On Tuesday, June 13th 2023, Rushall NS sent a team of 4th and 5th class students to Laois GAA Centre of Excellence for a blitz day where we had to play 3 games and try to qualify for a 1/4 final play off. It was a fantastic day in the sun and we had loads of fun along the way.
The day started with a match against Stradbally NS. Our start didn't go to plan as they took an early lead of 8 - 0 after the first innings. Thankfully, we started the second innings with very strong fielding limiting them to only 3 runs. We had a total of 11 to catch for our second innings to bat. With some amazing strikes, we reached 12 and won the game. Brilliant start to the day.
The second match was against Holy Family NS, Portlaoise. Again, we didn't start too well, and let them go into a 11-2 head start. We did battle on but sadly we couldn't get back to win the game.
Our third game was against Camross NS. With them being bitter local rivals, we really wanted to beat them. Again, our start wasn't going well, and we were losing 4-2 after the first innings. We limited them to just two more runs and we chased 6 runs to win. We started our second innings batting with an AMAZING 4 home runs in a row as our batting finally caught fire! We ended up getting a score of 12 in that innings alone, to win 14-6.
Since we won two matches, we qualified for the 1/4 final playoff. We found out that we were against the 1st place team from the other mixed group - Ballyfin NS. This match was an epic contest. The referee said it was by far the best match of the day. Another coach watched the last ten minutes and said it was the best rounders he had seen in a long time.
Both teams were in tip top form. Rushall won the rock, paper scissors to choose to field first. We played very well and limited them to a big score of 11. We went into bat and finally we started a game very well. We scored 8. So it was 11-8 after first innings. We bat first for the second innings, and we set a very good score of 9 runs to make our total for the game 17. Ballyfin had to get 7 runs to win. Their first person to bat whacked the ball, but we caught it and got that player out on the very first strike. We thought it could be our day. They got 5 more runs over a 20 minute period. We were fielding so well! It all came down to one super play. They had loaded bases and a good batter up. The batter whacked the ball towards James in midfield, and he caught it! With quick thinking, he threw it to 2nd base and we got another player out! We had now knocked 3 players out and the game was over. we threw the ball home but unfortunately they got one of their runners home!! They won the game by 1 run! The final score of the game was 18-17!
What an unbelievable end to the game and to the day! We were very disappointed not to win the game after such a mammoth effort, but Mr Monaghan was so delighted with everyone and how we played! We stayed on a little bit to watch the other 1/4 final and then an accidental water fight broke out which was actually really nice because it was so hot! 28 degrees today! Mr Monaghan came home drenched!
Maybe next year will go one better and qualify for the finals! A little more practice and we should get there!