On Wednesday last Brian Murphy announced his retirement from the Senior Inter County Hurling scene after over a decade of involvement with Cork. When you take into account Brian's involvement with Cork under-age and Intermediate teams his contribution to Cork hurling has been immense. Since 2003 he has been an ever present figure at corner back with the Cork team. Contesting the All Ireland Finals of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and again last year Brian was part of a great Cork team that gave the country some fantastic hurling memories. As an inter county defender Brian was frequently assigned to the task of man marking some of the top forwards in the game and was always capable of doing so. In winning Senior All Ireland medals in 2004 and 2005 Brian Murphy played an integral part in a team that changed the way modern hurling was played with speed, possession and a game plan that called for maximum skill and fitness. The pace of inter county hurling has increased dramatically in the last few years but in his last campaign with Cork Brian displayed all the characteristics of a great player. Last year he suffered a horrendous shoulder injury but remarkably he battled back to take his place in the Cork defence for the two Finals against Clare. His achievements were rewarded with an All Star nomination last autumn. On RTE Radio Sport last Sunday the former Wexford player Tom Dempsey paid a magnificent tribute to Brian declaring him to be one of the best defenders seen in the last twenty years. With our club Brian has given some brilliant displays over the years as we compete at Senior level and we hope he will continue to do so for many years to come.   He steps down from Inter County Hurling safe in the knowledge that he gave fantastic service to Cork at the very highest level. We salute him and thank him for the memories he has given us in the Red and White of Cork.

 

Castlelyons 3 14 Bride Rovers  0  4.

On Friday night we made the short journey to Castlelyons to take on the home side in the first round of the East Cork u21 Football championship. The game was played under lights.  We entered the contest as underdogs and so it proved. In every facet of the game the home side were well on top. We scored just 4 points in the hour - three coming from frees. We had some bad wides but overall Castlelyons were far superior in all areas.

TEAM.    Frank Hogan,    Podge Noonan      Barry Collins    Adrian Buckley,     Tadhg O’ Sullivan,     Shane Walsh,     Jacob Macak, Cian O’ Connor 0-1       William Finnegan 0-3 all frees,   Damien Buckley  Owen Murphy  Ryan Prendergast  Colm Power   Liam O’ Leary  Dean Lenihan   Subs Used; Cian Howard,Sean Cotter.Darren Moore, Jamie Buckley.

On Saturday afternoon it was a case of the same two clubs but in a different football competition as we faced Castlelyons at home in a Rebel Og Minor Football League tie. Six of the players who'd played in the u21 game lined out again in the Minor fixture. We played well and recorded a very comfortable win on a scoreline of Bride Rovers 2  11 to Castlelyons 0  2.

   TEAM; James Barry, Leon O' Flynn, Tadhg O' Sullivan, Ciaran O' Grady,  Darren Moore, Shane Walsh, Jesse O' Keeffe,  Cian O' Connor,   Ryan Prendergast,   Dean Lenihan,   DJ Cahill,.   Shane O' Connor,  Dylan Browne, William Finnegan,  Colm Howard

Sub Used; Jake Tobin.

 

AS our own pitch was unplayable after the bad weather we conceded venue and on Saturday nighjt travelled to Carrigtwohill to play the home side under lights.  With many of the panel having played in the Minor and u 21 game we had just eighteen players in Carrig for the game. We were slow to settle into the game and conceded three early points, two from frees and one from a 65. Once we steadied into the game we scored three  excellent points and following this we played some good hurling and after 22 minutes it was 5 points each.

A fast puck out found Sean O Brien  and his delivery was fielded by Brendan who drove the ball to the net to provide us with a half-time lead of 1-5 to 0-7.

We started  brightly in the second half and had an excellent point from play by Sean.

Carrig came at us in waves and some stout defending by all seven defenders held them to one point from a 65 in the second  half. The pressure was kept on us due to being reduced to 14 players(2 yellows) but we held out stoutly and a long delivery to their 21 was driven to the net by Richie Cahill  and we followed this with 3 excellent points from play and we ran out deserving winners on a score of 2-10 to 0-8.

A good performance for first time out but we have to sharpen up on our long range shooting.

