Canal Court Hotel & Spa Down Senior Camogie Championship final

Clonduff 0-19 Portaferry 0-8

FROM an early stage in this Down senior camogie final in sunny Drumaness it was obvious that Clonduff would complete their third successive title run, make it eight out of the last 10 and write their name on the trophy for the 12^th time since their first in 2007.

Their half-back line was dominant from the throw-in and remained so throughout. Portaferry were living off scraps, indeed all their scores came from frees, and the Clonduff goal-line was only threatened on a couple of occasions when frees dropped short, either intentionally or accidentally.

That meant that the Clonduff forwards were well supplied with ammunition and they made it count with the opening three points inside six minutes. A Ceallagh Byrne score was sandwiched between two frees from captain Sara Louise Graffin on her way to collecting a 12^th medal.

Ciara Doran fired over three frees between the 10^th and 17^th minutes, but Orlaith McCusker and Clara Cowan responded to two of them with points inside the next 30 seconds.

The Shamrocks finished the half strongly with four scores from Graffin and two from another veteran campaigner Orla Gribben to turn around with a healthy 0-11 to 0-3 advantage.

On the re-start, Graffin hit her seventh point and Clonduff were 10 to the good when they started to run their bench in the 38^th minute. They could have stretched that lead but registered several wides, although there was some good inter-change play for points from Katie McGilligan and Niamh McConville, while teenage substitute Tiarna Cowan’s score was probably the individual point of the match.

Three late points from Ciara Doran were merely consolation scores, with Katie McGilligan firing over the 19^th Clonduff score deep in added time to seal their fifth final win over Portaferry in the past decade.

Clonduff C Kelly, E Rafferty, J Boden, T Savage, C McGilligan, B Fitzpatrick, A McDowell, N McConville 0-1, C Cowan 0-1, O McCusker 0-1, SL Graffin 0-9 (0-8f), E Shields, O Gribben 0-2, K McGilligan 0-3 (0-2f), C Byrne 0-2

Subs P O’Hagan for O Gribben (38), C Fitzpatrick and T Cowan 0-1 for E Shields and C Byrne (both 45), C McConville for T Savage (50), N Murray, Z Kelly and G Kelly for N McConville, A McDowell and O McCusker (all 58), L Close for C Cowan (59)

Portaferry C Donaldson, L Mason, L Coulter, E Gallagher, N Savage, A Mallon, R Murray, D Coleman, M Fitzsimons, C McConnell, F Toner, C Doran 0-8f, C Devlin, E McCarthy, E McGrattan

Subs J Toner for R Murray and C Coleman for C Devlin (both 25), Á Rossiter for E McCarthy (54), A Craft for E McGrattan (56), K Murray for E Gallagher (58)

Referee K Rice (Warrenpoint)