The prestigious Tony Forristal Cup for under 14 hurling is back in Limerick for the first time since 2002 after Limerick defeated Waterford in the final 2-10 to 1-6 at the SETU Arena, Waterford on Saturday.
It was a memorable Tournament for Limerick with three of the six teams that qualified to contest the Tony Forristal Cup being from Shannonside, Luimneach, Limerick Green and Limerick White.
Three Limerick teams competed in three seeding days over the summer which involved blitz’s for each squad, where they played two games each per day. These three seeding days acted as a league based on results for all 18 teams involved.
The top six teams with the most points including the three Limerick teams from the seeding days out of 18 went to the Forristal Tournament and teams ranked 12-18 competed in the Sonny Walsh, Tournament in which Limerick was not represented as all three finished in the top six. Limerick were joined by South Tipperary, Mid Tipperary and Waterford in making up the six Forristal Tournament finalists.
All three teams were managed by Na Piarsaigh’s Emmet Benson with selectors Paul Finn (Bruff), Eoin Collins (Tournafulla) and Jack Cummins (Doon) with the Luimneach team, Richie Burke (Mungret St. Paul’s) and Trevor Costello (Croom) with Limerick Green and Declan Gillane (Patrickswell) and Richie Quinn (Ballybrown) the selectors with Limerick White. Kilmallock’s Leonie Passmore was the Liaison Officer for all three teams.
The results for the three Limerick teams were as follows:
Luimneach 3-18 Limerick White 1- 8
Luimneach 3 – 6 South Tipperary 2- 8
Limerick White 0- 8 South Tipperary 4-10
Limerick Green 3-13 Mid Tipperary 3-10
Limerick White 1-10 Waterford 1-12
Final
Limerick 2-10 Waterford 1- 6
The winning Luinneach squad: Aaron Molloy, Diarmuid Moran, Joseph Murray (Ahane); Aaron Phillips (Monagea); Cal O’Connor (Staker Wallace); Cathal Hennessy (Patrickswell); Danny Anglim (ABK Desmonds); Fionn Conway, Oisin O’Sullivan (Ballybrown); Harry Newman, Oisin Purtill (Mungret St. Pauls); Jack Sheehan, Niall Hickey (South Liberties); James Shine (Killeedy); Kyle McGrath (Doon); Oisin O’Connor, Paddy O’Sullivan (Newcastle West); Paddy Kirby (Knockainey); Rhys O’Riordan (Murroe Boher); Ryan Blackburn (Hospital Herbertstown); Ryan Farrell (Castletown Ballyagran); Ryan Heffernan (Garryspillane)
Elsewhere in Tipperary, Limerick defeated Waterford 2-19 to 0-11 in the Arrabawn Cup Under 15 Hurling semi-final but lost the final to Kilkenny 4-14 to 1-13.
Meanwhile in the John Doyle Under 15 Shield also in Tipperary, Limerick under 15 hurlers lost to Galway after extra time 1-20 to 3-11 in the semi-final but gained some consolation with a 4-17 to 4-13 victory over Westmeath in the third place play off.
Meanwhile Kilworth, County Cork was the venue for the Eugene Carey Under 16 Hurling Tournament where Limerick went down narrowly to Waterford in the semi-final 1-21 to 2-15. In a high scoring third place play off, Limerick just edged out Cork 3-17 to 2-19.