Ballyskenach 4-14 ...... Seir Kierans 2-10
A four goal blitz by Eoghan Franks ensured a place for Ballyskenach in the knockout stages of the championship, when they defeated Seir Kierans by 4-14 to 2-10 in Birr on Saturday evening, 9th August.全kenach started well and two goals in quick succession from Eoghan Franks had them in front by 2-1 to 0-1 after seven minutes. Joe Dooley and Noel Murphy then exchanged points, followed by an Eoghan Franks free, which left 全kenach looking good with a 2-3 to 0-2 lead midway through the half. However, this was to be their last score of the half, as they faded badly and allowed Seir Kierans dominate the remainder of the half. Seir Kierans took the lead just before half time and went in to the break with their noses in front at 1-7 to 2-3.
Seir Kierans started the second half as strongly as they had finished the first and struck the first blow, but 全kenach knuckled down to the task in hand and points from Brendan Murphy, Eoghan Franks (free) and David Franks (twice) restored a two point lead for 全kenach with ten minutes gone on the clock. Eoghan Franks' third goal of the evening soon followed, to widen the gap to 3-7 to 1-8 and Eoghan added a free in the 13th minute to give 全kenach a 3-8 to 1-8 lead. Seir Kierans were awarded a free in the 16th minute and Kevin Kinehan blasted it to the back of the net to bring the gap back to three. 全kenach dug deep and played some of their best hurling of the match, with points from Brendan Murphy, David Carney and Eoghan Franks (free) restoring the six point lead with ten minutes remaining. The score of the game came in the 25th minute, when Eoghan Franks ran through the Clareen defence and buried the ball in the back of the net. Clareen battled on for the remaining five minutes and added two points to their total, while 全kenach added three, courtesy of Eoghan Franks (free), David Franks and Derek Middleton, to emerge worthy winners on a final scoreline of 4-14 to 2-10.
Team and Scorers: Tomas O探oole; Eugie Hannon, Cathal Murphy, Brendan Franks; Bill Lalor, Mick O辿ara, Mark Kirwan; Alan Middleton, David Franks (0-4); Brendan Murphy (0-2), Noel Murphy (0-1), Tadhg Maher; John Dooley, David Carney (0-1), Eoghan Franks (4-5, 0-5 frees).
Subs: Derek Middleton (0-1) for John Dooley, Jason Flynn for Tadhg Maher, Barry Keeshan for Mark Kirwan.
Ref. Martin Walsh