Congratulations to Raleigh GAA on winning the first ever hurling tournament in Raleigh, the Thomas Burke Cup! It was an amazing and historic day for our club, and we celebrated in style at the Hibernian to show it!
In glorious mid-80s weather Raleigh defeated Hamptons Roads and a combined Charleston/Greenville/Atlanta team in the round robin stages with relative ease. In the final, Raleigh proved too strong yet again for Hampton Roads, and we won by a comfortable margin to claim our first ever home tournament cup.
The round robin stages saw Hampton Roads record their first ever victory, over Charleston/Greenville/Atlanta – a major achievement from another aspiring young club who are excellent in travelling to tournaments.
The travelling teams were no match for our strong team of hurlers, but we can only beat what’s put in front of us on any given day. We played fast, free-flowing hurling from start to finish and had some very fine individual performances, not least from some of our players who only took up the beautiful game a few months ago – some players have come a long way since the pub league in March 2014.
