Thomas Murray stars as Bishopstown retain Premier status at expense of Ballyhea

Led in the scoring stakes by Thomas Murray, Bishopstown trailed this one for the majority of the fixture but were able to pull clear in the last 10 minutes

Cork Premier SHC relegation final: Bishopstown 0-18 Ballyhea 0-10 

Despite being below par for long periods Bishopstown retained their Premier SHC status for another year by seeing off Ballyhea in Mallow on Sunday afternoon.

In a game devoid of much on the quality shooting front the city side made hard work of this one racking up 18 wides against a resilient but ultimately out-gunned Ballyhea side.

Led in the scoring stakes by Thomas Murray, Bishopstown trailed this one for the majority of the fixture but were able to pull clear in the last 10 minutes thanks to a strong wind and a serious improvement in accuracy.

A trio of scores from second-half sub James Scally helped push Bishopstown clear at the finish but ultimately it was the seven points from Murray as well as points by Pa Cronin (two), Mike Power (two), Brian Murray (two) and Conor Hegarty (two) that got them over the line.

For Ballyhea, Pa O’Callaghan and Maurice O’Sullivan led the line well with Jamie Copps also impressing. Keeper Mike Browne and corner-back Kevin Copps were well worthy of mention but on this day it just wasn’t going to be enough.

Bishopstown were first to trouble the scoreboard with a tasty point from Thomas Murray however the sides were level on five when O’Callaghan split the posts with a free from 50 out.

With so much at stake this one was always likely to be a tense affair and that was particularly obvious in the opening 15 minutes as shot selection and execution was far from perfect from both sides. Bishopstown in particular were struggling with plenty of possession and just a pair of points to show for their efforts.

After the first water-break a nice individual point from Power looked to signal something of an improvement in the scoring stakes but a response from O’Callaghan and a good point from Caoleann Cox was all that this game would produce by the 25th minute.

A massive point from Ballyhea keeper Mikey Browne had his side one up three minutes before the half time interval but Tomas Murray slapped over his third point of the half (second free) and the board showed parity once more. 0-5 apiece.

There was time for two more scores before the break and both went the way of the Avondhu side as first O’Sullivan landed a monster before O’Callaghan was equally impressive from distance. 0-7 to 0-5 in favour of the north Cork side.

With the strong wind to their backs for the second half Bishopstown must have fancied their chances of turning this one around quickly but a beautiful pair of scores from O’Sullivan which were cancelled out by points from Thomas and Brain Murray meant that Ballyhea still led this one by two past 40 minutes.

From this point to the finish the game was all about Bishopstown as they hit the last 10 points to cruise to what looked like an unlikely win for a quite a long time.

Scorers for Bishopstown: T Murray 0-7 (3fs , 1 '65); J Scally 0-3; P Cronin, M Power, B Murray, C Hegarty 0-2 each.

Scorers for Ballyhea: M O’Sullivan 0-4; P O’Callaghan 0-4 (all frees); C Cox, M Browne (f) 0-1 each.

BISHOPSTOWN: K O’Halloran; D Lester, B Murphy, E Byrne; S O’Neill, J O’Sullivan, P Honohan; T Murray, B Murray; C Hegarty, P Cronin, S Lordan; C O’Hora, M Driscoll, M Power.

Subs: S Murphy for P Honohan (42), J Scally for S Lordan (46), L Lordan for M Driscoll (60), A O’Sullivan for M Power (61), B McConville for P Cronin (63).

BALLYHEA: M Browne; K Copps, A Barrett, M Crowley; J O’Leary, L O’Connor, M Morrissey; C Cox, J Morrissey; T Hanley, M O’Sullivan, J Copps; G Morrissey, P O’Callaghan, E O’Callaghan.

Referee: Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan)