Clann Eireann captain and Player of the Match Niamh Henderson (right) with her niece Cassie Henderson who scored the only goal in the Orchard county final
BY RICHARD BULLICK
NIAMH Henderson lifted the Marie Hoye Cup for the fourth year running along with her third Orchard county final Player of the Match award in that time as Clann Eireann defeated Crossmaglen in the Buttercrane Senior Championship showpiece in the Athletic Grounds.
The classy Clann Eireann captain’s multi-talented 16-year-old niece Cassie Henderson scored the only goal of Sunday’s big game with a blistering finish in just the second minute as Clann Eireann established an interval lead of five points and went on to win 1-16 to 0-11.
Back-to-back provincial champions Clann Eireann will now be aiming to compete their hat-trick of Ulster title triumphs under manager Gregory McGonigle while Crossmaglen can look forward to featuring in their first camogie county final for 21 years.
Sunday marked their return to the big stage after an absence of 18 years from the Orchard decider and Armagh great Lauren McConville was superb in her long-awaited first county final for Cross at the age of 30.
However, Clann Eireann’s tactical plan whenever McConville’s superb bursts brought her within goal-scoring range didn’t help Crossmaglen’s chances of upsetting the odds in glorious sunshine.
Crossmaglen missed former Armagh forward Alex Clarke, now playing professional soccer for Aberdeen, but this was an encouraging effort from a largely very youthful team from whom there should be much more to come in the years ahead.
They were up against exceptional champions in Clann Eireann, who will now travel to face Fermanagh opposition in next month’s Ulster quarter-final and few would bet against them being in the hunt for All Ireland glory coming up to Christmas.
Prolific free-taker Niamh Murray, a professional musician, weighed in with a haul of nine points for Clann Eireann, her namesake Niamh Henderson finished with four from play and there were a couple from young gun Anna Lavery.
Irish age group boxing champion Cassie Henderson came close to a second goal when she rattled the Crossmaglen crossbar but the Irish age group boxing champion hit the first and last scores of an afternoon on which she showed her impressive potential.
Megan O’Callaghan and Lauren McConville contributed nine points between them for Crossmaglen, while the lively Kellie Shields and the midfield duo of Christina O’Reilly and Grace Fitzpatrick each raised one white flag.
Grace is the daughter of team manager Francis Fitzpatrick and younger sister of captain Faye Fitzpatrick, who had top-scored with 2-4 in the previous Sunday’s camogie semi as Cross stunned a Ballymacnab team tipped to make a seventh consecutive county final.
Clan na Gael bounced back from losing the last two Intermediate deciders by beating Mullabrack earlier in the afternoon but the favourites were pushed hard before winning 2-8 to 1-9 in a closer contest than may have been expected.
Meanwhile, Armagh forward Catherine Marley scored six points and her Player of the Match sister Sarah hit 1-2 as Lissummon overcame Keady in Saturday’s Buttercrane Junior Championship final on a 1-11 to 1-4 scoreline in Crossmaglen.
Niamh Henderson with her son Noah holding the Marie Hoye Cup which she had earlier lifted for a fourth year running as Clann Eireann club captain
