Successes at under 11, under 14, under 16 and under 17 level, made it a year to remember for Longwood's underage section. Few clubs, if any, enjoyed the same level of success as Longwood in 2001. It was a wonderfully successful year for the south county club with no fewer than five underage titles being garnered, three in hurling and two in football. "We were delighted with the way things went," says PRO Martin Ennis. "There has been a huge amount of work put in at underage level over the past number of years and it was great to see four championships coming to the club this year. The future looks rosy," he adds. It was an exceptionally good year for Longwood at under 16 level, with championship successes being achieved in both hurling and football. With what was effectively the same group of players, Longwood won both the Under 16 'B' Hurling Championship and the Under 16 Division Four Football Championship. The under 16 football success came first with the Darragh Maguire-trained team defeating Ballinlough by 2-9 to 1-6 in the final at Athboy. Aaron Ennis was the Longwood goalscoring hero, notching up 2-3. Michael Burke also weighed in with five points. In Under 16 'B' Hurling final, Longwood emerged as comfortable winners over Dunderry. It was a sweet victory for Gerry Ennis' team as they had lost the previous year's decider to Kilskyre. It must also be noted that they were Under 14 'B' champions two years ago. Full forward Chris Lynch scored a hat-trick of goals in the final, while Michael Burke, Karl Ennis, Aaron Ennis and Gary Earls also made handsome scoring contributions. Both Aaron Ennis and Michael Burke were rewarded for their outstanding club form by being included on the county under 16 hurling and football teams. Burke had the added honour of captaining the Meath team to victory over Carlow in the All-Ireland 'B' Hurling final at Tullamore last September. Not to be outdone the U17 side beat St Mary's in the Division 3 FL final. Kildalkey were Longwood's victims in the Under 14 'B' Hurling Championship final. Trained by Tony Healy, this particular Longwood team gave an outstanding display of hurling to overcome their opponents by 3-7 to 1-4 at Boardsmill. Tony Healy also trained the successful Longwood team that beat Blackhall Gaels by 2-1 to 1-3 in the Under 11 'A' Hurling Championship decider at Rathmolyon. Longwood looked to be heading for defeat with time almost up but they forced a late free which Anthony Healy duly dispatched to the net for the winning goal. "It was a great year for underage hurling, we had a great bunch of players from under 11 up to under 14," says Tony Healy. "I was proud to train these players and hopefully we'll have as good a year next as we had this year." Longwood may have enjoyed tremendous success in the underage ranks but it was a different story for the club's senior hurling team. Following a poor run of results, the men in white and black only made sure of their senior status by virtue of a victory over Wolfe Tones in their final championship outing of the year. "We were just glad to stay up senior," admits Martin Ennis. "We lost games narrowly to the likes of Dunderry and Rathmolyon and drew with Killyon. So we were left with a situation where we needed to beat Wolfe Tones in our last game to stay up. Thankfully, the lads did enough to achieve the win." In football, Longwood suffered heartbreak when they lost the Junior 'B' Championship final to Kilmainham by 3-12 to 0-9. Having defeated Kilmainham by 2-12 to 1-11 in the group stages and walloped Na Fianna by 2-18 to 0-7 in the semi-final, Longwood went into the final with high hopes but were well beaten by the north Meath outfit. It must be said that Kilmainham were flattered by their winning margin, especially as Longwood kicked seven first half wides to their opponents' none and Mark Hayes had a goal disallowed at a vital stage in the third quarter. Longwood didn't get off to the best of starts, conceding a goal after 11 minutes. Minutes earlier, the south county side were denied the opening goal when Hayes shot against the crossbar and Wayne Leonard failed to convert from the rebound. Kilmainham led by 1-5 to 0-6 at the interval and, after playing with the advantage of a strong breeze in the first half, Longwood had it all to do. But within 11 minutes of the restart, they had reduced the deficit to the minimum with Hayes scoring two frees and Alan Monaghan notching one. However, that was as close as Longwood came to restoring parity as Kilmainham burst into life in the final quarter. Thirteen minutes from the end, David Farnan scored Kilmainham's second goal to break Longwood's resistance. Longwood's misery was compounded when Kilmainham substitute Robert Newman scored their third goal deep into injury-time. The Longwood lineout was: A Holton; J Mahon, E Dixon, D Maguire; R Dorran, V Cunningham, C Greene; D Dorran, M Weir (0-1); N Kerrigan, J Dorran, W Leonard (0-1); A Monaghan (0-2), M Hayes (0-5), A Ennis. The subs were: K Cleary, M Burke, M Healy, J Cully, V Byrne, T Healy, C Ennis, M Dennehy and D Stack. The successful Longwood underage teams were as follows:- Under 16 football: John Carey; Oliver Colgan, Michael Cully; Damien Stack, John Furey, Joseph Stenson; Michael Burke (0-5), Karl Ennis; Jody Quirke, Aaron Ennis (2-3), Tomás Drinan; Rory Maguire (0-1), Joey Quinn. Subs used: Enda Cully, Pat Giles and David Maguire. Under 16 hurling: John Furey; Oliver Colgan, Joseph Stenson; David Carroll, Damien Stack, John Carey; Michael Burke (1-3), Karl Ennis (1-3); Tomás Drinan, Aaron Ennis (0-5), Kieran Murtagh (0-1); Chris Lynch (3-0), Gary Earls (1-0). Subs used: Jamie Earls and Pat Giles. Under 14 hurling: Darren Lynch; David Lodge, Chris Lynch; Frankie Campbell, Joseph Stenson, Damien Dixon; Jamie Earls, John Carey (1-2); Ian Keenan, Tim McNamara (1-1), John P Mullen; Kieran Murtagh (0-2), Anthony Kelly (1-1). Subs used: Anthony Healy (0-1), Edmond Cosgrave and James Giles. Under 11 hurling: Kevin Carey; Christopher Cusack, David Coloe, Owen Lynch; Damien Lodge, Conor Maguire, Damien Healy; Anthony Healy (1-1), Darren Lynch; Andrew Maguire, Stephen Cotes, Ross Ennis; Owen Weir, Nick McNamara, Peter Lynch (1-0). Subs used: Aoife Maguire, Robert Nevin and Keith Earls. Tweet

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