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The Stamford GAA Volley Ball Competition 2001
On the 4th of July 2001 Stamford GAA hosted a festival down on Stamford Beach, it was a big day out and there was something there for everyone. But the boys from Fairfields’ main event was the Volleyball Tournament. On arriving out here one of our biggest pastimes in the evenings is going to the beach and playing volleyball. Under the guidance of Tommy Moran we tried to perfect our game and with big numbers appearing at the training sessions we were looking good. So good in fact that Tommy decided to enter us in the competition.
We arrived at the beach feeling very confident, believing a semi-final place was a realistic placing. As we strolled along the beach we saw our opponents warming up and they looked very good but our mentor Tommy Moran told us to stay focused, and we did.
The Line-up for the evening when Tommy entered the team was;
Tommy Moran, Frankie Sweeney, Ciaran Gallagher (qualified as a Currane man as a technicality and now is an honorary Currane man!!!), Ronan O’Malley, John Ruddy, Terence Gallagher.

Round 1
Currane Vs Cavan
A few men from the Cavan area challenged us in the first round and to our surprise they gave us a big fright. We were still half a sleep due to the long 20-minute journey to Stamford and a few of us still had our heads in the clouds (not just Ronan). The Cavan men had match point and we were facing an embarrassing early exit, the worst thing was we all knew we could play better. In a tense five-minute battle we turned the game around and scraped into the next round.

Round 2
Currane Vs Glenamade
After a poor performance, 30 minute break and a big prep talk by Tommy Moran the team were hyped up for the Second round, this time no mistakes were to be made, just do the job and the quicker the better. We started off well with Ronan O’Malley totally dominating the net battle and giving Currane a great head start. We were half way there and in complete control, but then the Glenamade boy’s came in with a surprise comeback. They came so close, but then we put the throttle down when it was needed to cruise away as easy winners. Frankie Sweeney played a blinder getting underneath nearly every ball that came close to hitting the sand and Tommy Moran adding the experience and the cool head hit the ball into places the opposition could not think of covering.

Semi Finals
Currane Vs Tipperary
So, after our comfortable win in the second round we were now two games away from the championship we came here to win, confidence was high. Tipperary had a very strong and tall team but with Ronan O’Malley at the net we knew they stood no chance. It was a tough game all the way. Tipperary matched us all the way to the finish but we were always just a bit in front. If Ronan O’Malley didn’t make it at the net Terence Gallagher was more than willing to help as he smashed ball after ball down on to the sand. And then if they got past the two, there was either Ciaran Gallagher or John Ruddy sweeping it up off the ground, and there was a lot of sweeping up! But after a dramatic finale to the semi final, Currane pipped it with about 3 points to spare.

Final
Currane Vs The Curragh(Kildare)
Well, we’d made it to the finals and we were being tipped as hot favourites due to our great semi-final performance. The crowds began to gather for the main event of the day, the court was surrounded with people wanting to see this Currane side, that were creating such a story all along the beach; not just for their volleyball skills either!!!
The team was nervous but after a good team talk from the man himself – Tommy Moran we were ready to begin. The Curragh began to create the first impact by getting us where we weren’t expecting it. It took us a while to get our heads focused, the big crowd the atmosphere and all those beautiful ladies in their bikinis, how could a man keep his concentration? Well, after a severe telling off from Tommy Moran I just had to and we began to play. Ronan O’Malley started to regain his composure in front of the net, Tommy Moran was hitting unbelievable shots and Frankie Sweeney was everywhere you needed him. Before you knew it we were back in the game. As we came to the last few minutes, Terence Gallagher started make some beautiful and important scores, Ciaran Gallagher was cleaning up all over the place and no one could set them up better than myself. With a combination like that how could we lose? We cruised home by playing the best volleyball of the evening, totally tearing apart the opposition in the final few scores.

Champions
Currane came, Currane saw, and Currane conquered. Tommy Moran received the trophy with great applause from the crowd and we began our journey home for a nice early night. We’d just like to thank all those beautiful ladies for lifting our performance when it mattered.
Coming soon The Mayo Boys join the Fairfield team for a challenge match against a Ukraine Selection. So from Fairfield Connecticut here’s signing off until next time.

John Ruddy on tour in the US
Our roving sports reporter is spending this summer in the USA:

The Connecticut Crazy Golf Open 2001
The CCG0 2001 time has once again came around and I am sorry for the late report but better late than never.

This year the Competition attracted players from Ireland such as The Devers from Currane….Andrew, Micheal and Barry who were passing through and just couldn’t resist entering the prestigious Competition. Last years winner Tommy Moran was also in the competition representing School Street, Fairfield CT and feeling very confident. And thrown in for good measure were the two outsiders Ronan O’Malley and myself.

