Trinity take to mud hurling like ducks to water

Trinity College Dublin defied dire conditions at Santry yesterday - even in Atlantis, these matches would have been called off…

Trinity College Dublin defied dire conditions at Santry yesterday - even in Atlantis, these matches would have been called off - to record what was only a second victory for the club over UCD in the annual colours hurling match and won The Irish Times Shield on its inaugural presentation.

Later in the afternoon, UCD redressed the balance by taking The Irish Times Shield presented for camogie - also for the first year. They won by 1-9 to 0-6. Finally, UCD won the third colours match of the afternoon by defeating Trinity 1-10 to 1-3 in the women's football match. This match had been switched from College Park after an early-morning pitch inspection which also forced the postponement of the men's football match for which no alternative date has yet been confirmed.

In the first match, Trinity caused a major surprise when overcoming their far more fancied, albeit somewhat under-strength, rivals by 1-5 to 0-5. Revelling in the mud, they contested the ball remarkably well - considering a net would have been a more appropriate tool than a caman - and were less spendthrift than their opponents.

Their defence was also very solid with Wexford under-21 full back Donal Berry outstanding in the last line of defence and Mick Brady from St Vincent's a crucially assured goalkeeper despite a late arrival on the pitch.

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Up front the tall figure of Sean MacIonrachtaigh was a beacon of a centre forward and in front of him David McInerney gave the UCD defence a great deal of early trouble which yielded 1-2, an ultimately decisive tally.

UCD defended gamely in the second half and survived a number of alarms when protecting their goal - admittedly it was under water - and towards the end were denied an equalising goal only by the woodwork.

Trinity held out and Ultan McGuckian, brother of last year's Offaly captain Shane, took the shield which gives the club a morale boost ahead of January's Fitzgibbon opener against Galway RTC.

There were better tidings for the Belfield contingent in the camogie match during which an early UCD goal, scored direct from a free by the prolific Mary Coady who ended with 1-6, set the tone for the afternoon. Despite three unanswered points at the start of the second half, Trinity never reduced the deficit sufficiently to endanger the result of a match which featured some good striking in the dreadful conditions.

Similarly in the football match, an early goal for UCD from Eimear O'Carroll gave the visitors a flying start from which a nervous Trinity couldn't recover. This colours match was also the designated league meeting between the clubs.