Buncrana’s Ulster Junior Hurling Championship odyssey ended by Ballela 

Buncrana fell at the first hurdle of the Ulster Club JHC as Down’s Ballela came to Letterkenny and earned a deserving nine-point victory.

Tommy O’Neill’s side just didn’t get out of the starting blocks in a lopsided first-half and found themselves 2-9 to 0-4 off the pace at the midpoint. 

Buncrana did improve after the restart and managed to outscore the visitors to O’Donnell Park by 0-6 to 0-4. 

But with so much damage absorbed in the first period, Ballela were in no danger of being pegged back. 

The Down champions took a real stranglehold on matters in Letterkenny inside a dominant first-half as they existed with a massive 11-point advantage. 

Two huge three-pointers were landed in that opening half hour with Kelvin Magee and Niall Fegan doing the damage there.

Indeed, it took a brilliant almost pointblack stop from Buncrana custodian Tom Mitchell to deny a rampant Ballela from raising a third green flag as he denied Jonathan McCusker on the stroke of half-time. 

Dylan Duffy had opened the scoring for Buncrana early on but with Ballela’s first contribution to the scoreboard a maximum through Magee - after a quite brilliant spot in over the top from Malachy Magee - the Donegal champions were already under the cosh. 

Caolan O’Neill hit a good reply for Buncrana however three on the trot courtesy of Malachy Magee (0-2,1f) and Jonathan McCusker (free) left it 1-3 to 0-2 at the end of the opening quarter. 

O’Neill then grabbed his second but just as it felt like Buncrana were settling to their task, disaster struck once more as a long delivery into the area was swatted home by the alert Fagan. 

The same player then sliced over a sideline while Owen McCreevy and McCusker added further points as 2-6 led 0-3 seven minutes out from the break. 

Conor Grant did grab a fourth Buncrana score before the short whistle but with Malachy Magee, John Haughey and Kelvin Magee all responding up the other side, it already looked  ‘game over’ at the changeover.

Ballela grabbed the opening score of the second stanza thanks to another Malachy Magee free but to Buncrana’s credit they’d then enjoy their best spell as they posted four uninterrupted by the end of the third quarter. 

Caolan O’Neill nailed a pair of frees to get that scoring spurt underway while Paul Tourish, with a huge free from inside his own half, as well as Dylan Duffy grabbed the other points to leave 0-8 trailing 2-10. 

Jonathan McCusker, from a free, and Tourish traded points as eight remained the gap going into the final ten minutes. 

Buncrana’s woes were compounded down the straight as Conor Grant was red carded. David Carney and Jonathan McCusker would bring the curtain down on the scoring as Ballela deservingly progressed. 

Buncrana scorers: Caolan O’Neill 0-4,3f; Conor Grant 0-1; Dylan Duffy 0-2; Paul Tourish 0-2,1f; David Carey 0-1. 

Ballela scorers: Malachy Magee 0-6,4f; Kelvin Magee 1-1; Niall Fegan 1-0; John Haughey 0-1; Jonathan McCusker 0-5,4f.

Buncrana: Tom Mitchell; Oisin Hegarty, Ciaran McLaughlin, John Vaughan; Cathal Wilson, Paul Tourish, Ruairi Doherty; Peter Grant, Aedan Stokes; Darren Doherty, Caolan O’Neill, David Carey; Kevin O’Rourke, Conor Grant, Dylan Duffy. 

Subs: Paddy Wilson for D Doherty (35; Paul Nelson for R Doherty (45).

Ballela: Gary McMullan; Darragh Fegan, Adam Harrison, Tony Tumilty; Dominic Doyle, Gareth Burns, Sean McAvoy; Owen McGreevy, Mark Cosgrave; Niall Fegan, John Haughey, Ryan Harrison; Kelvin Magee, Jonathan McCusker, Malachy Magee. 

Subs: Caomhan McCanarney for N Fegan (42); Rory McPolin for J Haughey (53); Diarmuid McCusker for D Fagan and Fergus Murphy for K Magee (both 60).

Referee: Kevin Parke (Antrim).