John Corbally, on right, was part of the Moate All-Whites team at the weekend.

Close calls for defeated allwhites and okungbowa

MOATE All-Whites’ dream of an All-Ireland final appearance at Croke Park ended at the weekend, with Paul Conway’s side losing in their semi-final against John Mitchels (Liverpool).

Moate were defeated on a 1-9 to 1-6 scoreline at Pairc Tailteann, Navan, in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland Club Junior Football Championship, thus ending a brilliant campaign for the All-Whites, who previously won the county and provincial Junior titles.

In other local sport news, Athlone Boxing Club’s Kenneth Okungbowa went agonisingly close to winning the National boxing Heavyweight title last weekend, losing marginally to Darren O’Neill at the National Stadium in Dublin.

Meanwhile, Roscommon senior footballers warmed up for their forthcoming League campaign by winning the FBD Connacht Football League. Roscommon defeated Galway on a scoreline of 4-8 to 1-12 at Kiltoom.

For more on all these stories and much more, see this week’s Westmeath Independent newspaper, on sale from Wednesday, January 28.