Senior County Snooker Championship
At the launch of the Donegal Senior Snooker Championship in the clubrooms were John O’Donnell, TrainerHQ Ltd, presenting his sponsorship cheque to Patsy McNulty, treasurer. Also in photo is John Hanna who will present the David Hanna Jnr Memorial Cup to thewinner of the Championship
The 2005 Snooker County Championship in the form of the David Hanna Jnr. Memorial Cup was officially launched in the Donegal Town Snooker Club on Tuesday last. This prestigious event attracts the top players in the county including 8 times winner, Anthony Bonner of Letterkenny, and the very talented young figure of Johnny Connors. Indeed Donegal Town is also well represented with such notable names as James Gallagher, the youngest winner of the title at age 19, and Charlie Murphy, who in form, has a realistic chance of going the whole way.
A large contingent gathered on Tuesday night to open the tournament, including John Hanna of Hanna Hats who sponsors the cup on a yearly basis and one of our main sponsors, local man Mr John O’Donnell of TrainerHQ a computer consultant. The club wishes to thank most sincerely all of our sponsors including SuperValu of Donegal Town and Bonner Engineering of Letterkenny.
First round matches commence on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of April.The committee wish the players the best of luck, especially all the local lads.
The South Donegal Draughts Tournament concluded recently in ‘Biddys O’Barnes’. The competition was held over a seven week period. The standard of play this year was acknowledged to be very high. In the Masters section (The South West Draughts Cup), local man, Alan Ramsey, and Francie McNally, from Ardboe, finished on 21 points each. However, after a check of honour points, Alan was declared the winner. Third place was taken by Myles Hannigan, Strabane, on 19 points.
In the Senior Section (Maye Perpetual Plaque), Letterkenny man, Danny Devlin, put in a great performance to win the section on 22 points. Local player David Corrigan took second place on 17 points, Third place went to Brian Lafferty, Moville, on 16 points. In the Intermediate section, Liam Harkin, Mountcharles, finished in first place and Siobhan McGee, Strabane, took second place.
After the presentation of cups and trophies to the winners, Alan Ramsey thanked John and Kate Slevin and staff for providing the excellent supper and all their help and support during the seven weeks of the competition. Bobby Love thanked the players, some of whom travelled great distances to take part in the competition and made it a successful tournament.
McElhinney wins two trophies in two days
Donegal rally driver Adrian McElhinney, co-driven by Martin McMenamin, last weekend undertook an ambitious plan to compete in two separate rallies in two days and finished with fantastic success on both.
The first event was the Easter Stages, a round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship on Saturday, an event that is run in conjunction with the famous Circuit of Ireland Rally. The Dunnion’s Motors Parts driver was locked in a day-long battle with Mark Doyle for class honours. However cancelled stages during the day hampered Adrian’s charge for the top. Despite this he took a well deserved 2nd in class in his Peugeot 206.
As soon as the crew crossed the podium, the Gary’s Pet World team packed up, switched to a Peugeot 205 and began the overnight journey from Enniskillen to Mitchelstown for the Tipperary Forestry Rally where Adrian would compete in the final round of the Irish 205 Challenge.
Adrian used the first few stages to adjust to the change of rally car and to the transition from tarmac to gravel surface. Despite a puncture on the first loop of stages, the JC Engineering driver was lying 2nd just 11 seconds behind the early leader when he arrived at the days service.
After service Adrian began a charge to catch the leader and this he did on the first stage of the afternoon. Over the next two stages he extended this lead even further and eventually took Irish 205 Challenge victory by over two minutes and with that finished 2nd in class.
Victory on the final round of the challenge also landed Adrian the senior category of the championship, giving him his first and hopefully not last title of 2005.
The weekend would not have been possible without the backing of his sponsors and dedicated service crew. The team’s next event is the Midland Multi Stage Rally, round 1 of the new Irish 205 Challenge season on 10th April.
Four Masters Hurling
Coaching Course
The club hosted a foundation hurling coaching course during the month of March. This was a twelve hour course on the basics of hurling, child protection and fundamental skills for children. Twenty-two coaches participated, half of which represented our club. Thanks are extended to the tutors, Seamus McInaw and Paul Callaghan, to the AVS, the Parks Committee of the Four Masters club and to Dom’s Pier 1 for the excellent food and facilities. We hope that the qualified coaches will put into practice all the knowledge they have attained in the last month!
Indoor Camogie
The Scoil an Leinbh Iosa Camogie team reached the final of the County Indoor championships last month where they were unluckily defeated by St. Maura’s, Tooban. Well done to the girls who played some fantastic camogie throughout the competition. The panel included Amie Brogan, Gemma Haughey, Niamh Quinn, Grainne Hegarty, Caoimhe Cox, Claire Brady, Yvonne McGroary and Claire Cornyn.
