Condon and Hegarty lead the way as Kilworth too good forBallymartle

Kilworth's Eoin Carey on the move with the sliotar. Picture: Larry Cummins

Kilworth 3-26 Ballymartle 2-20

A superb second quarter revival from Kilworth laid the foundation for their mighty impressive win over Ballymartle in this Co-Op Superstores Premier Intermediate Hurling championship game played at Rathcormac on Sunday.

Trailing by six points after 20 minutes and looking like a team in need of inspiration, Kilworth settled into their stride and in the closing 10 minutes of the half they found their mojo to tie the game at the break.

Many heroes for the winners, but in Will Condon (2-3) and Liam Óg Hegarty (0-7) they had two players who showed class when the game threatened to run away from them.

Credit to Ballymartle, they flew out of the blocks and it only took Ryan Deasy 50 seconds to split the posts for the opening point.

Kilworth were basically winning no dirty ball and looked shell-shocked with the intensity their opponents were showing and when Cillian Lordan added his second point in the ninth minute Ballymartle extended their lead to five points.

After getting outplayed Kilworth finally responded to the wake- up call when a Liam Og Hegarty point from a placed got them up and running in the 10th minute.

Once again, the spirit of Ballymartle resurfaced and consecutive points from Lordan and Shane Cummins extended their lead to six points.

Kilworth were gradually improving and Brian Sheehan should have done better midway through the half but he was hooked as he was about to pull the trigger in front of goal.

Five minutes later the hard work of Ballymartle was rewarded when Luke O’Callaghan got in behind the static Kilworth defence to billow the back of the net with a classy strike.

Amazingly, Ballymartle instead of pushing on basically went into meltdown as Kilworth finally came out of their shell showing better touches on the ball and a brace of Will Condon points in the 29th minute reduced the deficit to four points.

In the closing minute, a Hegarty point was executed and suddenly it was a three point game.

There was to be another final thrust from Kilworth when the hard- working Condon showing his physical presence to blast a ferocious shot to the back of the net as the sides went in at the break on parity 1-12 each.

On the restart, Kilworth gave an early warning when Jamie Sheehan went close with a ferocious shot, but they were rewarded five minutes into the half.

Following some good build up play, Luke Casey was on hand to boot the ball to the empty net as Kilworth led for the first time.

A Luke O’Callaghan point was a quick response from Ballymartle but that’s as good as it got for them as they were basically taught a lesson for the remainder of the game.

Hard to believe we were looking at the same Kilworth side that we witnessed in the opening 20 minutes but to be fair they were well balanced and didn’t go away from their game plan.

The points continued to flow and tot up but their third goal in the 54th minute was worth the admission fee alone.

Another sweeping move saw a sublime Leo Coffey solo run before he assisted a perfect pass to Condon who found little trouble finishing with a strike to the back of the net.

In the end, Kilworth will feel happy in how they responded but will also be aware they will need to start better in their next game against Valley Rovers as Ballymartle have some soul searching to do before their clash with Carrigaline.

Scorers for Kilworth: W Condon 2-3, L Og Hegarty 0-7 (0-3f), J Sheehan 0-6, M Sheehan 0-4, L Carey 1-0, L Whelan 0-3, L Coffey 0-2, , D Twomey 0-1.

Ballymartle: C Lordan 0-10 (0-6f), L O’Callaghan 1-4, R Sheehan 1-0, S Cummins 0-3, L Hennessy 0-2, R Deasy 0-1.

Kilworth: K Heggtveit; A O’Hara, K Lane, M Gowen; L Carey, E Carey, D Twomey; J Saich, L Coffey; L Og Hegarty, M Sheehan, J Sheehan; L Whelan, W Condon, B Sheehan.

Subs: E McGrath for L Coffey (49), P Riordan for K Lane (52).

Ballymartle: D McCarthy; E Deasy, C Coleman, T J Murphy; E Healy, C Allen, F Desmond; S Dorney, R Deasy; S Cummins, R Cahalane, C Lordan; L O’Callaghan, P Geary, L Hennessy.

Subs: S Corry for C Allen (45), R Sheehan for P Geary (47).

Referee: James Bermingham (Bride Rovers).