GRASSROOTS
BLESSINGTON
Lotto - No winner of this week’s lotto. Winning numbers were: 8, 9, 18 and 27. Three people matched three numbers and win €100 each: Eimear Barrett c/o Bryan Carroll, Geraldine Boothman c/o David and Sean, Dac-Jafa c/o Nora Nolan. Jackpot now €2,600. Next draw in Mick Reid’s on Tuesday, September 26. Thanks for continued support.
Mini All Ireland - Will take place in the Blessington GAA on Tuesday to Friday, September 18-21. It’s open to both boys and girls born between 2006 - 2011 and the teams will be mixed. Cost is €10 per child. Starts at 5.45pm both evenings.
Senior Ladies - We had the official presentation of our Ladies 25-year jerseys last Sunday with sponsors Murphy’s Bar and Allan and Brigid Auld. We would like to extend a huge thank you to them and our other sponsors Heart Safety Solutions and Elite Sports for your continued support and generosity.
Ladies Under-12s – The under-12s travelled to Croke Park on Sunday, September 16, to enjoy the All-Ireland ladies finals. Thanks to the coaches and mentors for organising. The girls had a fantastic time.
Under-17s – Well done to the lads on a great win in the final match of the league on Monday, September 10, at home against Clann na Gael on a score line of 4-07 to 1-02. T he lads are in the semis of the championship on Monday, September 24. Details TBC. League final in Ballinakill against St Pat’s on Friday, September 21, at 7pm. Please come out and support this great group of lads.
Under-15s – Busy week for the Uunder15s. Some of the under-15s involved with the Minors in their win on Monday in league game v Clan na Gael. On Tuesday, the under-15s played An Tochar away with only 14 players the lads were up three points at half-time and upped their game in the second half and came away with a good win on a score of 3-8 to 0-5.
On Saturday, September 15, the lads played St. Mouges of Wexford in Carlow in the Crossborder league final. A panel of 25 travelled down to Carlow for the last game before championship. Blessington were up 0-5 to 0-3 at 20 minutes and on 40 minutes Blessington were 0-7 to 0-5 up. But St Mouges came back in the last 20 to finish on a score of Blessington 0-9 to 3-5.
Blessington had their goal chances but the post denied them twice and another deflected just wide. Everybody was disappointed in the end but with all 25 players getting a game and a meal together after the game it was an ideal team day out just before championship starts.
Under-11s – Our under-11 players (2007 kids) have had a very busy week in NKL games. On Thursday, September 13, they were at home to Raheens 2 and played well and came away with a win.
On Saturday, September 15, they were away to Celbridge and with some fantastic passing moves which ended in great scores we came home with great win. Well done to all players/coaches and parents. Next up is three teams out in Wicklow league.
Wednesday, September 19 - Blue away to Éire Óg, White home to Bray, Red away to Coolboy, second last round of fixtures before finals in Ballinakill on Saturday, October 13.
Under-7s – Under-7s travelled to Ballinakill on Saturday to play in all county monster blitz. They played three great games against Éire Óg, Kilcoole and An Tochar.
Congratulations – Well done to all our members on their Junior Cert results.
Fixtures – All our fixtures for the week can be found on the Blessington GAA Facebook page and the club website.
Remember to keep updated on what is happening in the Club log on www. blessingtongaa.ie and Blessington GAA on Facebook and on Twitter @blessingtongaa.
If you wish to be on the Blessington GAA Supporters Whatsapp please text your name to 087 2858375.
BALTINGLASS
Lotto - Numbers drawn were: 11, 13, 17, and 24. No winner. Match three €50 each. Emma Burke, Lefterionut, P. Case, Teresa Kilcoyne, Margo Doyle, Niall and Tom. This week’s jackpot €7,000.
Next draw will take place Monday, September 17, in Timmins pub. Thanks to all for supporting the club lotto. Please continue to play. Play online www.locallotto.ie.
Unfortunately the Junior As had a bad day in the office and exited the championship at the quarter-final stage. Final score: Kilcoole 0-14, Baltinglass 0-5. Earlier in the summer Kilcoole beat us in the Division 3 final so we knew this was going to be a very difficult game to win, especially with the loss of Henry Sinnott to a very bad knee injury a few weeks ago.
However, our first half performance was very good in a very tight 30 minutes – halftime score Baltinglass 0-3, Kilcoole 0-4. In the second half, Kilcoole finished very strong in the last quarter. Robin Farrell hit the crossbar with 15 minutes to go when there was four points in it. James Quinn had a very good game after a very recent return from the U.S. Scorers: Jack Timmins 0-3, Tadgh O’Toole 0-1, Ross Nolan 0-1.