Outdoor hurling training for U-10 and U-12 age groups will begin on Friday 15th April in Tirconaill Park from five o’clock until half past six. Any membership still outstanding can be paid at training or to Liam Mullin. U-14s: The club U-14 hurlers had a fantastic victory in their second league game against Setanta last Thursday evening. After losing their first game the week before with a weakened team, the boys dug deep and overcame the Killygordon boys with a spirited second half display. Newcomer John Paul Quinn stung Setanta with two great goals and this panel have great potential if they keep up the good work. The next match is at home to Aodh Ruadh on Thursday and managers Brian and Noel will be looking to go from strength to strength with this squad.
I would like to make a start this week by thanking so many people in Donegal Town and further afield for their generosity in support of the club. It’s never easy constantly putting your hand in your pocket for one cause or another so frequently, but the support for our Pitch Development draw was remarkable and very much appreciated by the club. There is, as there always has been, a great buzz about the club and this was very much reflected by the support we receive as we strive to ensure the very best of facilities for everyone involved with the club. The pitch development is very necessary and it’s a result of very hard and understated work and no amount of thanks can sufficiently measure the value of your generosity. The draw was very successful which leaves all but the announcement of the prize winners.
1st Prize - €500, Martin Cassidy; 2nd Prize – Digital Camera sponsored by Donegal Camera Centre, Cain Cahill; 3rd Prize – DVD player, Peter Thomas; 4th Prize - €150 Food Hamper sponsored by Super Valu, Anne Marie O’Donnell; 5th Prize – Meal for 2 at Harvey’s Point, Francis Brogan; 6th Prize – bottle whiskey, Niamh McGroarty; 7th Prize – 2 bottles wine, Geraldine Keane; 8th Prize - Bottle of brandy, Nora Britton; 9th Prize - Bottle of champagne, Rory Dunleavy; 10th Prize - Bottle of Baileys, Leanne Sweeney; 11th Prize – Bottle of champagne, Mary Gallagher, Glenfin.
Well done to all our prize winners. A big thank you to the prize sponsors and once again a big thank you to everyone for their support.
Following on from that I would like to, on behalf of the club, extend my congratulations to our U-12 coach, Rory O’Donnell and his wife Linda, on the arrival of their first born on April 1st. A big welcome to Kian O’Donnell. Now I’ve taken it upon myself, as I would be expected to do in such a situation, to give baby Kian a short introduction to football in the town. I have safely determined that baby Kian is equally talented with both left and right foot!! Just to wish Linda, Rory and baby Kian very best wishes from everybody at the club. You know where I am for the babysitting!!!
The programme for football at the club is outlined below
Monday: U-8s and U-10s. Football for boys and girls has moved to the pitch at 6.30 on Monday evenings. Last Monday was the first evening on the pitch and, as luck should have it, we hadn’t had an evening as bad weather-wise during our indoor evenings. A big thank you to everybody who turned up - once again demonstrating the remarkable resilience I’ve coming to expect from our youngest participants. I’ve been very impressed by the number of young children expressing an interest in our coaching programmes and this continues to give us great encouragement and conviction in continuing our programmes. A big thank you to everybody.
Wednesday: Training for our U-10s and U-12s takes place on the pitch at 6.30 on Wednesday evenings. Training for our U-10s with myself and Michael McLaughlin takes place at 6.30, while the U-12s overlap starting at 7pm with Rory O’Donnell and Danny McMenamin.
Our U-14s take on Donegal Town at the Hospital Field this week in the U-14s league. This is followed later in the week by the meeting of our U-14s and Erne Wanderers at Drumbar.
Saturday: Our training programme for U-10s continues on the pitch on Saturday morning at 11am. This has been particularly enjoyable of late and again I want to say a huge thank you to the parents and kids for turning up in such large numbers and for being particularly supportive of our efforts. As I often say to parents, it’s a matter of great pride encouraging and supporting young kids while playing a fundamental role in their development on the field. As for Monday night everybody is welcome at the club.
Drumbar United Seniors
The senior team play out their final league fixture of the CT Ball Division 2 at home to newly crowned division champions, Gweedore United. Results of late had been particularly impressive and encouraging but the run of good form came to a disappointing end at the hands of Whitestrand last weekend. Well done to everyone involved with the senior side during the season.
Brendan Grufferty, PRO
Paddy Woods brought his 4-ball team (Duffy, Cassidy and Bell) for intensive training to the Leadbetter Academy, La Cala hills in Spain. The boys are seen here taking a break from training - a good time was had by all.
Copany Rovers Seniors have finished their league campaign for the season, Thanks to Francie Johnston for all his hard work. Copany Rovers U14s are currently third in the league with three games left. They await to play the winners between Donegal and Killymard in the semi-final of the cup.
The U12s start their league on Saturday at home to Eany Celtic.
The club would like to wish Brian Kilpatrick and Steven Johnston all the best in the league. Congratulations to our golden-ball winners of fifty euro each, Frankie Murrin, William Kerrigan, Owen McFadden and Robert Hanafin. The next golden-ball draw will be Juventus v Liverpool.
|
