Regional hurling féile in Portaferry shakes off the rain

Many of us were weather watching coming up to the féile weekend, particularly since the forecast was teetering on a thunderstorm for the general area. Yes, we had rain but it failed to dampen spirits and it’s a huge credit to the players for tolerating the conditions without a single complaint and thankfully, there was no sign of Thor.

This year we had three divisions comprising division 1 Portaferry, Ballygalget and Bredagh, division 2 Ballyvarley, Ballycran, O’Rahillys and Carryduff and division 3 with Kilclief, Warrenpoint, Clonduff and Bredagh B.

Ballycran had a great run in division 2, picking up a win and a draw to put them into the final with Carryduff. At the round robin stage, Carryduff played Ballycran on the top pitch, where conditions were tougher on the upper turf. In what turned out to be a tight match, Carryduff managed to hold onto a win by a few points holding out hope to Ballycran for the final on the bottom pitch to be a similar affair.

As the division 2 match got started on the bottom pitch, the blue and yellow corner flags were barely moving though it was evident there was a fresh breeze above as respective puck outs from the keepers were either long or short. Although Ballycran fought hard and avoided a runaway win for Carryduff, the City squad had a couple of rested players up their sleeves and they proved pivotal in making sure that the last minutes of the match were not going to offer Ballycran any chance of closing the gap. Congratulations to Carryduff on winning division 2, Kilclief on winning division 3 and Bredagh on winning division 1.

Here are a selection of photos from some of the matches across the day.