St Peter’s and Na Fianna in line for Junior honours

While their first teams have eyes on bigger prizes there is silverware up for grabs for St Peter's and Kiltale who will meet in Sunday's JHC final and for Dunderry and Na Fianna who will clash in the Junior B decider on Saturday, both games in Pairc Tailteann.

The JHC final has thrown up the surprise pairing of St Peter's and Kiltale who both emerged from Group B with Kiltale topping the table with three wins from three while St Peter's won one, drew one and lost one.

Ratoath were hotly fancied for JHC honours, especially after topping group A, but St Peter's produced a brilliant performance to seal a 3-15 to 2-14 win in the last four.

In the other semi-final Kiltale laboured to a 0-13 to 0-8 victory over Killyon.

Both results suggest a dramatic change in form since Kiltale hammered St Peter's 4-14 to 0-12 in round three of the group stages.

On that form Kiltale should be fancied to get the better of St Peter's again, but the line of form in the semi-finals, where Kiltale struggled against a Killyon side who lost to Ratoath, and St Peter's saw off that same Ratoath side suggests the Dunboyne men have improved and might just reverse the result of the group to claim the honours.

JUNIOR B HC

The fourth tier of hurling, or the sixth if the B Championships in senior and intermediate are take into consideration, is often regarded as 'social hurling', an opportunity for veteran players to keep playing and for younger lads to make a name for themselves.

It was great to see no walkovers given in this year's Junior B HC and a bit like the JHC, the two finalists, Dunderry and Na Fianna, have come from the same group.

Dunderry, who inflicted an opening day defeat on Na Fianna, topped the group despite losing to bottom of the table Boardsmill.

Na Fianna defeated Boardsmill in their final group game to seal the semi-final spot and their run of victories, including the semi-final win over Rathmolyon suggests they should get the better of Dunderry who defeated Kilmessan's third team in the other semi-final.