Panel:  Frank Hogan, Jacob Macak, Brian Collins, Tomas Kearney, GavIn O'Flynn, James Murphy, Jim O'Connor, Sean O'Brien, Fergus Collins, Stephen Pratt, Brendan O'Driscoll, Terry Broderick, Jason Mannix, Jerome O'Driscoll, Gavin Quill, Richie Cahill, Damien Buckley, Padraig Noonan.

Scorers:   Jerome 0-6, Brendan 1-1, Richie 1-0. Sean 0-1, Damien 0-2

Upcoming Fixtures;  Friday 21st March we travel to Newtownshandrum with an 8.00p.m. start and on  Saturday the 29th March we host Buttevant in Rathcormac at 4.00p.m.

 

 LOTTO .

The Lotto Jackpot for last Tuesday march 11th was starting off once more at €2000. The four numbers drawn were 7/9/19 & 27 and there was no jackpot winner. The winners of the €30 lucky dips were ;

Michael O Donovan, Rathcormac

Carl Holland Rathcormac,

Esther Malone c/o Fitzy's

Pat O Regan Kildinan

Pat Pyne Rathcormac.

 

The Jackpot for Tuesday March the 18th was €2200.

Tickets for the Weekly Lotto are available from Club Members and in Local business outlets. They can also be purchased online at locallotto.ie

 

 MUNSTER SEMI FINAL IN SCOR.

Cappamore, Co. Limerick is the venue on this coming Saturday evening March 22nd for the semi final of the Munster Scor.  We take part in the Leiriu competition having won at East Cork and County level. We will face tough competition from Limerick, Tipperary and Clare County Champions. Our act is based on the life and times and death of Brian Boru in 1014 and the subsequent effects on Clare Hurling!

 

The Cork County Final of the new table Quiz is on in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on this Thursday night March 20th at 8pm.

The Astro-turf pitch at the Bride Rovers Club grounds  is available for hire by contacting James Bermingham on 086 8350741. Pitch is suitable for 5 a side teams and costs €50 per hour with lights. A reminder to all those who have pre-booked the facility, if for some reason your group cannot take up their allocated time slot please let Club Officers know immediately.

 

 CHILL INSURANCE GAA CLUB AFFINITY SCHEME.

The Cork GAA Sponsors Chill InsurancUTE.

Break a leg to all those players with the Shanowen Players who are taking to the boards over the next two weekends in Rathcormac Hall. Their production of John B. Keane's play 'The Chastitute' will be staged on Friday and Saturday of this weekend and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday next weekend.

 

"Oh to dream of it… oh to think of it…" well those are the aspirations of every Club Hurler in the Country when it comes to St. Patricks Day, to reach the Club Final in Croke Park on march 17th. Last Monday Portumna who won the Galway SHC title for the very first time in 2003 captured their fourth All Ireland title, what an achievement. The Footballers of St. Vincents in Dublin's Marino won their third national title.  The Liam McCarthy Cup is special but the Tommy Moore Cup for winning the Club Final is the Holy Grail for every hurler who pulls on his club jersey.

Thanks to our Main Club Sponsors Rathcormac Tyres, Veoila Environmental Services and O Coileains Bar for their ongoing support.e have  announced a new Affinity Scheme which can help raise funds for individual  Clubs in the County.  Its simple, if people in the county of Cork are taking out policies with Chill Insurance we will donate €10 from each policy to any Cork GAA club they wish. All they have to do is quote their designated club code when going online at www.chill.ie or phoning the Cork Office on 021 601 8600.

A fundraising Table Quiz for St. Patricks Community Hospital Fermoy will be held in O Coileains Bar Rathcormac on Thursday night March the 20th. Pleasae support.

 Twitter and Tweet. And Website.

The Tweets and Twitters have been going well all year. So many people at home and abroad are now very hi-tech when it comes to keeping in touch with the activities of the Bride Rovers Club. The online editions of newspapers are growing in popularity. Meanwhile you can follow the Club on twitter at twitter@ Bride RoversGAA or on our own website at www.briderovers.ie

Any news items or general items of interest are very welcome for inclusion and should be sent to Gerard Lane.

 THE CHASTITUTE.