Bad weekend for Mayo sides

Fri, Oct 17, 2008

Castlebar lose unbeaten record
Castlebar wound up on the end of a defeat for the first time this season on the road last weekend. Rory Casey’s side made the trip to the Sportsground looking to make it three wins out of three against Our Ladies’ Boys Club, but the Galway side were in no mood to go down this time.

Castlebar wound up on the end of a defeat for the first time this season on the road last weekend. Rory Casey’s side made the trip to the Sportsground looking to make it three wins out of three against Our Ladies’ Boys Club, but the Galway side were in no mood to go down this time.

Near neighbours ready for final showdown

Fri, Oct 17, 2008

The time to make amends for disappointments in the past is fast approaching for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. This year’s TF Royal Theatre senior football championship final pits the losing finalists from the 2006 and 2007 final together in Sunday’s showdown for the Moclair Cup. Ballaghaderreen booked their place in the final two last Sunday thanks to a 3-7 to 0-10 win over Crossmolina, the side who denied them twice at the death in the 2006 final (the game went to a replay). After shaking the Deel Rovers monkey off their back with thanks to a three-goal salvo at the three-quarter mark, they have their eyes set on another border side.

Managers continue to fall

Fri, Oct 17, 2008

I received a call from RTE 1 radio last Sunday, while watching the matches at McHale Park,

McCarthy suspended for three weeks

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

Connacht departed Galway yesterday for their first European foray of the season with a spring in their step.

Castlebar win Mayo derby while Westport go down

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

Westport slipped to a five-point defeat in Carrowholly last weekend to the current champions Monivea who were in no mood to loose to Mayo opposition for the second week in a row. They were far from the Monivea of old in the early exchanges but a good second half display showed they still had the class of old within themselves.

Autumn season keeps moving around the clubs

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

Castlebar ladies
Wednesday competitions are now back to 13-hole stableford competitions and last week’s competition sponsored by Lyon's Late ‘N’ Early was won by Breta Fitzmaurice with 26pts. All our competitions are now complete for our Golfer of the Year and congratulations goes to Daryl Conroy on being this year’s deserving winner.

Mayo athletes busy across the country

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

I only got to see one game last weekend and that was the much anticipated replay between Ballaghadereen and Ballintubber on Sunday. The previous encounter was a right rip-roaring clash with Ballintubber denied a famous victory when Andy Moran scored a goal for Ballaghadereen almost at the death, to put his team in front with time almost up. Ballintubber did manage an equaliser deep into injury time and set up the opportunity to witness these two do battle again. The weather was perfect for football and I was really looking forward to a good game. I parked myself with a few of the Crossmolina boys, who were there keeping an eye on proceedings, as they play the winners this Sunday. No note taking required by these boys as Liam Moffett, the Crossmolina manager, was videoing the game from behind us, obviously for closer scrutiny later in the week in his effort to try and orchestrate another county title for the Deel Rovers. Sadly the game never really caught fire and once Ballaghadereen started getting ball into their forwards there was never going to be anything other than a decisive victory for the boys from the east. Andy Moran, who was having a really quiet championship campaign up until last weekend, played like an inter-county footballer and proved to be a right handful for the three defenders who tried to curtail his scoring threat. Andy has perfected the knack of shoving off his marker with his hand and demonstrated this tactic several times throughout Sunday’s encounter.

When you consider the huge upper body strength he has developed these last couple of years, you can understand why he is so difficult to stop with ball in hand. Beside him, in the full forward line, Barry Regan is playing great football. He is another big strong man with inter-county experience and has really blossomed into a great club player. His free taking from the hand was flawless and he and John Feeney had a right old ding-dong battle from the throw in. If Ballintubber were to have any chance of progressing to a semi-final they needed everyone to play at least as good as they had in the drawn encounter a few weeks ago. Sadly for them they didn’t, and will now lament the fact that one lapse of concentration in that drawn encounter has cost them dearly. Interestingly, Pearce Hanley, despite wearing the No 11 jersey on his back, played centre back on inter-county star, Alan Dillon. Alan did manage to shake off the Aussie rules kid on a few occasions, but had the choke out on several others as Pearse demonstrated his enormous fitness levels by driving the length of the field at every opportunity. On one occasion late in the game Pearse popped a free kick back to his goalkeeper around the 21 yard line. Having taken the return pass from him, he off-loaded to a team mate and within seconds was ahead of the ball carrier at the far end of the field in a scoring position and looking for the ball. This tactic of putting forwards defending is a ploy that worked extremely well last Sunday, as the Ballaghadereen boys were chomping at the bit to drive forward at every opportunity. One of the major talking points in football circles in this county has been the fact that this particular Ballaghadereen team hasn’t won the Moclair Cup. On the evidence of last Sunday’s performance I will be shocked if they don’t in 2008. Liam Moffett, and indeed all of the Crossmolina backroom team, will have to scrutinise, analyse and devise a game plan to put the shackles on a very formidable full forward line, a really good midfield pairing of James Kilcullen and Barry Kelly and a powerful attacking half back line. It will be a fascinating contest to see who goes forward to play Charlestown in the following week’s county final. It will be worth the money alone to see how the very formidable Pearse Hanley handles the mercurial talents of Ciaran McDonald. A must see if there ever was one.

