Castlewellan was to play a big role in the Fords weekend of football as we met the old rivals 3 times in the various categories writes Brendan Ward.
First blood went to the Towns men when they brought our senior men back to earth with a two point reverse on Friday night.
All became even when the senior ladies got some revenge on Saturday night with a sound victory over the Town ladies by 12 points. This was a good preparation for the ladies who continue their preparation for the county final this Saturday in D’patrick as part of a triple header. Throw in 7pm. The girls meet Carryduff and hope to become the first Ford ladies team to win the County c’ship after last years near miss. Let’s hope they succeed and the team ask everyone for their support in what will be a tough encounter between the 2 best teams in the county.
On Sunday morning with one win a piece between the two clubs it was left to the Under-12 boys of each club to decide who had the bragging rights and it was the young Ford lads who came out on top in a one-sided game, 1-22 to 0.01. This was the penultimate game of the season for Bryansford A team was potentially the toughest test yet for the lads. An away fixture to neighbours Castlewellan, a local derby, were form counts for nothing as the Seniors will testify.
The boys Under-14’s had 2 c’ship games this week and had a comfortable win against St Paul’s on Monday 3-14 to 1-09 but on Wednesday came up against a strong well organised Downpatrick squad. The final score read 2-12 to 0-10 and with 4 teams qualifying no doubt these two teams will meet again.
The U-10’s played their final blitz of the year at kilcoo on Saturday and due to a number of late withdrawals had to field a number of U-8,s who enjoyed their experience against older opponents and this will stand them in good stead when they make the step up to U-10’s next season. The ford enjoyed a close game with Teconnaught in their first game before an excellent kilcoo team who seemed to be putting them over the bar from everywhere won by 6 points in the second game however the ford were excellent in a victory over Dromara in the final game. Dylan Mckibbin made some great saves in nets while Sean Donegan, Oisin Kelly and Ben Braniff made some great blocks and tackles in defence while Thomas Burns was excellent at midfield throughout the day.
Dean McCrickard was superb at half forward with a number of great points and conleth Kelly got 2 excellent goals to show how much he has progressed in his first season at u-10’s. He was greatly assisted by young u-8 Kieran Lundy who also had a great goal against Dromara and will be a great asset to the U-10,s when he moves up next season. In the final game the Ford give a run out to U-8’s Carlo Pollinelli and Darragh Mckibbin who never looked out of place against rivals two or three years older than them. Marty has been very happy with the way his lads have progressed over the summer and with the biggest competition of the summer this Saturday in Banbridge they can be very confident of performing well.
The U-16 girls travelled to Burren on Sunday morning unfortunately no ref appeared and it was a big disappointment to both teams and the large travelling support as both teams are well matched and find themselves at the top end of the table. This was not the first nor will it be the last time that games do not take place and the Ladies County Board will really have to look at the number of changes, cancellations, abandonments, non showing of refs etc etc that are blighting the developement of ladies football. Lets hope that the clubs, and the board and the refs can grasp the nettle and start dealing with this as the young footballers are the losers and the product that is ladies football is being diluted and weakened.
The fun day was again cancelled due to the poor weather waterlogging the pitch and details will soon be released about another attempt to get it completed.
Last Man Standing has begun and there has been a reasonable take up, good luck to you all.
Club Member Gareth Toner became the first Bryansford Member to win a prize in the Down GAA Monthly Draw, winning £200 in the August round.
