Last year’s intermediate ‘A’ football champions Crossabeg-Ballymurn began life in the Amber Springs & Ashdown Park top-grade county intermediate championship with victory over St. Joseph’s at the ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Ferns on Sunday.

Ballymurn were runners-up in the intermediate ‘A’ football finals of 2015 and 2016 – and it was actually St. Joseph’s who denied them in the 2015 edition.

But Crossabeg-Ballymurn atoned for that upset with Sunday’s 0-22 to 2-4 Group A IFC win having led narrowly 0-11 to 2-2 at half-time.

In the Joyces Expert intermediate ‘A’ football series on Sunday, Group A saw Kilmore account for Cloughbawn (1-14 to 1-9) at the ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Ferns, where David O’Brien and Lee Kinsella each found the net in a thumping 2-17 to 0-4 win for Naomh Eanna over Kilrush.

In Group B, quick-fire second-half goals from Collie Byrne and Jamie Rochford eased Clongeen to a 3-14 to 1-8 win over the Kilanerin second-string at St. Patrick’s Park after Jamie O’Grady’s first-half goal gave Clongeen a 1-7 to 0-6 half-time lead.

In the same section, St. Martin’s ‘seconds’ marked promotion by leading Craanford 1-6 to 1-2 at half-time in Blackwater with a Liam Ó Lionáin goal.

Craanford battled back though to overcome two exceptional saves by Nicky Greene and pull through by 2-6 to 1-7.

The Enniscorthy Farm Systems county Junior football championship Group A opener at the ‘Centre of Excellence’ Ferns yielded a comprehensive 7-12 to 1-3 success for Oylegate-Glenbrien against Davidstown-Courtnacuddy.

The Junior and junior ‘A’ football championships were blighted most by unplayable pitches owing to the heavy rain, while, sadly, bereavements were also a factor in only the Oylegate v Davidstown game surviving out of the 12 games scheduled for those stages.