To start off we had a bit of a warm up on the near by driving range, there were some very impressive shots taken and at the same time some not so impressive. With the sun beating down in Redding Connecticut at 2pm in the middle of June the Connecticut Crazy Golf 2001 Competition started.

The first hole was a tense hole with everyone performing rather well bar John Ruddy who dropped about three shots. The next few holes things tightened up with everyone starting to get rid of the pre-game nerves and start playing some good golf, Tommy Moran and Micheal Dever began to lead the field with Andrew, Barry, Ronan and Myself staying tight behind.

The 7th hole proved to be a decisive hole in the match Ronan, Andrew, Micheal and myself all having an impressive round where as Tommy and Barry made their chances of lifting the title very slim.

The back nine the game saw Ronan, Micheal and Barry play some impressive golf but it was Andrew and John Ruddy who were beginning to make a two horse race out of it. The holes were very tight with both players trying not to drop shots but in the end the experienced Andrew Dever kept his nerve to clinch the CCGO 2001 Trophy. Andrew was very honoured to have won such an important Competition. Tommy Moran however felt it was very good for the game to see the Championship being won by more than one person for a change.

Please stay tuned as I have yet to bring a report on The Stamford GAA Volleyball Competition and much, much more so from Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. signing off till next time.

John Ruddy

Sligo aware of Carlow danger
The Dolmen county look to be finally getting their act together after years in the Leinster wilderness, beating Wicklow before giving Kildare an anxious time of it at the start of the month. At Dr. Cullen Park, backed by an increasingly fervent support, Carlow could be an accident waiting to happen for the Sligo men. Not if Paul Taylor can help it, however.
“Anybody I speak to about Carlow tell me that the whole county is firmly behind their new manager, Pat Rowe,” he said. “He has done a huge amount of work since he took over, and for the first time in years, the players are really responding. They will be one team that’ll be hard to beat, that’s for sure. They have a good combination of strength and speed.

Match report
Derry 0-10 Antrim 0-07
Derry laid to rest the myth that a team cannot come back, six days after a defeat, when they outplayed Antrim in this All-Ireland qualifier in Casement Park on Saturday evening.
The 10,000-strong crowd witnessed little to enthuse over in a game of poor football, missed chances and niggling fouls throughout. Derry hung on in the final ten minutes, after corner forward, Johnny McBride, received his marching orders.
One player emerged with full marks from this dour encounter. Derry’s midfielder, Fergal Doherty, from the Bellaghy club, was making his first full county appearance and he gave an exhibition of high fielding and first class distribution.
Anthony Tohill, who played with a broken toe, had a very quiet game and Derry missed his free taking. The Oak Leaf County used four players during the 70 minutes, with only Paddy Bradley being successful.
Antrim played some attractive football, but their lack of penetration in attack was evident throughout.
Aidan Morris at centre-half back, and Joe Quinn in midfield with Anto Finnegan, were their most prominent players, but overall, they lacked the commitment of a Derry side that had, in Paul McFlynn, Enda Muldoon and Gavin Diamond, players of top quality.
Derry full back, Kevin McCloy, better known as a hurler, had an outstanding game and, two minutes from time, he saved a certain goal with a brilliant high catch.
Derry led from the start and they were three points ahead in the opening twelve minutes, with two Gavin Diamond points and one from Fergal Crossan. It was the 16th minute before Peter McCann scored Antrim’s opening point.Derry, with Patrick Bradley and Jonathan Niblock coming through from deep, added points before Peter McCann gave Antrim some hope. Derry led by 0-6 to 0-4 at half time, but eight first half wides, added to a further nine in the second half, must have caused manager, Eamonn Coleman, some worries as he prepares his team for the next round.
Derry increased their lead eight minutes into the second half with points from Johnny McBride and Enda Muldoon and, although Anto Finnegan pointed an Antrim free, Derry’s resurgence continued with Jonathan Niblock and Gavin Diamond adding points to give them a five-point lead with ten minutes left to play.
It was at this stage that Derry were reduced to 14 players. Antrim moved up a gear to secure points from Aidan Morris and Anto Finnegan, but these scores came too late as Derry held out for victory.

