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“It was a great achievement to win the North Westmeath for the first time. We had a great campaign which augurs well for the future,” enthuses Noel, whose son Kaellum was part of the 19-strong panel which travelled to the home of St. Loman’s. 2013 was another hugely successful year for Ballycomoyle’s ladies football section. In May, Tomas Blake guided the junior team to a 5-9 to 3-8 county final victory over Loughnavalley. Two more county titles followed later in the year when the U14s overcame Garrycastle by 2-9 to 1-9 to complete a two-in-a-row, and the minors defeated Tyrrellspass. Both finals were played in Rochfortbridge. The U14 final was the proverbial game of two halves with all of Ballycomoyle’s scores coming in the first half and all of Garrycastle’s coming in the second. In the dying moments, Garrycastle were awarded a penalty to draw the game, but put the ball wide and Ballycomoyle held on for a dramatic win. “Tomas did a great job with our junior ladies team. He has handed over the reins this year to Enda Sheridan who will hope to have a good run in the intermediate championship,” Noel says. In contrast, Ballycomoyle’s flagship men’s junior team found the going tough in both the league and the championship. Early defeats to
Milltown (2-7 to 3-9) and Delvin (2-6 to 3-8) left them facing an uphill task to reach the knockout stages of the junior championship, though their hopes were briefly raised by a superb 1-10 to 2-6 victory over Multyfarnham and a 310 apiece draw with St. Joseph’s. The boys in blue and white hoops produced their best performance of the year in beating a fancied Multyfarnham outfit in Whitehall. After taking a slender 0-6 to 0-5 lead into the break, Ballycomoyle extended their advantage to six points early in the second half thanks to an excellent John Coyle goal and a brace of points from midfielder James McHugh. That lead was wiped out when Leo Blake and substitute Max Brady scored quick-fire goals for Multy, but after the sides traded points, former Shandonagh player and well-known referee Roy Smyth popped up with the winning point for the charges of Marius Reilly and Ray Dobson. Ballycomoyle lost to Moate All-Whites (1-4 to 1-15) and beat Loughnavalley (1-7 to 1-5) before giving a walkover to St. Paul’s in their final game, by which stage they were out of contention for a quarter-final spot. In early October, Ballycomoyle faced St. Joseph’s in the Junior Shield final at Lakepoint Park. Just like their championship encounter, this was another close affair which Joseph’s shaded on a 1-9 to 2-5 scoreline. The
Vincent Reynolds keeps an eye on the ball
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Streamstown side had led by 1-4 to 11 at half-time, but John Egan’s second goal in the 40th minute reduced the deficit to the minimum before Roy Smyth equalised. St. Joseph’s surged three points clear again before Smyth pulled back a couple to leave it a one-point game again. Sadly, Ballycomoyle weren’t able to regain parity as Joseph’s held on for the victory. Ballycomoyle have a new jointmanagement team of Michael McNamee and Michael Leech from Rhode in place for the coming season, and Noel is confident they can make their mark. “They met the players for the first time just after Christmas and 40-odd players turned up,” he explains. “The two lads have put a big backroom team in place and are determined to leave no stone unturned. We retained our Division 5 status and won a couple of championship games last year, but we should be aiming for more than that. The goal is to reach the junior championship semi-final. We know it’s in us to achieve that.” Ballycomoyle ran successful fundraisers last year in the guise of the Fore Village 5K Road Race and the Soapbox Derby in June and July respectively. The third annual staging of the 5K Road Race has been confirmed for Wednesday, June 25