Undoubtedly the most positive development in 2007 as far as Turin hurling club was concerned was the revival of the club's underage structure. Turin PRO Clive O'Callaghan is hoping it will have long-term benefits for the McCabe Park outfit, who were once again frustrated in their efforts to attain senior status last year. Intermediate hurling championship honours remained as elusive as ever last year for Turin who failed to reach the semi-final stage for the first time since 2003. Having targeted a place in the final at the outset of 2007, it came as a great disappointment to the club to miss out on a place in the knockout stages. At the very least, Turin had hoped to make the semi-finals for the fifth time in six years. "It didn't work out as we had hoped," is Turin PRO Clive O'Callaghan's frank assessment of the year just past. "Having played in the last three semi-finals and lost them all, there was a big incentive there for us to go one step further and reach the final. But we never got any momentum going and it was a huge disappointment to all involved to bow out after the group stage. Hopefully, we'll be able to make amends this year," he adds. O'Callaghan, who regularly featured as a substitute last year, believes it was unrealistic to expect Turin to win the 2007 intermediate championship with Castlepollard involved, but he still feels they should have done better than they did. "For a small club like ours, it was a bit demoralising to be pitted against a superpower like Castlepollard," he says. "They are one of the most successful clubs in Westmeath and were senior champions as recently as 2005. They were always going to be the team to beat and in hindsight, we probably showed them a bit too much respect. But the same could probably be said for all the other intermediate clubs." 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of Turin's last appearance in an intermediate championship final which they lost to Ringtown after a replay. At the time, it was widely felt that the McCabe Park outfit would bounce back to win a championship within a year or two, but sadly this never materialised and with no underage set-up to speak of in recent years, the breakthrough would appear as far away as ever. However, instead of concentrating all their efforts on winning the intermediate championship, Turin have gone back to basics by reviving their underage structures. Last year, the club fielded teams at under 8, 10 and 12 level and O'Callaghan is hoping this very welcome development will have long-term benefits for the red and whites. "It's probably fair to say that we were guilty of letting our underage go for five or six years. If we continued to have no underage structure, we mightn't have a club in a few years' time so something had to be done. "Thankfully, we have now taken the first step to rectifying the situation by starting up under 8, 10 and 12 teams. John Scally and Keith O'Callaghan (Clive's brother) are trying to nurture them along and hopefully in another few years we'll be in a position to field under 14, 16 and minor teams again and we'll have more young players coming through to play for the adult side." Sandwiched between parish rivals Clonkill, Crookedwood and Cullion, and also bordering Lough Lene Gaels, Delvin and Raharney, Turin have possibly the smallest pick of any of the hurling clubs in Westmeath. But despite their lack of resources, they remain convinced that they can win an intermediate championship and realise their dream of playing in the top flight. "Every year, we go out with the intention of winning the intermediate championship. We may be small, but we have fierce pride in the jersey and we won't be happy until we're up in the senior ranks," Clive says. Under the management of Castlepollard man Michael Lynch, Turin suffered an early setback to their 2007 intermediate championship campaign when they succumbed to a rejuvenated Southern Gaels by 0-11 to 2-13. But they bounced back in impressive fashion to defeat Clonkill's second string by 4-11 to 2-12 in their second outing at Ringtown. Turin had a goal as early as the first minute when Derek Hourihan set up Sean Aughey who made no mistake from close range. Hourihan and Dickie Geoghegan added points before Mark Keegan opened Clonkill's account from a free. Clonkill reduced the leeway to four points before Hourihan latched onto a long delivery from Aidan O'Neill and fired home Turin's second goal. Converted frees by Mark Keegan and Christy Austin kept Clonkill in touch, but they were undone for a third time when Turin full forward Sean Aughey scored a goal to give his side a 3-5 to 0-5 lead. Clonkill replied with three unanswered points from Keegan (two) and Conradh Reilly before a Ray Aughey effort left Turin 3-6 to 0-8 in front at the break. The scores continued to flow in the third quarter as both sides traded points. Turin were seven points to the good when Clonkill suddenly came to life by scoring 2-1 in a blistering three-minute spell to level proceedings. Turin were shell-shocked, but they showed great character to respond with a goal from Kevin Gilroy. Ray Aughey extended their lead before Derek Hourihane sealed victory when he pointed a '65' with the last puck of a pulsating game. The McCabe Park club chalked up their second win when they accounted for St. Brigid's by 3-11 to 1-8 at Kinnegad. The first half started brightly with Alan Aughey scoring a goal before St. Brigid's replied with four successive points. A second goal from Kevin Rehill and two points from Derek Hourihan ensured the red and whites of a 2-2 to 0-6 interval lead. On the restart, St. Brigid's got in for a goal but once again Turin responded impressively with Hourihan notching 0-7 from frees and Alan Aughey scoring from play. With four minutes remaining, veteran attacker Dickie Geoghegan blasted home a second goal to seal the win for Michael Lynch's men. Sadly for Turin, they were to register no more wins with defeats to Cullion, Castlepollard and Delvin ending their championship interests for another year. They lost to Cullion by 0-7 to 0-11, Castlepollard by 0-12 to 4-22 and Delvin by 1-9 to 2-12 in a game which both teams needed to win to reach the knock-out stages. This year, Turin have turned to Noel Boyce in their latest bid to win that elusive intermediate championship. Boyce led both his native Ringtown and Crookedwood to intermediate honours in recent years and has also managed the Longford inter-county side. "Noel has a proven track record in management and has experience of winning intermediate championships before," Clive points out. "Despite not having an underage structure of our own before last year, we've managed to bring through very skilful young players in the likes of Sean Scally, Derek Hourihan, Liam Reville and Eoin Ward. "With 'Pollard gone back up senior, I think the championship will be a lot more open this year and we'll be going all out to break our semi-final duck and get back into the final after a long absence. And if got into a final, we'd obviously be hoping to win it," he concludes. The Turin team that lined out against local rivals Clonkill in last year's IHC was: John Gorman; Shane McInerney, John Scally, Aidan O'Neill; Bryan Foley, Barry Nea, Kevin Gilroy; Sean Scally, Ronan Leavy; Ray Aughey, Andy Corcoran, Dickie Geoghegan; Derek Hourihan, Sean Aughey, Kevin Reihill. Subs used: Ronan Carey and Clive O'Callaghan. Tweet

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