 

Connaght Championship
Galway 3-24 Leitrim 3-5
Match Report
Galway annihilated Leitrim in the Connacht Senior Football Championship to set up a semi final clash with Roscommon one June 3rd.
A much stiffer examination awaits the Tribesmen in a fortnight’s time against John Tobin’s Roscommon.
A man of the match display from Padraig Joyce who contributed three goals and three points was today’s main talking point.
Leitrim’s championship preparations had been badly hit through emigration and injury problems. Joy Reynolds’ side began the game with only eight players who started in last summer’s Connacht final.
Galway’s preparations hadn’t gone to plan either, and the Donnelan controversy dominated the pre-game headlines.
Top-class intercounty hurler, Alan Kerins, was given his first competitive footballing outing for the county. Kerins captained Trinity College in this year’s Sigerson Cup and also impressed for Salthill in the county senior football league recently.
Two goals arrived in the opening four minutes. Leitrim drew first blood when Shane Canning took full advantage of a mix up in the Galway rear guard to goal following Padraig McLoughlin’s high delivery.
Padraig Joyce scored his first goal on four minutes when he fired home after a long Sean O’Domhnaill pass. Galway took control, and with Ja Fallon, Joyce and Kerins all impressing in the forward line, scores were inevitable.
Joyce bagged his second goal in the 23rd minute, following an excellent move that involved Shay Walsh and Lorcan Colleran.
Galway reigned supreme and led by 10 points at the break. It could have been more as Galway hit seven first half wides.
Joyce completed his hat trick following the resumption after combining with, captain, Kieran Comer.
Leitrim manfully kept battling and left corner forward, Shane Canning, scored his second opportunist goal on 48 minutes.
Six minutes later, Johnny Guckian palmed home Leitrim’s third goal, but Galway’s lethal forward line continued to wreak havoc with a litany of classy points. Out of Galway’s final tally of 3-24, an amazing 3-22 were scored from play from 11 different players.
Galway fared well on Sunday without the mighty Donnelan brothers. However, one got the feeling that their brilliance may be needed later this summer if Galway are to reclaim a much-coveted Sam Maguire.

Crunch Ulster Match
Armagh 1-09 Tyrone 1-14
Armagh are no longer the Ulster champions after they were dethroned by Tyrone at Clones on Sunday afternoon. They were defeated in the Bank of Ireland Ulster Senior Football Championship 1-14 to 1-09.
A goal, 15 seconds into the match, from Eoin Mulligan set this match up perfectly. The following 70 minutes proved to be full of drama, as both teams remained close until the closing stages.
Oisin McConville got the defending champions on the scoring board, with a fine point three minutes into the match. However, Tyrone continued to dominate the opening minutes as they score two more points to lead 1-02 to 0-01, before Cathal O’Rourke grabbed a point for Armagh.
The remainder of the first half was a tight affair, as both sides exchanged points, but it was Tyrone who held the advantage at half time as they led 1-06 to 0-06.
The second half started brightly, with Steven MacDonald grabbing a goal, to level the match, less than a minute after the restart. Two morepoints from Oisin McConville and Steven MacDonald saw Armagh move into the lead for the first time in the match.
However, Tyrone were not finished and produced a terrific comeback. Three points, without reply, from Stephen O’Neill, Cormac McAnallen and Brian Dooher saw the eventual winners move back into the lead.
Armagh needed to score a goal in the closing stages, but they were unable to find a way through the tough Tyrone defence, and they eventually succumbed to a 1-09 to 1-14 defeat.

 

Champions at Last!!!!
Mayo 0-13 Galway 0-12
30/04/01: Mayo’s hot streak continues.

Since the run of disappointments stretching back to Penal times or thereabouts was seen to end a fortnight ago with Crossmolina’s All-Ireland club final victory, the County has been on a roll. Latest up was yesterday’s Allianz National Football League final at Croke Park.

A poor match came to a gripping conclusion as Pat Holmes’s team hung on grimly while Connacht champions Galway desperately tried to pull back the one-point deficit. The favourites enthusiastically dug their own grave with a catalogue of squandered chances in the first half and having established what was looking like a decisive three-point lead towards the end of the third quarter, they promptly downed tools and failed to score for almost half an hour.

Despite being opened up frequently by the pace of the Galway attack, Mayo held on and slowly began to overhaul the deficit. As was the case with last week’s semi-final, substitutes made a big difference. James Nallen came in after half-time at centre back and made a significant impact and Maurice Sheridan kicked two of the comeback points.

This was a deserved win. Mayo showed tenacity and never stopped working – three times retrieving three-point margins – whereas Galway’s was a flashier, less consistent effort. By the end of the match, a number of familiar faces had returned. Tomás Mannion made only his second appearance since returning to the intercounty scene, Jarlath Fallon had his first run for the county since injuring his cruciate ligament last summer and Richie Fahy came in at corner back. Mannion and Fahy looked solid but Fallon was obviously just feeling his way.

Useful as it undoubtedly was to give a run-out to such players, Galway manager John O’Mahony admitted afterwards that the changes were less for reasons of rehabilitation than because “we were under pressure a bit”. All of the substitutes took the place of youngsters and cast some cold light on the likely composition of Galway’s championship team.

Before the start Crossmolina’s Tom Nallen came in at full back in place of Aidan Higgins with Kevin Cahill switching to the left corner and setting the scene for a major battle with Derek Savage. The Galway corner forward started in red-hot form.

