Conor Woods targets rare Ulster SHC success for Ballycran

Ards peninsula outfit Ballycran lead the Down SHC roll of honour with 27 titles, winning 20 of those since the provincial championship was introduced in 1970, but have won just three Ulsters

Thu, 16 Dec, 2021 - 06:00

Paul Keane

Conor Woods reckons it’s time for Ballycran to convert their Down hurling dominance into AIB Ulster club success.

The Ards peninsula outfit lead the Down SHC roll of honour with 27 titles, winning 20 of those since the provincial championship was introduced in 1970.

They’ve only kicked on and won Ulster three times, twice in the 1970s and most recently in 1993 when Woods’ father, Dermot, was team captain.

Ballycran face Slaughtneil in this year’s final on Sunday at Corrigan Park and county star Woods admits they’re conscious of the poor provincial record.

“I have won seven Down championships and I have played in three Ulster finals but we were beaten in all three by Antrim clubs; Dunloy, Loughgiel, and Cushendall,” said Woods.

“The only thing for us is that we were coming up against top-class opposition with the Antrim clubs that we played but it’s certainly not a great return from our point of view and it is something that we will be looking to put a better performance in on Sunday and give a better show of ourselves.”

Ballycran’s cause has been helped by the availability of Brett Nicholson despite his red card in the county final win over Portaferry.

“Michael Ennis, our captain, got a second yellow card so he went off and there was a bit of an off the ball incident between one of the other lads and a Portaferry player, it was a tight game and we lost Brett Nicholson, he got a straight red card,” said Woods.

“But Brett appealed that and it has been cleared so Brett is able to play in the game on Sunday. Both of them are available.

“Both players have been brilliant. Both of them have experience of playing at this level before so we definitely need them.”