Kilmaine look to upset the odds again

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

At the start of the season predicting that Aghamore would make the final of the intermediate championship wouldn’t have raised too many eyebrows. And the east Mayo men duly delivered on that last weekend when they saw off Belmullet by seven points in Castlebar. Their opponents this Sunday though are the surprise package. Kilmaine were drawn in the five team group of death at the start of the year, pitting them against Tourmakeady, Davitts, Hollymount and Kiltimagh. A group that was really any two from five, with Kilmaine being the last of that five in early expectations. But Kilmaine didn’t care what other people thought and Norman O’Brien and David O’Loughlin went about their work. They were the last team in action in the group and managed to see off Hollymount by three points away from home, they followed that up with a draw at home to Tourmakeady. With two rounds of games to go it was make or break time and Kilmaine made a 2-7 to 0-7 win over Kiltimagh in July set up a final day showdown with Davitts for a spot in the last eight. Davitts just didn’t have enough and Kilmaine battled through for a two-point win on a score of 0-8 to 0-6. Kilcommon were dispatched with ease in the quarter final by 3-5 to 0-8 setting up last weekend’s clash with Westport.

Connacht’s chance to restore some pride against Leinster

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Connacht have a chance to redeem themselves after last week’s mauling at the hands of Cardiff when they host the current Magners League champions Leinster on Sunday at the Galway Sportsground (6pm).

Castlebar start to shine

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

What a difference a few days make. In these pages last week this writer said that Castlebar needed to see some improvement against Monivea last weekend or it could be a long hard winter in Cloondeash. And that’s exactly what happened as Rory Casey’s side saw off Monivea by four points to hopefully give them a springboard for the winter.

Christy Cusack got things running from the very start when he got a charge down try before the packs had a chance to really get to know each other for the day. It was by no means a canter for Castlebar after that and they trailed 8-7 at the turn around thanks to a Pat Devane try and a Ger O’Conner penalty. The home side slipped even further behind over the opening stages of the second half and trailed 14-10 before Nigel Byrne cut through a gap after collecting a high ball and speeding past a handful of challenges to put Castlebar 15-14 up. Robbie Cusack hit over another penalty to seal the win, but not before they had to hold out a strong Monivea challenge on their try line before the final whistle was blown.

New Hockey Club for Mayo

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Irish hockey is delighted to announce a new hockey club for County Mayo which will be called Gortnor Abbey HC. The club, based in Crossmolina, will officially be unveiled tomorrow at 11.15am and is the result of hard work by IHA Qualified Coach Ann Carroll, and the IHA Western Development Officer Phil Oakley. Ann, who has been working with Gortnor Abbey School for some time now as well as with two additional primary schools who had not played hockey before, has generated sufficient interest within these schools to warrant the creation of this new club. The club will cater for 8 – 14 year-old girls with training taking place each Saturday at GortnorAbbey School. The club will also enter teams to compete in the Connacht Junior Competitions.

Mayo AC open road race league hits round seven

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

The C& C Cellular Mayo AC Open Road League continues on Sunday October 12 with race seven of the nine race series. This four-miler takes place at Ballina and is a one lap course starting near the track at Beleek Park, going out via 'Dunnes' to join the 10k route on the Killala road, turning right and across to rejoin Beleek Park, finishing close to the track. The 'Terry Fox' run takes place annually at venues all over the world in support of the Terry Fox Foundation which raises funds for Cancer Research in memory of a brave young Canadian. Terry Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 18, and had to have his right leg amputated above the knee in 1977. While in hospital , Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. The legacy of this heroic Canadian is that, to date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide in his name.

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