O’Toole’s first hurling wall competition took place on Good Friday. The competition was for players under 12, 14 and 16. Over 10 clubs were represented during the day. We invited clubs from North and West Dublin to take part.

The competition was sponsored by Pat Kearney, Hurling Maker. The winners of each age group getting 6 hurls for their team. I would like to thank Pat, firstly for giving up 18 hurls but also for travelling up from Tipperary on the morning of the competition. Pat gave great praise to the facilities in particular our wall saying “if that was in our club the kids would have it knocked down with the amount of balls that would be driven off of it”.

O’Tooles were represented by Aaron Nolan, Brendan Greany and Finn Shorthall at under 12, Sean Brennan and Conor Keane at under 14 and Sean Eustace and Dean Farrell at under 16. . All players represented the club brilliantly.

The winner in the under 12 section was Jack Higgins from the Raheny Club. Well done to Aaron who came in second.

At under 14, Sean Graham from Skerries Harps was the winner. Sean Brennan doing really well coming in third.

At under 16 level, Dean Farrell from our club was the winner. Fair play to Dean who showed great skill.

One noticeable point from the competition was that the winners all used the correct size hurls. Jack Higgins and Sean Graham using 28s and Dean, who stands at 6’4’ using a 35. Pat Kearney also commented on the players using hurls that were too big for them. He said that most under 12s in Tipp would be using a 28” as it gave better control.

Finally I would like to thank everyone who helped out on the day and coming up to the day, in particular Hellen and Kelly for the time they put into organising the competition, Niall Williams for running it on the day and Dave Boyne who put in a full day from 9.30 to 3.30.

Lenny Rock