Dowdall gives Clonkill an unassailable lead

Westmeath SHC Final/ Clonkill 1-15 Lough Lene Gaels 0-5 : Clonkill regained the county hurling title after a six-year gap with a 13-point win over Lough Lene Gaels at Cusack Park, Mullingar yesterday.

The early exchanges were evenly contested, but Clonkill began to pull away as the game progressed and they led by 0-7 to 0-2 by the 25th minute.

Two minutes later, Alan Dowdall blasted the ball to the net from 20 metres for the game's only goal to give Clonkill an eight-point lead at half-time.

Despite a number of personnel and positional changes at half-time, Lough Lene Gaels never looked likely to claw back the deficit. The nearest they came to a goal was when Derek McNicholas's free came back off the crossbar in the ninth minute.

Clonkill then killed off the game with a succession of points.

CLONKILL : E Price; S Cleary, A Price, F Fagan; J Fagan, A Mitchell (0-3, two from frees, one 65) , S Loughlin; P Dowdall (capt), A Dowdall (1-1) ; C Reilly, B Murtagh (0-5, one free), E Loughlin (0-3) ; D Ayres, L Donoghue, L Folan (0-1). Subs: C Austin (0-2) for Ayres, D O'Reilly for J Fagan, S Owens for Reilly.

LOUGH LENE GAELS : M Briody; J Connell, M Williams, J Boyle; Cathal Murtagh, Christo Murtagh, S Carroll; M McNicholas, P Williams (capt); F Moran, D Cunningham, N Conaty; D McNicholas (0-2, one free), D Carty (0-3, frees) , P Fitzsimons. Subs : S Bardon for Fitzsimons, J Williams for Conaty, C Williams for Cathal Murtagh, A Keogh for Connell.

Referee: M Mannion (Southern Gaels).

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times