Search Results for 'Mayo GAA'

London 2-15

The last time that the Mayo hurlers made a trip across the water to take on London in competitive action they made the headlines for all the wrong reasons when they missed their flights back from the UK capital. And less than two months on, the gods that governed the draw for the second round of the Christy Ring Cup ensured that Mayo would have to make that trip all over again.

It has been an up and down couple of years for those involved with the Mayo ladies senior football squad. Last year it all came to a head on the league front when they were relegated from division one without winning a single game. On Sunday in Parnell Park, they will be looking to make it back to the top table of football when they take on the near neighbours Galway in the division two final in Parnell Park in Dublin. In the league stages of the competition Mayo saw off almost all comers winning six of their seven games with the only minor blot on their copy book coming with a draw against Fermanagh.

It was a very strange league campaign for Mayo in division 2B of the national hurling league. They were unbeaten against the top two teams in the division yet only managed to finish in fourth place in the table out of six teams. The league campaign was bookended by impressive wins over bottom of the table Roscommon and eventual table toppers Kildare at the very end of the league stages. Both those wins of course did feature the talents of Keith Higgins who, as has become the norm in recent years, is balancing life as an inter-county footballer for one of the top sides in the country, and as the captain and leader of an inter-county hurling team a nice bit down the food chain when it comes to the small ball game. In between those two wins, Mayo held a fancied Meath side to a draw in Castlebar, before being beaten on the road by Armagh and overseas by London.

The All-Ireland u14 Club Hurling and Camogie festival, Feile na nGael will be hosted by Dublin this year - taking place from Thursday, July 5 until Saturday, July 7. The draw was made in Parnell Park in Dublin recently, with two hurling teams and one camogie team invited to take part from Mayo.

The late Garda Robert McCallion will be fondly remembered by family, friends and colleagues on Sunday May 6 when Swinford GAA club host a challenge match between Mayo and Donegal to mark the rededication of their all-weather pitch. Robbie lost his fight for life on April 7, 2009 from injuries received while on duty as a garda in Letterkenny. “He was a proud and very active member of Swinford GAA club and the community feel that this dedication is a fitting tribute to him,” said Mayo GAA PRO and Swinford club member, Aiden McLoughlin.

The retirement of the last remaining link who saw action on the field in the 2001 national league winning side, Trevor Mortimer, was announced this week. The newly announced Mayo vice-captain David Clarke was an unused sub-goalkeeper in that game. The Shrule-Glencorrib man who captained Mayo to the 2009 Nestor Cup had been part of the Mayo set up since 2000 and played in the All Ireland finals in both 2004 and 2006, having also played in the u21 final in 2001 when Tyrone defeated Mayo. He made his senior debut for Mayo in a national league game against Clare the year before.

While most attention will be on the goings on in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon, there is one other major knock out league game going on involving Mayo at more or less the same time.

The Mayo footballers will have received a huge boost from last Sunday’s narrow victory over Kerry in the National League semi-final.

It's been a rollercoaster ride though this year’s National Football League for Mayo so far and last Sunday was no different. The game saw Mayo lead Kerry by eight points at one stage in the first half, but ended with them clinging on manfully to hold out against the Kerry challenge as long as possible when they were forced to play the last 25 or so minutes with only 14 men – following Lee Keegan’s dispatch for an early shower after he was suckered into a sloppy foul resulting in a second yellow flashed in his general direction.