Ballyheigue end 11 year wait for a Kerry SHC win 

Kilmoyley and Crotta O’Neills have booked their place in the last four of the championship

Incredibly Ballyheighue were winless in the senior championship since 2011 but they made light of that statistic when recording a 2-12 to 0-17 victory in Tralee.

Ballyheigue ended their 11 year wait for a Kerry SHC win when shocking a fancied Lixnaw in Austin Stack Park on Saturday evening (2-12 to 0-17)

Incredibly Ballyheighue were winless in the senior championship since 2011 but they made light of that statistic when recording a 2-12 to 0-17 victory in Tralee. 

They were full value for a 2-7 to 0-9 interval lead thanks to goals from Eric Walsh and Kerry star Michael Leane while Ricky Heffernan and Shane Conway kept Lixnaw in touch.

Heffernan leveled the contest in the 49th minute with another free and five minutes from time John Buckley fired Lixnaw one point clear and the game looked to be going the way of the favourites. 

But Ballyheigue were not to be denied with Nathan Guerin equalising from a free conceded before Felim O’Sullivan (son of manager and former great Brendan) fired over the winning point to the jubilation of their long suffering fans. 

Ballyheighue’s reward is a quarter-final with Causeway next Saturday evening while Lixnaw make their exit from the competition.

Kerry and Munster champions Kilmoyley appeared to have a game on their hands at half time when they led underdogs Dr Crokes by just two points ( 2-8 to 1-9) with Maurice O’Connor getting both Kilmoyley goals while Jack Landers got one for Crokes 

But the North Kerry men outscored Crokes in the third quarter 1-10 to 0-1 with Adrian Royle grabbing a goal while Ronan Walsh, Robert Monahan and Barry Dan O’Sullivan were all the fore in a 3-25 to 1-12 win.

Ballyduff had a deserved 0-22 to 0-14 win over St Brendans with Padraig Boyle scoring 0-12 from frees and play.

The draw for the knock-out phase were completed following the weekend games.

Kilmoyley and Crotta O’Neills get byes into the semi-finals and third group topper Ballyduff must play a quarter-final next weekend against Abbeydorney while Ballyheigue will now face Causeway in the remaining quarter-final.

Sat July 16th: Kerry SHC quarter-finals: Ballyduff v Abbeydorney at 4pm; Causeway v Ballyheigue at 6pm