In the opening three minutes, he kicked the first score of the match, was beaten to a one-on-one goal chance by the run of the ball and got fouled for a pointed free. Several times in the opening half he manoeuvred openings but couldn’t quite finish the chance. Yet all the while Cahill wasn’t losing heart in the struggle to mark him, principally because Galway insisted on firing high ball into the corner – placing someone of Savage’s less-than-imposing physique under pressure against the lanky Cahill.

The match’s tortoise-and-hare pattern started early with Galway running away with things, taking a rest while Mayo scrapped their way back into the match. During their less engaged periods, Galway came up with some frightening wides and missed opportunities, while Mayo let off some warning signals.

By the 21st minute, Mayo had caught up with Galway – David McDonagh getting his team’s first score from play. But it seemed like only a matter of time before Galway found their range and started to inflict some real damage. Padraig Joyce began to play himself into the game and worked some fine moves with Savage; still the scores didn’t come in profusion.

While not exactly free-scoring, Mayo’s forwards were eking out enough to keep pace. In injury-time at the end of the first half, Savage got on the end of another quick move but was blocked by Cahill and the ensuing ruck ended in a free out despite some Galway grievances about a possible penalty. The teams broke with a point in it, 0-8 to 0-7 for Galway. By now the Mayo defence was looking more assured. Marking was tighter and players swarmed back to cut off options. Even Michael Donnellan found space hard to come by.

His great, thumping deliveries helped initiate more fruitful attacks but Mayo were giving less and less away. In the 48th minutes, Donnellan set up a score for Joyce to push the team three points clear, 0-12 to 0-9. It was – astonishingly – to be their last score of the match. When the lengthy injury-time was taken into account, that added up to 28 minutes. Mayo’s recovery was hard earned.

James Nallen provided a platform and beside him Noel Connelly had an excellent game driving the team forward, snapping up loose ball and chipping in two excellent points as well as setting up the winning point. At centrefield David Brady put in an enormous amount of work and bore frequent physical punishment as a reward. Still Mayo made heavy duty of closing the deal. Sheridan and Connelly cut the margin to a point with an hour gone.

Pat Holmes later paid tribute to the gutsy nature of the comeback – strewn as it was with demoralising inaccuracies, each of which could have become a turning point had the team allowed heads to drop. Eventually and within the 67th minute the tables had turned. Sheridan kicked a 45 and Marty McNicholas came on to a ball from Noel Connelly and took what turned out to be the winning score.

As the clock ran down, Galway launched wave after wave of frantic attacks but they were undone by calm defending and inaccuracies. Savage made one last raid but kicked a wide. John Divilly was done for charging on a galloping foray from the back and finally Michael Donnellan’s huge, last minute launch was gathered by Ray Connelly. All over bar the shouting and there was quite a bit of that to come.

 

An Interview with Kevin McStay, Mayo U-21 manager and former Mayo Senior Footballer

Congratulations on your superb Hastings Cup win! Did you expect the team to do so well in the competition?
Yes

What do you think are the chances of the U-21’s winning the All Ireland this year or in the next few years?
Quite good this year – probabaly better next year. Unfortunately getting out of the Province is very difficult every year.

Who do you believe are the key players in your U-21 team which could have a vital role to play in the Mayo Senior team in the near future?
David Clarke, MJ Meenaghan, Ronan Loftus , James Gill and all the forwards have possibilities. But it is very difficult to be definitive – ones you expect often disappoint, injury , etc

How do you rate Crossmolinas chances on St. Patrick’s day?
Very highly – they will win by a few points if they don’t freeze and as they are a mature team that is very unlikely. They have NO Under 21s so you can see how experienced they are.

Do you believe the Mayo championship is strong enough to keep producing clubs which will challenge for the All Ireland Club Championship yearly in the future?
Definitely – just look at the recent record; Castlebar, Knockmore, Ballina and now Crossmolina

The Mayo Senior Team are doing very well in the League. Do you believe there will be many changes in the squad which will feature in the championship panel?
Very few as Pat will have to show faith in a squad that has progressed fairly well

How do rate Mayo’s chances in the All Ireland this year and do you think Mayo are capable of getting Sam back in the next 5 years?
Not great this year but in about three years or so there will be alot of very talented players around
the scene.

There is a lot of concern about Mayo’s run in the League, for example Derry did very well in it last year but they were flops in the Championship. Do you think Mayo may suffer the same hangover?
Nobody knows for sure how the new championship will pan out but Mayo will be in for a difficult time against Sligo and then possibly a difficult draw if they were to lose to them.

How do you rate Mayo Minors chances of bringing home the bacon this year?
No idea

Who in your honest opinion do you believe will be All Ireland Champions 2001 and why?
Galway – they will have JA Fallon back and that was all they were missing this year.

Thanks very much Kevin for your time.