Tara face Fullen Gaels of Manchester in Saturday’s All Britain Senior Camogie final in Pairc na hEireann (12pm), with the Londoners looking for their eleventh senior title in a row.
Tara, who are captained by Fiona Morrisey from Limerick, booked their place in the final with wins over Fullen Gaels in Round 1 in Birmingham, and then Croydon in Greenford by 3-11 to 0-2.
Tara’s win over Fullen was a particularly tough battle with the Londoners scraping through by 4-9 to 2-11.
That left Fullen and Croydon to battle it out in Round 3 for the right to face Tara in the final.
It was the Manchester who side who came out on top, 0-15 to 3-3, but only after holding off a gallant Croydon fightback.
There have been many players instrumental to getting Tara to the final, especially new players Laura Connelly from Antrim, Paula Dunne from Meath, as well as Tessa Crowley from Cork and Sarah McNicholl, who is also from Antrim.
Tara’s Helen Murphy will be going for her tenth senior title, while Joni Traynor will be looking for her ninth.
Tara made it ten senior titles in a row when they beat Croydon in last year’s final by 3-9 to 2-1 at McGovern Park, Ruislip. The Tara goals coming from Niamh Gaff, Lucy Hawkes and Claire Enright.
An All-Ireland junior club quarter-final awaits the winner on Saturday, and for all of their domestic dominance Tara have gone on to reach the final on just one occasion, in 2011, when they lost to Clare’s Inagh by 5-4 to 2-4.
In their path are Fullen Gaels, whose rise has over the past few years has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Junior provincial champions in 2017 – after rebuilding following a prior exodus of players – the Lancashire side did the intermediate championship and league double last year.
Now, in their first year back in senior, they’ve reached the final.
After winning intermediate last year, they went on to give Monaghan and Ulster champions Clontibret a run for their money in the All-Ireland Club Junior B semi-final before going down by just 2-11 to 4-3.
Founded in 2011, Fullen took their competitive bow in 2012.
Saturday won’t be the club’s first appearance in the senior final. In 2013, they contested the senior All-Britain (then known as London) camogie final – losing out to Tara by 4-13 to 0-7 at Ruislip.
Una Haren from Fermanagh started that day, while Aileen Gallagher (Waterford) came off the bench. Linda McCarthy (Cork) has also been with the club since the beginning.
A senior win on Saturday would be a serious achievement for Fullen Gaels.
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