One year on from an agonising one point defeat in the Town's Cup final Clogher Valley made amends in some style, cruising to victory over Ballynahinch IIs to bring the trophy back to the Cran for the second time in five years.
"It was a very, very good performance," said coach Davy Black. "We knew we had a good enough team and a set of forwards good enough to do whatever they want on their day. We stuck to our game plan and the boys deserved it." Ballynahinch had tasted Ravenhill success the previous week when they defeated Armagh in the Millar, McCall, Wylie Junior Cup but they found their second final opponents of the month a tougher proposition as Clogher Valley recovered from a slow start to notch 34 unanswered points on their way to a convincing victory.
In front of a large and vocal travelling support from Fivemiletown the local side almost made the dream start despite opting to play into a stiff breeze in the first half.
Just 30 seconds into the match, out-half Aaron Best broke clear, but when he checked inside and passed to Philip Moore the Ballynahinch backs had time to smother the attack.
Valley continued to play on the front foot and twice opted for scrums when awarded penalties, but it was Ballynahinch who opened the scoring against the run of play when Johnny Cullen went under the posts and converted the try for a seven point lead. Three minutes later they missed a penalty to take their total to ten points, and that miss signalled the start of Clogher Valley's dominance.
Midway through the half Aaron Best made a good break but the move broke down close to the line and a great opportunity to score was missed but he made amends moments later. The ball was moved off a scrum by Ryan Wilson and Best found a gap in the Ballynahinch defence to open Valley's account, although his conversion attempt came back off the upright the score was now 7-5 and the Valley were back in the game.
Indeed, straight from the restart they snatched a lead they were never to relinquish.
Best broke clear and fed Bates on the right, who in turn set up Ali Breen for the try. Best's conversion made it 12-7, and when Ballynahinch were reduced to 14 men followed a sin-binning Clogher Valley inflicted further punishment.
With the pack dominating the forward exchanges, Ryan Wilson made the initial break and Ivan Dunn picked up following a scrum and drove over the line. Best's conversion gave them a 19-7 lead at the interval.
The Valley were now in a commanding position and the second half was all about finishing off their fine first half performance. Ten minutes into the second half they extended their advantage with a Best penalty, and on the hour victory was all but secured. After a period of sustained pressure close to the Ballynahinch line, Bates nipped through the defence to score and Best converted to take Valley 22 points clear. The excellent Best added another five points to his person tally when he capitalised on a defensive fumble to touch down in the corner, and the final minutes were played out in front of a joyous bench and travelling support.
The woes of 2010 were well and truly banished to history and their Ravenhill record looks a lot better this week than it did last week.
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