The two Mayo sides in the top tier of the Connacht Junior League came face to face last Sunday in Heffernan Park, and it was the visiting side that went away with the spoils. Westport went home 10 point winners over their hosts Ballina and in the process leapfrogged them in the table moving up to fourth place. Having lost their two opening games to Connemara and Ballinasloe, Westport have now won two on the bounce with a nine point win over Monivea a fortnight earlier. This weekend Westport will be on the road again, this time on Saturday night when they are down to play Corinthians in Galway in what should be a tough encounter. The Galway side had won their first three games this season, before they went down by 10 points to Ballinasloe last Sunday. Westport will be hoping that Kevin Corcoran can keep up his scoring form from last week when he ran in two tries against Ballina, and Matt Dempsey has his shooting boots with him.
Ballina for their part are also on the road this weekend and will also be in Galway to take on Galwegians on Sunday at 2.30pm. Ballina so far this season have picked up wins against Ballinasloe and OLBC in rounds one and three, with Monivea having 19 points to spare on them before their second loss to Westport last weekend. After last weekend’s games Westport are currently sitting in fourth place in the table on nine points, with Ballina in sixth place on eight points. Both sides are well behind the leaders Connemara, who are out in front on 15 points from their four games with Monivea and Corinthians in second and third place respectively one point behind the leaders.
Castlebar sit in second spot
In Junior 1B, Castlebar picked up their third win from four games last Saturday night when they had 12 points to spare over Creggs in Cloondeash. Tries from Matthew Staunton, Nigel Byrne, and Ronan Conway, along with 12 points from the boot of Stephen Rogan (three conversions and two penalties ) sealed the win for Castlebar. They now sit second in the table just one point behind Buccaneers in front of them due to the Athlone outfit picking up three bonus points from their four games compared to the two Castlebar have.
On Sunday, Castlebar will face into a derby encounter with Ballyhaunis at 2.30pm. The east Mayo men are just one point behind Castlebar in the table at present, and last weekend went down to their first defeat of the season when Buccaneers had 10 points to spare on them in Athlone. The other Mayo side in the division, Ballinrobe got their second win of the campaign under their belt, when they had seven points to spare over Tuam in a 20-13 win thanks to two tries from Peter Cosgrove and 10 points from the boot of Stephen Conroy. It was a big win for the black and white hooped side after they lost out by a single point to Ballyhaunis in a hard fought local derby in the previous round. This weekend will see Ballinrobe welcome Buccaneers to the Green on Sunday at 2.30pm.
