Trim captain Benny Murray got his hands on the Jubilee Cup this year but would have preferred circumstances to have been a little different. Trim joined Kilmessan on the top of the Meath SHC roll of honour this year but, on account of Kilmessan's refusal to fulfil the final fixture on the first Sunday in October, Trim captain Benny Murray didn't get the opportunity to lift the Jubilee Cup. The presentation ceremony took place behind closed doors following Trim's replayed Leinster club championship victory over Wicklow champions Carnew at Pairc Tailteann in mid-October. "At least I didn't have to make a speech, that was the only advantage to that!" quipped the affable Murray. "Seriously though, we would have preferred to have won the game on the pitch, winning it like that wasn't the same at all. Kilmessan made their decision not to play the game and they stuck by it." The 28-year-old has been a regular on the Trim premier hurling XV for approximately 12 years now and during that time he has accumulated seven senior championship medals. Along with brother Declan he is an integral part of the Trim senior hurling and football sides. Trim and Kilmessan met in the first round of this year's SHC and, on that occasion, the town team were on the receiving end, losing out by the narrowest of margins. "We missed a free near the end to equalise that day but I have to say that Kilmessan were the better team and deserved their win. "We always seem to start off badly in the championship. A lot of the players would be dual players and tend to concentrate more on the football in the early part of the year and then switch attention to the hurling as the championship progresses. "We had improved a lot since we played them in the first round and would have fancied our chances in the final." Trim were certainly impressive as they overcame Carnew in the first round of the Leinster championship, drawing in Wicklow before winning the replay in Navan. Predictably, though, their interest in the Leinster club competition came to an end at the next hurdle when they were drawn to face Kilkenny kingpins, Graigue-Ballycallan. The end score, on the last Saturday in October in Nowlan Park, was 5-15 to 0-8. For the record, Benny hit five of his side's points. "We had been kind of expecting that. We were unlucky, though, in that we lost the toss and they elected to play with the wind in the first half and that allowed them build up a comfortable lead. We could have, arguably, made the scoreline more respectable if we had have had the wind in the first half but who knows? "That said though, playing against such high quality opposition was a good learning experience for some of our younger players. The few of us who have played with the county would have known the high standard to expect but I think some of the younger lads will have benefited from the experience. "And, at the end of the day, we got to play three games in the Leinster championship this year. Not many Meath clubs get to say that." On the inter-county scene, Benny made a welcome return to the county set-up this year following a self-imposed exile. His commitments with both the Trim hurling and football teams forced him to bring a temporary halt to his days in the green and gold jerseys a couple of years back but he announced his comeback with a bang against Kildare in this year's NHL when scoring 2-3 after being introduced at half-time. Better was to come in the next game - the NHL Division 2 decider against Carlow - when he amassed an incredible personal tally of 5-1. "I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time," stated Benny, who missed the All-Ireland IHC semi-final defeat against Tipperary due to holidays, modestly, "but it was a dream comeback." More of the same will be required from Benny and co in the coming months as the Royal County's small ball exponents will be plying their trade in Division 1 of the NHL, with games against the likes of Kilkenny, Cork, Tipperary etc on the menu. "People will automatically assume that we'll be the whipping boys of the group but we would like to think that we'd be capable of causing a surprise here or there and hold on to our place in Division 1. We pulled off a few shocks in 1995 with wins over Wexford and Offaly, it would be great if we could do that all over again." Benny believes that the underage talent exists within the county which could make all the difference to Meath's hurling fortunes in the not too distant future. "The talent is definitely there, the minors proved that this year by reaching the All-Ireland final. Joey O'Toole, for example, who's a Trim player and who was a member of that team, is an excellent hurler and has already made it on to the county senior team. I'm sure there's a couple of other players from that minor team which will follow in his footsteps in the coming months." Meanwhile, as regards the footballing end of things, the diminutive wing forward cum corner forward was extremely disappointed with Trim's semi-final exit at the hands of eventual