Ballyboden St Enda’s became the first ever Dublin winners of the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Senior Hurling Sevens at Glenalbyn on Saturday.
To make it even more historic they beat fellow Dublin southside rivals, Cuala, in the decider 4-13 to 3-11.
Boden had knocked out the host club in the quarter-final before accounting for Tipperary’s Moycarkey by 2-13 to 1-07 in the semi-final.
After beating Portroe in their quarter-final, Cuala produced a superb display to overwhelm another Tipperary side, Mullinahone, by 6-13 to 3-3, in the semi-final. Earlier, Mullinahone had defeated Thurles Sarsfields in a game which pitted Tipp stars Eoin Kelly and Lar Corbett against each other.
Despite the poor weather conditions the 41st Annual One Direct Kilmacud Crokes All Ireland Hurling Sevens Competition produced its usual quota of thrilling games and spectacular scores.
Over 60 Teams representing the 4 provinces took part in the Senior Cup, Shield and U13 competitions.
The first ball was thrown in at 10am and the action commenced at five separate Stillorgan venues at a fantastic pace. The tempo never let up throughout the Senior group games as teams from Tipp and Dublin dominated, culminating in the competitions first all Dublin final between Ballybodan St Enda’s and Cuala.
With both teams boasting a hefty representation of inter county stars ‘Boden edged the first half 2-5 to 1-5, with Conal Keaney bagging Boden’s two and Mark Schutte replying for Cuala. The second half started at a frenetic pace with with four goals in four minutes through John Sheanon and Mark Schutte (Cuala) and Niall McMorrow(2). Boden withstood a late Cuala rally, including a pointed semi penalty by David Treacy, to triumph on a scoreline of 4-13 to 3-11.
In the Semi Finals Ballyboden defeated Moycarkey Borris 2-13 to 1-07, while Cuala got the better of an Eoin Kelly led Mullinahone 6-13 to 3-03 to ensure one hurling all-Ireland in 2013 would return to the Capital. Both Dublin teams showed impressive touch and fitness to reach the final. It was fitting that Keaney was awarded player of the tournament following arguably his best year ever on the hurling field.
The beaten quarter finalists were Thurles Sarsfields, Kilmacud Crokes, Templederry Kenyons and Portroe.
