Clough Ballacolla crowned champions and complete third successive Laois Senior Hurling Championship

The showcase of Laois Hurling took place on a calm sunny afternoon in O’Moore Park. As the St Josephs’s marching band led the teams around, you could feel the anticipation building. Clough Ballacolla, after a glorious championship campaign were warm favourites. But as many people in the hurling circles of Laois knew, It would be naive to write off Camross. Camross themselves had already upset the odds by beating many people’s favourites Rathdowney Errill.

Camross star Zane Keenan got the show-up and running with a short-range free. Ballacollas Willie Dunphy then had an early chance for goal but the shot was blocked by Tadgh Doran. Maher converted the resulting 65’.

Clough Ballacolla 1-24

Camross 0-16

On the other end, Ciaran Collier had his goal attempt, but just as Doran had done thirty seconds before, Dunne blocked the weakish shot. After 5 minutes of play, Maher edged Clough Ballacolla ahead. He then followed it up with another with a cracking point close to the terrace.

Camross again came close to raising the flag when Doran fumbled a long-range effort that was nearly capitalised on by Mark Dowling. Doran did well to recover. Soon after though Tomas Keyes got the first point from play to bring the deficit back to one.

Dunphy then got two beautiful scores on the bounce to put the current county champions up by three after 10 minutes of wonderful action. Three frees on the bounce from Keenan, the second of which was from an outrageous distance reduced the deficit back to the minimum margin.

Dunphy and Zane who between the two of them had done all the scoring in the game for the previous 10 minutes, traded points once again. This trend was interrupted with 5 minutes of play in the half left. Bergin with a wonderful score right in front of the main stand.

Then in the very next play, Willie Dunphy found himself clean through on goal after a wonderful pass from Cillian Dunne. Dunphy who was having a man-of-the-match performance made no mistake and raised the green flag. This was followed up by the score of the game so far, after a scrappy 30 seconds the ball fell for Stephen Maher who under pressure slotted a long-range point wonderfully to put six points between the teams.  

This raised the spirit of the Clough Ballacolla fans. Riding on that momentum Maher would notch two points and Bergin would get another to put 9 between them. A huge last five minutes of the opening half for the team searching for three Laois Senior Hurling championships in a row.

The game was looking very close with five minutes left in the half but a cracking period for Clough Ballacolla meant they held a strong lead at halftime. The hurling on display was phenomenal and neutrals were certainly getting their money’s worth. Some of the scores by the likes of Dunphy and Maher in the first half were a sight to behold. As we entered the final 30 minutes of Laois Senior hurling action for 2022, Clough Ballacollas could almost taste their third championship in a row.

Ht Score Clough Ballacolla 1-13 Camross 0-07

Cillian Dunne got off the mark with the opening score of the second half. Camross then had a goal chance to get themselves back into the game. Tadge Doran made another good save to deny Dowling. The corner forward probably should have played it across to the incoming Keenan.

A fantastic sideline cut from Dunphy extended Camoss’s lead but it was shortly cancelled out By Gearoid Burkes’s second point of the game. Burke got his third two minutes later to reduce the gap back to 8 points.

Bergin and Dunphy’s points increased the gap back to nine points once again and with only twenty minutes of play left, you felt that time was running out quickly for Camross. Sub Jordan Walsh put Clough Ballacolla ten up soon after coming on. Bergin followed up with his fourth of the game.

Keenan pulled one back with his seventh point of the game. As the game began to get away from Camross, so did the intensity. With ten minutes of play left in the game, Camross needed an absolute miracle to stop Clough Ballacolla from winning a third Laois championship in as many years.

Keenan and Walshe traded points. Broderick, who is always good for a score in nearly every game, put twelve points between the sides. Camross Subs Mortimer and Gilmartin got consolation points for the men in black and amber. Maher notched another 65 and Mark Hennessy would get the last score of the game.

Clough Ballacolla deservedly won their third Laois Senior Hurling Championship in a row. A sense of inevitability took the excitement out of the game for large parts of the second half. All credit to Clough Ballacolla who put in another phenomenal performance just as they have been doing all year. Camross had no answers in the second half and looked like a very defeated team. For Manager Declan Laffen it’s another Laois Senior hurling championship to his belt before heading down to his native Tipperary to join the county set-up.