Valvoline Forestry Championship Spreads to Mayo Forests!

Fri, Oct 16, 2015

This Sunday sees the sixth round of the 2015 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forestry Championship, the Mayo and District Motorsport Club’s- Mayo Mini Stages- Forest Rally, based in beautiful Ballina.

Clerk of the Course Trevor O’Connell and his team have brought forestry rallying back to the area after a fifteen year absence, and there is great enthusiasm for this important penultimate championship round. The rally is designed as a user friendly event with centralised service in Ballycastle on tarmac and Rally HQ, Crockets on the Quay in Ballina. Coupled with a 40km compact loop of stages, the stage is set for another chapter in this intriguing Valvoline series. For championship leader Mick O’Brien in his Focus WRC, this penultimate round is crucial, especially after a drama filled Lakeland Stages event, where Mick struck trouble and finished back the field and Josh Moffett in his Evo 9, took a well-deserved second place and a useful haul of points. The calculators at the ready, and it’s all a lot closer than the thirty-one point margin reflected in the overall points tally. With Mayo new to everyone it’s a level playing field, and the question is will the stages suit the O’Brien combination in the Focus WRC, or the surprisingly nimble Gerry McGarrity built Group A Evo of Josh Moffett. Bearing in mind Josh is contesting the Cambrian Rally the day before in his Fiesta WRC, it’s going to be a hard task for Mick O’Brien. “I haven’t really weighed up what way to play it” said Mick. “The stages will be new to everyone and probably haven’t been used for a long time, so we don’t know what they are like. It’s whether to go flat out or make sure we finish it. It certainly is a good way to end the season with the title still in contention!”

MacHale and McGee hold their bottle in Cork

Fri, Oct 09, 2015

In a busy weekend for Mayo and District Motorsport Club members the highlight was down south at the Cork 20 International Rally. Aaron MacHale and Paul McGee were crowned the 2015 Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Group N Champions with a 10th place finish overall, giving them the necessary points to take the crown.

Players turn out in force for meeting with executive

Thu, Oct 01, 2015

As the fog descended on Castlebar tonight (Thursday, October 1), a large contingent of this years Mayo senior squad arrived at the ground to meet with top officials from the county board. It had been expected that a small delegation from the panel would be at the meeting, but the turn out of the vast majority of the panel was not expected.

The meeting didn't last that long and the players left without making any comment on the the situation that has taken over the county in the past few days, since news of the no confidence motion passed by the players in the current management leaked into the local media on Tuesday morning.

Gone in 25 minutes

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

Another chapter for Mayo’s House of Pain secured itself after the football team's 2015 adventure came to an abrupt end at the hands of Dublin in the semi final last weekend. In a few years' time people will look back at the result and the score line will suggest that Dublin were comfortable winners but the margins were very tight in this game. A stroke of luck for Dublin and, in my opinion, a poor refereeing decision put paid to any chance Mayo had of reaching the All-Ireland final and for another crack at Kerry.

The end of the latest adventure

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

It might not have had the drama and frustration of how things ended last year in Limerick, but at the end of the day the result was the same and Mayo were bound for home on Sunday evening, with plenty of questions and plenty of regrets in the boot. In the past 12 months, Mayo have played in four All Ireland semi-finals (including replays both years) and not got over the line and back to the All Ireland final. Plenty time will be spent over the winter months picking over where it went wrong again and what could have been done. At the end of the day, the better team won. Dublin should have killed us off the first day when they were seven points up, but they made no mistake last Sunday when we were unable to hold onto a four point lead with the game entering the final straight.

The present is all that matters for Ardnaree

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

"If your feet are in the past, you haven't a leg to stand on in the present," said Ardnaree manager Declan O'Dea this week, when speaking to the Mayo Advertiser about his side's upcoming junior championship semi-final against fellow north Mayo men Ardagh. O'Dea is back in charge of Ardnaree this year after a few years' sabbatical from the post. Ardnaree haven't won the junior championship since 1971 and bringing the Pete McDonnell Cup back to home is something that has gone on too long for all those concerned. Ardnaree have lost three finals in recent times going down in the 2009, 2011 and 2012 deciders, and they're back this year for another crack at glory.

GAA: Mayo GAA JFC Semi Final

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

Achill v Killala
Sunday, September 13 at 3.30pm

Disappointing weekend for Mayo and Galway senior teams

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

Mary Hannigan of The Irish Times is one of my favourite journalists. Her TV View column in Monday’s Times is a must read as her humour, caustic wit, and wry take on things invariably brings a smile to my lips.

Super weekend in the Super League

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

Manulla v Straide and Foxford United
Saturday, September 12 at 6pm

Mayo suffer capital punishment

Sat, Sep 05, 2015

No matter what when on in the build up to this game, the simple truth when it came down to the crunch was that Dublin were the better team and won out in the end. The pantomime theatrics of the crowd booing the perceived villain on either side of the debate gave way to a game of football in the end and Dublin were the side who landed the knock-out blows when it mattered most.

'Seconds out.... round two'

Fri, Sep 04, 2015

Well, have the heart rates returned to normal yet? With just over 24 hours to go until Mayo and Dublin square up again in Ireland's colosseum, anticipation is at boiling point as the gladiators in green and red prepare to do battle once more with the Jacks from the city. While Mayo have named their first 15 on paper already ahead of the skirmish on Jones Road, if we have learned anything this year from Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes' tenure in charge of it is to expect the unexpected. While Barry Moran's inclusion in the quarter-final was a bolt from the blue, the decision to drop David Drake into the cauldron for his first championship start was a bolt from far beyond the reaches of our solar system.

A game of biblical proportions

Fri, Sep 04, 2015

Liam Gallagher once described a gig he played in Slane Castle as biblical, what went in Croke Park last Sunday was nothing short of the same. It was the most anticipated All-Ireland semi final in living memory and it certainly did not disappoint. I arrived early to do a piece with Radio One outside the Croke Park Hotel alongside former Hill 16 favourite Barney Rock and the place was buzzing at 12.30pm. I ran into a few former team mates, namely David Heaney, David Brady, and Kevin O'Neill who had just flown in from the USA for the game. I also had a chat with current Kerry minor and former All-Ireland winning senior manager Jack O'Connor who was rightly cock a hoop about Mayo’s chances. He told myself and Brady that he was coming up to Mayo for a week after they eventually win Sam which he said could be in a few weeks time. I hope he’s right.

E-paper

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