Mighty Mikey Boland goes on a rampage for Bray Emmets in league clash with Round Towers

Round Towers 0-13

Bray Emmets 2-22

Having won the Division 4 Dublin hurling league last year with a near flawless campaign, Bray Emmets’ Senior hurlers have started the higher Division 3 this year with two wins from two starts.

They chalked up their second victory on Sunday, March 12, defeating Round Towers from Clondalkin (2-22 to 0-13), having earlier started the 12-team league campaign with a 1-15 to 1-9 victory over Naomh Olaf from Sandyford.

And in an impressive stat, these victories were achieved without their county stars as Bray Emmets had nine of their players in Letterkenny on Sunday assisting the county team in their brilliant 2-24 to 0-11 league win over Donegal.

With one group game still to play, Wicklow have already booked their place in the NHL Division 2B semi-final.

Back home Bray are on course to take another giant step for Wicklow hurling in Dublin’s hurling firmament. Mikey Boland was on fire on Sunday, capping a truly marvellous display by rattling home all but five of their scores, 2-17 of their 2-22 total

Bray were on top from start to finish in this match and Round Towers were outclassed as Emmets built up a near match-winning score by half-time at 2-8 to 0-7.

Other contributors to Bray’s match tally were Rory Lambe (0-2), and James Anders, Cian O’Byrne and Cian Lohan (0-1 each).

This is going to be a much tougher league for Bray this year than their experience in 2022. Up next are Crumlin on March 26, followed by Ballyboden, Fingallians, Rush, Clontarf, Naomh Mearnog from Portmarnock and Commercials.

But it shows the inherent strength in the Bray squad too. Considering the 9 players away on county duty, they now have nearly enough players to field two Senior sides. Contrast that with St Patrick’s and Avondale who have both dropped to Intermediate status.

Bray Emmets: Peter O’Reilly; Dan Kennedy, Daire Henderson, Sean Maloney; Daire Lohan, James Anders, Gavin Henderson; Cian O’Byrne, Cian Lohan; Jack Fitzgerald, Marc Lennon, Sean McDonagh; Rory Lambe, Mikey Boland, Cathal O Dualachain. Subs: Ronan McMahon for D Lohan, Brian Nesbitt for C O Dualachain, Ben Kearney for J Fitzgerald.