Cathal Brugha Swimming & Water Polo Club

Week Two - Christmas Junior Water Polo Leagues


What a great night’s water polo…..excitement, tension, thrills and spills. Yes, last night was the second week of our Christmas Junior Water Polo Leagues at Andersonstown Leisure Centre when the ‘rafters were raised’ by a huge crowd of very excitable parents, grandparents and supporters helping to create a truly entertaining evening of water polo.

Under 10:    Cathal Brugha 1-2 Clonard
The stand out game of the evening was a thrilling Under 10’s encounter between old Club rivals Cathal Brugha and Clonard….what a game! 
It may be difficult for those of you who haven’t been along on a Friday evening to imagine the excitement, noise and thrilling spectacle of two under 10 teams battling it out in a Mini Water Polo game, but believe you me this was something special.
Finn Murphy, who had a fantastic game for Brugha, opened the scoring with a shot from distance which ‘pinged’ off the left post and into the Clonard goal, just beyond the reach of the Clonard keeper, Niall McSherry.  The score stayed at 1-0 to Brugha until the second half, when Clonards Mel Murnaghan finished off a well worked Clonard move to inch a shot just passed Ciaran McGuigan in the Brugha goal, bringing the Clonard faithful into rapture.  The game flowed from end to end with the two keepers being the busiest players on the pitch until 20 secs from time when Clonards Jake Bowden gathered the ball deep within his own half, went passed a few Brugha forwards who were still in attack mode, and fired a shot at goal from just within Brugha territory.  Despite the valiant efforts of Brugha’s keeper, Niall McSherry, this was to be the Clonard winner and the end of a great game of water polo.
It would be impossible to single out any player for a mention here as all players, from both sides were terrific on the night, so both teams are listed here….congratulations to everyone!
Cathal Brugha Team: Ciaran McGuigan, Conor O’Neill, Declan McArdle, Oisin McGurk, Michael Darragh, Tom Crothers, Enda McGurk, Seamus Carroll, Finn Murphy, Tomas Murphy
Clonard Team: Niall McSherry, Jake Bowden, Christopher Quinn, Conn Gleece, Diarmuid Hanna, Mel Murnaghan, Alex Johnston, Hugo Lavery, Charlie O’Kane, Theo Cochrane
(Apologies if there are any misspellings as the names on the sheet are difficult to read)

Other Results:

Under 10’s
• Donegall Diamonds 0-10 Newry, Shane McKeever (3), Isaac McIIerron (3), Tom Magill (2), Jack Magill, Tiernan Byrne
• Donegall Diamonds 0-7 Lisburn, Alex Furey (3), Ben McKee (2), Harry Hughes(2)
• Cathal Brugha (Finn Murphy (3), Tom Crothers (2) 5-0 Bangor

Under 12’s
• Donegall Diamonds 0-5 Newry, Jack Magill (3), Clara McKeever, Loughlin Burns
• Bangor ‘A’ 4-7 Bangor ‘B’ (sorry no match sheet available)
• Clonard 0-2 Cathal Brugha, Jordan Cunningham (2)

Under 14’s
• Cathal Brugha 1-2 Lisburn (Challenge Game)
• Clonard, Fionn, McConvey (4), Caleb Bowden (2), Owen Murphy 7-0 Bangor