Under 12 Hurling Championship  A Semi-Final played in Ballinasloe on Thursday July 26th
Kilnadeema/Leitrim 1.03  Turloughmore 3.02

County Semi-finals and finals are something everybody will dream about during their careers, but very few get to achieve the chance to play in them, and so to reach an Under 12 A County Semi-final was a very big achievement for Kilnadeema/Leitrim hurling club. Having topped their group ahead of such well known  star underage clubs as Loughrea, Craughwell, Tommie Larkins and Clarenbridge was itself hugh progress for the club, but to to reach the promise land of a County final they had to defeat one more of the super powers of underage hurling in Galway from north of the County Turloughmore and set up a final against near neighbours St Thomas. Having had to wait around for a few weeks before the game came up, one wondered how the team would react to such an occasion. The game was finally fixed for Duggan Park, Ballinasloe on Thursday July 26th. The evening was perfect for the game with a little bit of sunshine, a rare sight this summer. Turloughmre who had already played Kilnadeema/leitrim a few weeks before hand in a challenge game and suffered a seven point defeat certainly looked up for the challenge this time as they got stuck into Kilnadeema/leitrim from the start and it took them only one minute to stamp their attority on the game with a goal almost from the throw in to really set Kilnadeema/leitrim back on their heels so early on. We all wondered how they would react and while they had chances they fail to convert them and then they conceded a number of free's to Turloughmre as well who luckly did'nt score from them. On seven minutes they finally got on the score sheet when Dara Donoghue scored a point after taking a short pass from a Brian Molloy free. We wondered would they now settle down and take off. Play was very tight at this stage with nothing between the team before on 10 minutes Brian Molloy had a great point from play to reduce the margin to just a point This proved to be the last score of a low scoring half and certainly Kilnadeema/Leitrim were very much still in with a shout in the contest and a possable place in the final as the score board read 1.00 to 0.02 in the north Galway sides favour. Kilnadeema/leitrim made a few positional switches at the start of the second half with Martin O'Brien moving to Midfield and Liam Kelly going to Full Forward and Brian Molloy on the forty. Disaster for Kilnadeema/Leitrim struck right from the off in the second half as they conceded another goal. We wondered how they would respond to this latest setback. In the 5th minute Justin Moran was fouled near goal which Brian Molloy went for goal from but was unsuccessful and shortly after Brian was unlucky again when another goalbound shot was saved.  Brian then added a point from a free to close the gap. In the seventh minute Turloughmore increased their lead when the converted a free to put them 5 points ahead. Any hope Kilnadeema/Leitrim had of a comeback was knocked back on 11 minutes when Turloughmore struck for their third goal following a great effort by Kilnadeema/Leitrim to clear their lines. All was not lost though as a Dara Donoghue free in the 15th minute was blasted to the net by Justin Moran to give them some hope of victory. This was to be their last chance as Turloughmore added another point on 19 minutes when they converted a free to leave the final scoreline reading Turloughmore 3.02 Kilnadeema/leitrim 1.03. The dream was over but one thinks that this is not the last you will hear of this team in the future as thet competed wonderfully in the top grade of club hurling  in the county and we look forward to seeing them again in Feile in two years time. Full credit to Des, Kevin and Joe for the way they looked after this team.

Scorers: Justin Moran 1.00, Brian Molloy 0.02, Dara Donoghue 0.01.

Sean Callagy, Noel Farrell, , Glen Costello, Evan Curley, Stephen Roche, Dara Donoghue, Tony Molloy, Jacques Chaheen, Liam Kelly, Jessica Deely, Martin O'Brien, Daniel Mottram, Keith Callanan, Brian  Molloy, Justin Moran.
Subs. Jack Kenny, Ciaran Connor, Patrick Halpin