O’Moore Park just might be the entertainment capital of Ireland next year!

The Laois senior football final made national news this year and rightly so. Stradbally’s last minute goal denying Portlaoise ten titles in a row. However the Laois hurling championship also provided some serious value for money in the latter stages this year. This series of results may have slipped under the radar somewhat, well at least to those outside the O’Moore county. Borris in Ossory Kilcotton, a club founded via amalgamation in 2010 won their first ever senior hurling championship. But it was the series of results that led up to this victory that was most unusual.

The semi final pairings this year were Ballinakill Gaels versus Borris in Ossory Kilcotton and Camross versus Rathdowney Errill. Both semi finals were played on September 11th and both games ended in a draw. Both games were replayed on September 25th and again there was almost nothing to separate the teams. Eventually Borris in Ossory Kilcotton saw off Ballinakill by a single point on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-12 then in the second semi final Rathdowney Errill edged Camross by the minimum also; 0-17 to 1-13.

After such an epic pair of semi finals the final was going to be a let down, right? No chance. In the first meeting held on October 9th, the teams could not be separated on a scoreline of 2-26 apiece. 2-26 each! 56 scores evenly distributed. That in itself must be some sort of record for a county final. The replay was the first game since the quarter finals that had more than one point in it as Borris in Ossory Kilcotton went on to lift the Bob O’Keefe cup after beating Rathdowney Errill by five points.

Whatever the state of the intercounty teams in Laois at the moment the club competitions are certainly throwing up very competitive games. A year pass to the championships of 2017 would be a nice stocking filler this Christmas.