Cork Premier SHC: Douglas 1-21 Bishopstown 0-10 On a night where the result superseded all else, Douglas got what they needed in Páirc Uí Rinn tonight as they easily beat Bishopstown in Group one of the Co-op Superstores Cork Premier SHC. It was far from perfect, the fourteen wides they hit will be of concern, but it didn’t have to be, as the result leaves Bishopstown facing down the barrel of a relegation final. The ominous challenge of Sarsfield’s looms over them for the next fortnight, while Douglas will have to beat Newtownshandrum in their final game if they are to progress to the knockout stages.
There was a sense that this one was over before it really began. It’s twelve years since the Town ran Sarsfield’s close in a county final, and while five of the players who took part on that day were named to start here, the loss of two of them before throw-in, Diarmuid Lester and Paul Honohan, made their unlikely task all the unlikelier. Cork footballer, Brian O’Driscoll, was drafted in, however, and he was given the task of picking up Shane Kingston.
It looked like he could be in for a long evening when Kingston tapped over the first two points of the game, but like all his colleagues, he applied himself manfully, but they just no longer have the quality to go with that. Thomas Murray did half their deficit in the fifth minute, but from there to the break Douglas just did what they needed to do. They had their own demons to dispel after their opening round loss .