By Terry Boyle u12s Manager.
All 3 Kildare u12 ladies teams travelled to Carlow on Saturday morning the 13th of September to take part in the Leinster blitz, on what was a beautiful morning for football the mood was one of quiet confidence following the great successes in the June blitz.
Kildare north were based in O'Hanrahan's and having won division 5 in the June blitz were competing in the much tougher division 3 and it was to prove a little too tough for them, the south team were competing in division 5 and despite a few scary moments were to come away with the division 5 title. Around in the hurling ground the county girls were preparing to do battle in div 1 and having won div 1 in the June blitz were expecting to have a real battle on their hands. First up for us were Wexford and it was Wexford who took the first score but after taking a few minutes to settle their nerves the Kildare girls began to find their rhythm and were to go in with a half time advantage of 2-4 to a single point.
Terry and his selectors used this opportunity to bring on all the subs at half time and as Kildare pushed on Wexford struggled to cope they did however get a late point. Full time Kildare 3-5 Wexford 0-2 Next up for Kildare were Meath it was Kildare however that were proving much stronger and notched up a 3-6 to 0-0 half time lead again Kildare used all of their subs second half was to prove even more fruitful for the Kildare ladies full time score Full time score Kildare 7-14 Meath 1-0 The third game in the group was to be just a practice match as Westmeath by this time had already found themselves unable to qualify for the final and Kildare were already through. Half time Kildare 0 - 5 Westmeath 0 - 1. Full Time Kildare 1 - 8 Westmeath 0 - 3
It was to be a Kildare V Meath final to decide who would be the division 1 champions.
Kildare proved to be a much stronger and fitter group on what was an energy sapping glorious autumn day, all the early Sunday mornings following Pat Gallagher on a jog around the perimeter of kill GAA were to prove their worth as Kildare once again stormed out of the blocks Meath didn't know what hit them and by the break Kildare were almost out of sight Half time Kildare 3 -3 Meath 0 - 2 Kildare started the second half as they finished the first far too strong for Meath and as Kildare continued to get the whole panel involved in the final they also continued to stretch their lead.
Full time Kildare 4 - 8 Meath 0 - 3 DIVISION 1 CHAMPIONS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank a fantastic panel of all 70 girls from all over the county for all your hard work and all the laughs, to the parents thank you also and to kill GAA thanks for the use of your facilities all summer last but by no means least a wonderful group of mentors Pat, John, Paul, Nodlaig, Heather, Natalie, Jim, Dave, Niall and Marina for getting the girls checked in every Sunday.