Ringtown's capture of last year's under 21 'B' championship title bodes well for this season's senior campaign according to team manager and new Westmeath goalkeeper Pat Burke. Touted as relegation candidates at the start of 2006, Ringtown upset the odds to reach the knock-out stages of the senior hurling championship. And the Whitehall-based club received a further boost in January of this year when their under 21s defeated St. Brigid's to land the 'B' (13-a-side) championship crown. Remarkably, Ringtown qualified for the final without pucking a ball in anger, but their manager Pat Burke doesn't believe this should detract from their success. "A win is a win and I wouldn't like to take anything away from the lads because they reached the final without playing a game," he says. "It wasn't their fault that such a scenario came about. We were due to play Brownstown in the quarter-final, but they weren't able to field. We got a second walkover from Turin in the semi-final and despite their lack of match practice, the lads were still able to come up trumps against a strong St. Brigid's team in the final. "The under 21 win was a big boost to the club and hopefully a lot of these fellas will go on to make their mark at senior level in the next few years." 2006 was arguably Ringtown's most successful year since they won the intermediate championship in 2002. As well as their under 21 success, they qualified for the senior championship quarter-final and also contested the minor championship Division 1 final. "You'd have to be pleased with how the year panned out," acknowledges Pat, whose performances in goal for the Ringtown seniors have earned him a call-up to Seamus Qualter's county panel. "Having survived relegation play-offs in 2004 and 2005, we were tipped to go down but we surprised a few people by getting to the quarter-final instead. It was a good achievement for us to get that far when you consider we were missing 11 players from the previous year, including county men like Shane McDonnell and Vinny Bateman. "The minors had a very good year and it was obviously a good year for the under 21s as well, even though we were disappointed not to have got a few more games under our belts." Managed by Pat and his co-selectors and fellow senior players Derek Cheevers, Keith Melia and JP Creggy, Ringtown were always in control of the under 21 decider which was played in cold, damp conditions at Turin's McCabe Park. St. Brigid's were aiming to put titles back-to-back and were appearing in their fourth final in-a-row, but they proved no match for their Niall Kilcoyne-inspired opponents. Kilcoyne, who is one of the great white hopes of Westmeath hurling, scored 1-7 (0-4 from frees) in a final that became 12-a-side after 24 minutes when both Kevin Reid of St. Brigid's and Ringtown's Mark Smith were sent off following an altercation near the St. Brigid's goalmouth. From the moment young Darren Kilcoyne pounced for an early goal, Ringtown were in the driving seat. Thomas Geraghty replied with a free for the holders, but it was all Ringtown from there to half-time with unanswered points from Aidan O'Grady and Niall Kilcoyne (four) give them a seven-point cushion, 1-5 to 0-1, at the break. A rousing point from Trevor John Gonoud early in the second half suggested that St. Brigid's were not about to capitulate, but quick scores from Kilcoyne and Shane Boyce only extended Ringtown's advantage. Thomas Geraghty grabbed a third point for the Dalystown men before Niall Kilcoyne hit three points on the trot to underline Ringtown's dominance. A brace of points from Robbie Kenny and Stephen Treacy kept St. Brigid's in the game until Corrigan sent a long ball into Kilcoyne and the county senior panelist gave St. Brigid's goalkeeper James Leogue no chance with a powerful finish. Trevor John Gonoud scored a late consolation goal for St. Brigid's to leave the final score reading 2-9 to 1-5 in favour of the North Westmeath outfit. Burke has high hopes for his talented side and takes much encouragement from the fact that most of the players who were involved are eligible for the under 21 grade again this year. "Eleven or 12 of them are under 21 again this year, so we should have the makings of another good side. Seven or eight of them have already broken through into the senior team and what I particularly like about them is that they are all physically strong and are well able to stand their ground," he says. A number of the under 21 side also featured for the Ringtown minor team that lost the championship Division 1 final (also 13-a-side) to Clonkill a fortnight before Christmas. Clonkill's winning margin was nine points, 2-9 to 1-3, but Ringtown were a lot better than what the scoreline suggests and would surely have come out on top if they had converted the four goal chances which came their way in the opening 15 minutes. Inside the first minute, Niall Kilcoyne saw his first-time shot fly across the goalmouth, while a second 30-metre rasper from the same player was deflected onto the crossbar and cleared to safety by Clonkill goalkeeper Colin Murtagh. Five minutes later, Niall's brother Darren launched the sliothar goalwards, but Jeffrey Nea's deft flick could only find the side-netting. Then, on the quarter-hour mark, Niall had another chance which went agonisingly wide of the posts. Following those let-offs, Clonkill took control and a Mark Keegan goal left them 1-4 to 0-1 ahead at the interval. After another goalbound effort from Kilcoyne struck the butt of the post, Clonkill swooped for their second goal through substitute Brian Byrne. Three more points from Owen Price made it 2-9 to 0-3 before Darren Kilcoyne finally goaled for Ringtown in the dying moments after Eanna Doolin had dropped a 65 into the danger-zone. In the senior championship, Ringtown made a disappointing start to their campaign when losing to Raharney by 0-9 to 4-13 at Cusack Park. That defeat consigned them to the losers' group where they were joined by Castlepollard, St. Oliver Plunkett's and Crookedwood. In the first of those games at Collinstown, David Kilcoyne's charges recorded a memorable 1-11 to 2-7 victory over neighbours and arch-rivals Castlepollard. An Aaron Corrigan goal helped the green and golds to a 1-7 to 1-2 half-time lead, but they needed to pull out all the stops to hold on for the win as the 2005 champions came roaring back in the second half. The Whitehall men were brought back down to earth with a bang when losing heavily to St. Oliver Plunkett's in their next outing. Plunkett's laid the foundations for their success in the first half when a brace of goals from Cian O'Leary helped them to a 2-10 to 0-4 interval lead. With the wind behind them in the second half, Ringtown scored the first two points but they never threatened a comeback as the Mullingar side eased to a 3-15 to 0-9 victory. A late Johnny Orme point denied Ringtown a second victory at Crookedwood's expense. But their 2-8 to 0-14 draw was enough to earn them a quarter-final joust with Raharney. However, just as they had done in the first round, the Deelsiders ran out easy winners by 2-19 to 0-8. With former All-Star David Kilcoyne being joined on the management team by Michael John Corrigan this year, Burke is optimistic about Ringtown's chances of repeating last season's achievement. "We've got to get this fear we have of relegation out of our heads and start concentrating more on winning. We made progress last year so there's every reason for us to be positive facing into this season. We've got a tough game against Lough Lene Gaels in the first round, but hopefully we'll be up to the task and end up in a quarter or semi-final," he concludes. The under 21 'B' championship winning team was: Anthony Blacoe; Tom Macken (captain), Shane Brophy; Jeffrey Nea, Eanna Doolin, John Boyhan; Aaron Corrigan, Niall Kilcoyne; Aidan O'Grady, Anthony Cafferty, Shane Boyce; Mark Smith, Darren Kilcoyne. Subs used: Paul Smith, Ronan Geoghegan and Ciaran Dunleavy. The Ringtown minor team which contested the Division 1 championship final was: Colin Murtagh; Shane Brophy, Paul Smyth; Darren Murtagh, Eanna Doolin, Damien Moran; Shane Boyce, John Boyhan; Darren Kilcoyne, Jeffrey Nea, Ronan Geoghegan; Niall Kilcoyne, Thomas Daniels. Subs used: Stephen Sullivan and Ciaran Dunleavy. Tweet

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