There was chaos in Cusack Park, Mullingar today as two clubs refused to participate in the Minor Hurling final.
With both clubs due to feature in the senior decider, the Clonkill and Raharney clubs opted to boycott the minor final on grounds that they feared for the welfare of their players who were due to feature in the senior final at 3.30pm.
According to reports, representatives of both clubs met on Thursday and sent a joint letter requesting for the minor game to be postponed. The respective secretaries signed off on the letters before submitting them to the county board for consideration.
The request however, was not ratified which resulted in the acrimonious scenes today.
BREAKING - Westmeath Minor Hurling Final not going ahead - teams have refused to field in protest at scheduling before senior match
— Midlands103Sport (@MidlandsSport) October 18, 2015
Jesus the county board and the clubs really hate each other in Westmeath. Both clubs refusing to field for the minor hurling final.
— Patrick Robinson (@culchiesrule) October 18, 2015
One statement from the Raharney camp read:
'As a club we are very proud of our minor and senior players having reached their respective finals and our only wish is that every player achieve their maximum potential in both finals. In our efforts to promote the game of hurling to the highest standard, we believe that it is totally unfair to ask minor hurlers to play 120 minutes, across two matches in succession on the one day.'
@MidlandsSport no teams and no crowd. pic.twitter.com/JxMdPmrTdn
— Chloe Kelly (@ChloeK237) October 18, 2015
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