the championship and begin to pick out their moments or games of the championship, this match is not going to feature very prominently. If it does, then from here on in we are going to see some very poor games served up.
However, it’s probably fair to say that neither side will care all that much that this tie was poor. Tallow collected another brace of points, their third in this year’s campaign, and now have all but secured their place in the last eight of the championship, while Ballyduff Lower, having given a walkover in the second series of games, will be delighted to be back fielding again and giving a very good account of themselves. Indeed they could deem themselves unlucky as their plight was not helped by losing Emmet Power after just six minutes and Ger Harris twelve minutes later, due to injuries.
Ballyduff Lower got off to a flying start, racing into the lead with just fourteen seconds played, when Ray Ryan shot over the opening score. The remainder of the first quarter proved to be a very close encounter with Paul O’Brien, Evan Sheehan and Luke McCarthy hitting over points for the Bridesiders while Jack Kennedy hit a brace for Ballyduff Lower.
The westerners stole a huge march on their opponents on eighteen minutes when Luke McCarthy blasted to the net to give Tallow a three point lead, but Ballyduff Lowers response was a swift one as Jack Kennedy hit a hat-trick of points and Niall Clifford added a single effort to give them an 0-8 to 1-4 lead at the break.
Words to describe the first half could easily roll off the tongue but would not be allowed appear in print. The second half however was a much better affair as both sides settled down and began to play some good hurling at times and some good scores were captured.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full match report.