champions Dunshaughlin in this year's SFC. "They beat us by five points in the end but we had our chances to win that game. It was hard looking at the final considering we could have beaten them but that's the way things go. "We've a very good, young panel in the club at the moment and I've no doubt that we'd be capable of winning the Keegan Cup within the next couple of years. We got to the final in 1997, hopefully we can go one step further soon. "That's the big ambition now as far as I'm concerned. I have hurling championship medals, I would dearly love to get my hands on a football one." The road to minor glory The minor footballers of Trim provided cause for celebration when capturing the MFC Division 2 crown in July. Martin Kelly was coach of the victorious team and here he recounts their road to glory. Trim's minor footballers did the club proud in 2000 when claiming the MFC Division 2 title at the expense of St Cianan's in the final at Pairc Tailteann in late July. 2-9 to 1-8 was the end scoreline. The final was a largely unexciting affair in the main but it exploded into life in the final ten minutes as a late St Cianan's revival ensured Trim's supporters were kept on the edge of their seats right up until referee Gerry McGivney called a halt to proceedings. "At the start of the year we would certainly have been hopeful of a good run," replied the team's coach Martin Murray when quizzed on his and his selectors, Henry Sheridan and John Murnin's, expectations prior to the championship. "This team won the U16 Division 2 title two years ago so we knew we were in with a reasonable chance of doing well. "But succeeding at minor football is a lot more difficult than U16. Having the talent is one thing but getting the lads to give the commitment is another. It must be said though that we had no problems in that regard this year. We couldn't have asked for more from the players and they got what they deserved." Martin, who incidentally is the holder of six senior hurling and a junior football medals, continued: "St Cianan's beat us by four points in the very first game of the campaign so we weren't overly confident going into the final. We knew that if we played to our full potential we would be very hard to stop and that's the way it turned out." Second half substitute Derek Dixon, who was also eligible for the U16s this year, stole the headlines when his 57th minute goal put pay to the late Duleek revival which threatened to snatch the title from under Trim's nose. The men in green and white had reduced a 0-7 deficit to just 0-3 with ten minutes remaining before Trim right half forward Derek Sheridan carved out a goal chance for himself. He was unfortunate to see his effort well saved by the St Cianan's 'keeper but the rebound fell nicely for Dixon who shot to the net after his initial effort was also kept out. That three-pointer left the town side 2-9 to 1-6 to the good and while Duleek hit back with two points it was never going to be enough. Trim always looked the likely winners right from the throw-in and they had established a 0-4 to 0-1 advantage by the end of the first quarter. Sheridan hit two of those points and received good support in attack from Johnny Cusack and Owen McGrath while county minor and team captain Michael Lowther was pulling the strings at midfield. Trim received a set-back though in the 17th minute when they were rocked by a St Cianan's goal which drew the sides level and the east Meath outfit added a point to take the lead for the first and only time in the final. Trim's supporters concerns were eased somewhat shortly afterwards when Sheridan capitalised on a rebound from a Paul Campbell shot to reaffirm his team's superiority. Further points from Lowther (0-2, 1 free) and Stephen Bolger gave Trim a 1-7 to 1-2 half-time lead. In the end those late first half points proved to be the difference between winning and losing as Martin admits "We were happy enough with the way things went in the final. We got a good start, they came back, we then put more space between us. At half-time we were expecting them to come at us strongly but we had built up a good cushion and had the foundations laid to hold on for the win. It was a nail-biting finish all the same! "Derek Dixon came on for us in the quarter and semi-finals. On each occasion he did a good job for us so we had no hesitation in bringing him in during the final and once again he came up trumps." It has often been said that familiarity breeds contempt but in the case of the Trim minors, their familiarity with each others play proved to be vital ingredient in their winning formula. "This team have played together for quite a number of years now, they're a very together bunch. I got the impression from them this year that they were intent on winning the championship and that they really fancied themselves. They had confidence in their own ability and, in the end, justified that confidence." The aforementioned opening round defeat and a loss to Dunderry in the final group game were