Vibrant girl's club scene draws to close

A vibrant girl’s club scene looks set to be finished off in style in the coming weeks as the only formal cup competition – the Jacqui Potter U-16 Cup – sanctioned by the Leinster Branch reaches fever pitch.

Hermes and Railway Union will emulate their senior counterparts when they lock horns at the semi-final stage of the U-16 Jacqui Potter Cup.

Railway advanced from the quarter-finals with a 3-1 win over Three Rock Ladies while Hermes got the better of Muckross on the same scoreline. Alex, meanwhile, await a semi-final opponent with Weston, Corinthian and Suttonians in the mix for the final four place.

In the U-16 leagues, Muckross took the A league, Genesis won the A/B title last week while Alex were triumphant n the B competition. Some results are outstanding for B/C and C leagues.

At U14 level, Corinthian, coached by Michelle Harvey and Holly Warren, won a playoff for the A league over the Mount Anville club side at Whitechurch Park and they backed that up with a double in the B league when they came out on top from their final tie with a young, but well drilled Avoca team in their final.

Botanic, meanwhile took the C league with victory over Mount Anville.

Leagues are organised informally between clubs and cater for girls from 1st to 4th year – they are not strictly organised by ages to facilitate girls playing with their peer groups. It is intended that this format will keep players with clubs for longer.

Meanwhile, in the age groups catering to primary school goers, Mount Anville emerged as eventual winners from a high quality Deirdre Ennis Shield – one of the highlights of the U-13/U-12 club scene – last week, with 16 teams from across the province and beyond taking part including a visit from Sligo’s Yeats County to the Teresian school.

Mount Anville got the better of host team, the Muckross Tigers (pictured, right), in the final 1-0 with Rachel Moore scoring a great goal to seal the title after an excellent day’s action.

The tournament saw teams from Bray, Genesis, Malahide, Loreto, Railway, Our Ladies, Alex, Corinthian, Mount Anville, Yeats, Avoca, Hermes, Pembroke and Muckross divided into four sections to play a series of round robin games.

From these groups, Muckross and Mount Anville emerged from the subsequent quarter and semi-finals to set up a gripping final match with Moore eventually nabbing the winner, holding at bay the host club who could not break down the determined Mount Anville defence.