A great final training session took place for all our academy players where some of the Minor players joined in with the training. All the boys and girls were presented with certificates for completing the academy training. Thanks to all the academy coaches this season: Patsy, Alison, Paula, Tomás, Julie, Katie, Eoin, Catherine, Brian, Susan, Chloe, Sinéad, Jenny, Noel and John.
The Minors has another great win in the championship beating St Nicholas by 3-17 to 1-7.
Regrettably our Senior and Junior ladies teams departed the championship at the semi-final stage. After a great display of football, the Seniors lost out to St. Pats. The final score: St Patrick’s 3-8, Baltinglass 2-9.
The Junior ladies lost out to Éire Óg on a narrow margin after an abundance of goals. Final score: Éire Óg 10-5 to Baltinglass 9-3. Hard luck to both teams and their management.
Well done to the boys under-7 team who represented the club at the last Go Games blitz of the year in Ballinakill. The boys played brilliant football against teams from Rathnew, St. Patrick’s and AGB.
A big thanks to the parents who gave up their time to bring their children to Ballinakill and to the other venues during the year and to support them in their games.
NEWTOWN
Congratulations to the seniors who won a hard-fought battle against a strong Avondale team on Saturday evening last in Wicklow town, this win guarantees senior championship next season and a match against Éire Óg in the Keating Trophy in the coming weeks.
Newtown looked to be cruising early in the second half after a great solo effort from young Adam Heffernan who ran half the length of the pitch to fire home an early goal. Avondale came back strongly to level the match after a penalty, but Newtown showed some strong defending to win by a narrowest of margins.
The under-9s are looking forward to their next outing which is on September 22 in Ballinakill and is an all-county monster blitz, this is their final blitz of the year.
Training continues every Monday at 6.30pm give Alun a bell at 086 3017500 for more information. Well done to the under-13s who after a marathon league campaign were presented with the league trophy last week despite losing their last game. The lads have got a bye in the first round of the championship and are training away and looking forward to the first championship match which was due to be played last Monday away to Ashford.
Training continues every Monday at 6.30pm for the under-11s and at 6.30pm on Wednesday for the under-13s. The under-15s despite missing a few regulars kicked off their championship with a draw against Aughrim and the next game is away to Annacurra, please check fixtures for confirmation.
All our juvenile teams are always on the lookout for more players and volunteers so if you want to get involved with any aspect with either a boys or girls team give our secretary Tom a buzz at 087 6611480. The under-8 and under-10 girls are training on Tuesdays at 6.30pm.
Training for the under-12, 14, 16 girls have stopped for a few weeks and we hope to resume at the end of September in preparation for next year.
For all club gear inquiries please contact Ruth at 087 7472682.
Newtown extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the late Nancy Cullen who passed away recently. May she rest in peace.
Newtown lotto is a whopping €10,400! Numbers drawn last week were 1, 2, 3, and 7. Buy a ticket to be in with a chance to win this whopper jackpot and help support the club at the same time!
ÉIRE ÓG GREYSTONES
Our Senior footballers had already been condemned to a relegation play-off against Annacurra when they travelled to Joule Park on Saturday to play the might of Rathnew in the final game in their group of the Renault Football Championship.
The outcome would therefore have absolutely no bearing on their 2018 championship fate, so pride alone was their spur, a spur which however did not seem to dig in until the latter stages of the first half.
For the first 25 minutes - it was nigh on 20 minutes before Éire Óg registered their first score, a point by Daniel Keane – our lads’ approach seemed to be dominated by the status of the game which was, to all intents and purposes, a practice one and they seemed not to be terribly perturbed by being seven points behind entering the last two minutes. A goal by Cian O’Flaherty at that point not only served to put a more respectable complexion on the score board (0-9 to 1-2) but also to bring a bit of fire and determination into their play. A quality which carried over into the second half with the result that Rathnew outscored them by just two points over that 30 minutes. The final score: Rathnew 0-16, Éire Óg 1-7.
Overall the Éire Óg performance against the county champions has to be classified as quite respectable and raised the question as to how our lads had ended up on the edge of the precipice of demotion especially when one considers the much larger margin by which Rathnew defeated other teams in the group.
Thankfully Éire Óg has been saved from the ignominious drop by virtue of their comprehensive defeat of Annacurra in the Keating Cup relegation play-off and they will now meet the winners of Newtown v Avondale in the final.
PEIL NA MBAN - There was much talk during the week about the difficulties many people have handling numbers and it was described as being akin to dyslexia and was titled dyscalculia.
