The immediate return that Castletown simply had to deliver
Castletown captain John Gaughan raising the John Grace Memorial Cup on the podium at Laois Hire O'Moore Park Photo Denis Byrne
A ROCKY 2025 campaign left Castletown in the murky waters of the second tier of the Laois Hurling Championship for the second time since winning what was then the Intermediate Championship back in 1993.
That victory ignited a dynasty that saw The Village claim eight senior titles from 1995 to 2005, though those heights haven’t been seen since, the hope for the 2026 Premier Intermediate Champions is that this may inspire another resurgence to the top table of Laois hurling.
They overcame their old rivals Camross in Saturday night’s final, a potentially sticky clash against a team that would have revelled in halting the Castletown train that had run through every opponent along the way.
Ger Cuddy’s charges had everything to lose in this year’s competition, coming into every game as hot favourites, with arguably the biggest challenge being their own mindset in blocking out the noise from the outside.
His players stuck to the task excellently in their journey to Saturday’s final, winning all games by double digits, but their old foes Camross put them under intense pressure in the main event.
The quality of the Premier Intermediate Championship is often hard to predict such is the unpredictability of second teams and the players they have at their disposal on a given year, with Rathdowney-Errill being a prime example as they’ve been hugely competitive in recent seasons but for one reason or another they found themselves on the end of a 28 point loss to open their campaign against Castletown before ending up in a relegation battle against Clonaslee St Manman’s.
The youngsters on Clough-Ballacolla’s second team also felt the wrath of Castletown with another big loss, while Colt-Shanahoe were dealt the hand twice, first a 13-point loss in the group stage and a harsher 25-point defeat in the semi-final.
Despite their own clear run to Saturday’s final, they’ll have been acutely aware that Camross were also dominant on the other side of the draw with comfortable wins over Clonad, Mountmellick and Clonaslee St Manman’s before eventually overcoming Clough-Ballacolla in injury time of their semi-final.
Second teams go through peaks and troughs, but this Camross crop is one of the strongest we’ve seen at this level and they were a different prospect to what Castletown faced along the way with plenty of senior experience in the likes of Joe Phelan, Lorcan Burke and Eoin Dowling with a solid crop of youngsters in Ben Deegan, Ashton Keenan and Kevin Byrne.
They put intense pressure on Castletown in Saturday’s final and made them sweat right down to the death, despite going seven points down with just four minutes left on the clock.
Camross were undoubtedly the best team in the first half and played with a level of freedom that comes with having nothing to lose against a team that had everything to lose.
Castletown had a huge amount of nervous energy in the opening 30 minutes and Camross capitalised on it by taking a five point lead at two different stages before eventually going in three points ahead at the break.
The second half started with a bang as Castletown appeared like a new team with a big fire lit under them by Ger Cuddy at half time and it was his son Kyron that raised a green flag early in the half to set them up for the remainder of the game.
Tadhg Cuddy took the game by the scruff of the neck and led the charge for his side along with Ryan Peters, Shane Phelan and Dan Whelan to eventually get Castletown over the line and save their blushes.
