Derry camogie championship groups finalised

The final two games in the Derry Division 1 league were played on Friday evening with wins for Lavey over Bellaghy and Ballinascreen against Newbridge. These results confirm the Gulladuff girls were confirmed as runners up to Sleacht Néill who had already completed their programme of fixtures a week earlier.

The Collins sisters, Carla and Emma, along with Aoife Shaw scored the Lavey goals in a 3-16 to 0-15 victory. They led by seven points at half time with most of Bellaghy’s scores coming from dead ball strikes with Anna Mcfaul, caoimhe Chambers and Orla McCartney their more prominent players.

Ballinascreen hit the net four times through Lauren McKenna (two), Eimhear McGuigan and Jackie Donnelly in their 4-19 to 1-7 win over Newbridge.

This year how teams finished in the league had a direct impact on the composition of the senior championship. League champions Sleacht Néill are the top seed in championship Group A while runners-up Lavey are the top seed in Group B.

The Emmett’s will be joined by Bellaghy, Ballinscreen and Kilrea, while Lavey will have title-holders Swatragh, Glen and Newbridge.

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There will be three rounds of group games on consecutive Friday evenings (22nd August, 29th August and 5th September). After those round-robin games, the top team in each group will go straight into the semi-finals on the last weekend of September while teams in 2nd and 3rd place will face each other across the groups in the quarter-final double-header on Saturday 13th September.

The opening games in Group A on August 22nd will see Bellaghy host Ballinascreen and last year’s Intermediate champions Kilrea taking on Sleacht Néill in Group A, while the game of the evening should be Lavey v Swatragh in Group B with Glen taking on Newbridge in the other tie.

While most people will expect to see a repeat of last year’s decider in the showpiece final on the second weekend of October, Lavey are perfectly placed to upset that forecast and a repeat of last Friday evening’s performance would help in their opening fixture.