The first round of the European Camogie championship took place in The Hague on the 7th of May. For the first time ever there were more Camogie than Hurling teams attending.
Zurich traveled with ten women, nine of them fit to play. Big thanks to Denise for making the trip even when not able to play. I’m sure I have everyone behind me when I tell you that your support throughout the day was greatly appreciated. Never having to worry about water or spare hurleys makes a huge difference!
Our first game was against the dark horse of the tournament Paris. We got to the pitch in perfect time to get changed and warmed up for the game (ever heard of that, the Swiss team was not there and ready for the throw in of the first game). It took us that game to get our heads around playing together and talking to each other. I personally underestimated the French side, thinking they were more interested in Gaelic football. After 25 minutes we had to face our first lost game 4-3 to 2-1
Of course we didn’t let that result get us down and got ready for our second game against Belgium B. The communication had improved by a lot –and so did our scoring. We were a fair bit up in the first half, and managed to add scores in the second half too getting of the pitch with our first win of the day with 4-7 to 0-1
The third group game was set to be against Luxembourg and we got an extra player –the Hagues very own Maedbh who put on a fine show in goals for us. There was a lot of slightly illegal contact, with the first yellow card of the tournament being awarded to one of the Lux players in the second half. All the distractions didn’t matter in the end, as we ran out winners with 4-5 to 2-1
For our last group game we got to play on a different pitch. Why we couldn’t play the full tournament on this nice grassy pitch instead of the sandy one is beyond me. I guess that’s just one of the things you have to get used to as a Camogie player. You get to play on the worst pitch there is for the better part of the tournament. Beating Belgium A was our primary goal as they had ripped our first tournament win from us last year in Zurich – with only a goal in it. Unfortunately it didn’t look good after the first 12.5 minutes and although we kept fighting to the final whistle we lost that game by 4-9 to 4-2.
Paris had won all their group games and there for went straight through to the final. Two wins each had Belgium A, Luxembourg and ourselves on the same points, so it came down to score difference. With a plus of 31 the Belgium A team secured their place in the final having won the game against Belgium B 6-10 to none.
So it was down to Lux and us to decide the 3rd place. After four games everyone was getting tired so it was decided to shorten the last game to 10 minutes a half. It was not much to look at, that game, but we still managed to win, securing 3rd place with only 1-2 to 0-1.
Having won the last game gave us the opportunity to watch the Camogie final without having to umpire. Belgium A won that one, again with only a goal in it. 6-4 to 5-4.
Thanks to The Hague for organizing the tournament and the lovely meal in the evening. It was great to have a tournament in the Netherlands.
Big Thanks to Martin from Frankfurt for refereeing! It was a long day in the sun.
On behalf of the Camogie team we wish Brian Murphy a speedy recovery.
Roll on Budapest!
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