Ashton back on top in Munster

Ashton School ended an eight-year Munster Senior Schoolboys Cup drought in defeating Bandon Grammar 1-0 in a scrappy final at Garryduff earlier today.

The Cork city outfit dominated schoolboys hockey at the start of the millennium as stars like John Jermyn, Jason Black and David Hobbs ruled the roost, but have since seen Bandon Grammar and latterly Midleton College steal the limelight. But they took advantage of Bandon’s slow start here, with Simon Wolfe beating two players at the top of the circle at short corner time before squeezing the ball under Bandon’s excellent goalkeeper Joe Fitzgibbon for the only goal of the game early in the second half. Gary Wilkinson and Wolfe both missed gilt-edged chances to kill the game off before Bandon came back with a late surge in the finalten minutes. That yielded five short corners, but their talismen Scott Sullivan and Stuart Miller couldn’t find an equaliser for the 2009 champions, allowing Ashton to claim a first crown since 2003. BANDON GRAMMAR: Joe Fitzgibbon (GK), Colin Kingston, Trevor Gray, Jack Robinson, Aidan Walsh(capt), Scott Sullivan, Ricky McMahon, Fred McElroy, Darren Sweetnam, Ben Scott, Stuart Miller, Trevor Bateman, Mark Kingston, Ivor Sweetnam, Cathal Stone, Phillip Peters, Julian Dale. ASHTON: James Philips (Gk), Richard Lynch, Richard Sweetnam, Kev Byrne, David Doherty (capt), William Johnston (vice-capt), David Wolfe, David Treacy, Simon Wolfe, Calvin Casey, Cian Kavanagh, Cillin Corbett, Peter Daunt, Clyde Buttimer, David Whitaker, Gary Wilkinson. Pictures from Donal Warren to follow on Irish Hockey Photographers in due course. If anyone has an Ashton team-list could they leave it in the comments? Thanks!