Spectators with such numeracy problems at last Sunday’s ladies Junior semi-final in Laragh between Éire Óg and Baltinglass would have found great difficulty in keeping track of the score status of the teams during the game as, not only was there a plethora of scores (27 in all, 10-5 for Éire Óg and 9-3 for Baltinglass) but also the scoring pattern was very much tit-for-tat.
The first half which was a relentless end-to-end affair held spectators in nerve-wracking thrall and ended with the teams all square at 5-2 apiece.
All the Éire Óg goals were well taken but one in particular was a thing of beauty: it came from an exquisitely worked movement involving Megan Healy, Elaina Fusciardi and Ciara Doyle who dispatched the ball to the net. Maedhbh Deeney was responsible for 3-2 and Eva Roche scored a goal just before having to retire through injury.
The Éire Óg cailíní were knocked back on their tracks in the early stages of the second half when Baltinglass got in for two unanswered goals. However, our mná were not for turning and were soon back on parity with goals from Rachel Purcell and Elaina Fusciardi.
In a game like this in which the attention is primarily focussed on the scoring, the contribution of the defence is easily glossed over. Baltinglass scored 9-3 but were thwarted for a number of goals by some excellent saves from Gemma Kiely in goals and a crucial block by Orla Doherty in the first half.
The hard-working defence unit, in which Wendela Zeigers, Sinéad Kelly, Aoife McTeague and Eva Moore starred, was effectively marshalled by captain Ciara Patrick from the centre-back position.
Katie Lawless was tireless in her endeavours and Claudia Randles at centre-field was an effective conduit out of defence. Erin Wylie played well in the corner and chipped in with a point.
Maedhbh Deeney’s role in the game could not be overstated as not only did she contribute 5-4 but was on hand to support the defence in times of need. COOLBOY
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have had to move our general meeting to Friday, September 28, at 8pm in Coolafancy. We still need the whole community in attendance to voice their opinions on our club.
BALLYMANUS
The Intermediates crashed out of the championship last weekend against Kilmac on a score line 3-14 to 1-11. The damage was done in the first half, conceding 3-8 and losing Darragh to a serious facial injury (hope it’s a speedy recovery Darragh).
The lads fought back in the second half and had the difference down to six points but couldn’t reel it any closer. The club would like to thank Paddy, Kevin, Billy, Hugh and all players for efforts during the year.
The club field day and Ice cream party takes place from 2-5pm Sunday, September 23. All monies raised are going to the Wicklow branch of Down Syndrome Ireland. Lots to see and do so make sure to pop up to the field. Finally there was no jackpot winner from 1, 7, 18, and 25. Match threes were Helen Van Eesbeck, Ailbhe Doyle, Marie O’ Neill B.L. D. A.
ASHFORD
Ashford and Glenealy GAA lotto results from Monday, September 3, for a jackpot of €6,300. Numbers drawn were: 4, 7, 17, and 23. Jackpot winner: Dawn Furlong.
Match threes: Tom Coady c/o Trina; Ann O’Connor c/o Cullens; P Nugent c/o P Nugent; M Drumgoole c/o M Drumgoole; Oliver and Dick c/o Kings; Mary Vickers c/o N Vickers; Mary Weir c/o M Weir.
Results from Monday, September 10, for a jackpotf €2,000. Numbers drawn: 2, 3, 6, and 20. No jackpot winner.
Match 3s: Ian O’Neill c/o Ian O’Neill; Kelly O’Neill c/o B O’Neill; Jack Manley c/o V Manley; Keith and J Doyle c/o Kings; C Kennedy c/o S Kennedy; Laura Curry c/o S Douglas; Darren O’ Connor c/o Cullens; B Delaney c/o Triona; Ann Lyons c/o S McDermott; Sandra Hill c/o S McDermott; John Copeland c/o J Copeland. (€30 each).
Next jackpot: €2,300.
In their final Intermediate group game, in Blessington against Donard-The Glen, we lost out. In our relegation battle we also lost out to Stratford-Grangecon. Our last hope of retaining Intermediate status rests on beating either Ballinacor or Rathnew.
Better news on the juvenile front. The under-13s had a fine win over St. Pats last Friday. Unfortunately they lost out to Newtown in the second round.
The under-7s finished off their season by participating in a blitz in Ballinakill. Noah Clarkson, on his debut, played a stormer. The nursery wrapped up recently. The coaches deserve a special word of thanks for all their input during the season.
Last Sunday, 60 girls accompanied by 16 adults attended Croke Park for the LGFA All-Ireland finals. Girls from under-8, 10, 12 and 14 teams travelled. All had a brilliant day and hopefully some will themselves play in Croker in the future. We believe that the under-14s provided a great sing song on the bus.
For more information on Ashford GAA activities please visit our Facebook page.