the only blots on Trim's record sheet during the course of the competition. At the time of the Dunderry defeat though, Murray and co had already qualified for the knock-out stages while their neighbours had to win to keep their championship ambitions alive. The scalps of Round Towers and Dee Rangers were claimed in the quarter and semi-finals respectively. "The semi-final with Dee Rangers was an extremely close, nip and tuck affair," revealed the team's coach. "They went ahead with just ten minutes remaining but we got a few late points to book our passage to the final." Martin, who was involved with coaching the Trim senior and junior hurling teams in recent years, is hopeful that this year's underage success will have a positive knock-on effect on the club's senior team in future years. "Everyone in the club was over the moon with the success this year. With the exception of the U16, Trim haven't won too much at underage level in recent times. Hopefully now some of this team can make the step up to senior level and assist Trim with the Keegan Cup sometime in the future." Trim - G Martin; R Englishby, M Hackett, S Martin; J Faulkner, E Lynam, S McDonagh; M Lowther (0-3), F Murphy (0-1); P Campbell (0-2), J Cusack, D Donohue; S Bolger (0-1), D Sheridan (1-2), O McGrath. Subs - D Dixon (1-0) for Bolger, A Englishby for Campbell, R Brennan for Donohue. Trim bag camogie four-in-a-row Trim maintained their dominance of the Senior camogie championship when capturing their fourth title on the trot again Kilmessan at Kiltale in early July. Despite having Yvonne Quinn sent off ten minutes from the end, Trim held on to earn the spoils in what was an exciting game, by 4-0 to 2-4. The town team hit all their four goals in the first half. Kilmessan exerted plenty of pressure on the resumption, but Trim were lucky to have defenders Dearbhla O'Carroll, Mary Andrews and Darina Smith in fine form. 'Keeper Una Gibney was also outstanding and produced a number of spectacular saves near the end. Trim opened brightly and went 1-0 to 0-0 ahead when Yvonne Quinn's speculative free-kick ended up in the Kilmessan net. But Kilmessan's response was swift and it wasn't long before they had established a 2-0 to 1-0 lead. Christine O'Brien levelled things up from a 30m free shortly afterwards and Blaithnaid Joyce added a third goal six minutes before the half-time whistle. Dearbhla O'Carroll completed Trim's scoring with their fourth goal in injury-time of the first period to leave the scoreboard reading 4-0 to 2-2. Kilmessan launched a revival with a pointed free and they tried hard to reduce the deficit but Gibney and the Trim defence held firm. Not even Quinn's dismissal could knock them out of their stride. Trim - U Crowley; C Smith, M Andrews, D Smith; B Joyce (1-0), D O'Carroll (1-0), G Farnan; S O'Halloran, I Kelly; E Guy, Y Quinn (1-0), C O'Brien (1-0); B Guy, J O'Connor, S Gavigan. Sub - M Connelly for C Smith. Junior Hurling success for Trim Trim, over the last couple of decades, have captured the Meath Senior Hurling Championship on numerous occasions. Strange then that the hurling men from the big town have not put their name on the junior trophy for 15 years. Last August changed this particular piece of data when the Reds easily brushed aside old rivals Kilmessan in the junior decider 2000 style. A final scoreline of 2-8 over 3-2 might suggest a close encounter, however three late goals from the Blues per the stick of midfielder Willie Smyth gives a false interpretation of events. Trim were helped by the dismissal of opposing half forward Karl Duffy just before half time but they led throughout, 2-4 to 0-2 at the break and only had reason to lose sweat following Willy Smyth's late salvo. Indeed, Smyth could have struck for a dramatic winner before a timely interception from full back Darren O'Connor. O'Connor, one of his side's better players fronted Trim hurling legend Frank 'Yank' McCann who operated between the posts. Aidan Leonard shot some nice points while others to shine for the new champions included Tom Canty, Brian Smith, Paddy Hegarty, Mick McCormack and Martin Connor. This was Trim's third outing against Kilmessan in the 2000 competition. Earlier they were paired in a group which also included Blackhall Gaels and Killyon. A three-way play-off ensued between the first named three and while Kilmessan beat Trim in the original group fixture, the future champions proved tops in the play-off situation. If anything, the extra games provided both the Blues and the Reds with much needed practice and subsequently Rathmolyon were no match for Trim in the semi-finals. At the games end, Trim man and Hurling Board Chairman Sean Colgan handed the trophy over to a victorious captain Brian Smith. The Trim team and scorers were: F McCann, P Mullen, D O'Connor, P Hegarty, N Winters, D Mullen, B Smith, B Keogh 0-1, T Canty, A Leonard 0-4, K Heffernan 0-1, M McCormack 0-2j, M Ennis, M Connor 1-0, J Toole 1-0. Sub: L Dempsey. Tweet

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