Dream dashed
SOME glorious sunshine, particularly on Saturday, meant I was confined to barracks for most of the weekend carrying out remedial and repair work in the garden and outdoors.
The long harsh winter postponed most of my Springtime chores with a backlog of jobs now awaiting completion. Although there was wall to wall Soccer and Rugby on TV with the semi finals of the FA Cup and Heineken Cup taking place, I opted for the healthy outdoors and made do with the evening highlights.
I did however dispense with the garden gloves on Sunday afternoon and ventured to Tullyallen to see the local team pick up their first league points of the Division Two campaign. The win over Roche was a lively encounter, to say the least, with plenty of passion shown by both sets of players and supporters, particularly in the closing stages.
Referee Patsy Connolly did well to keep a lid on proceedings and blew for full time just as tempers were beginning to fray. The post-match ‘handshakes’ however were a little less cordial than usual.
Elsewhere in Division Two Hunterstown Rovers and O Raghallaighs have set the early pace with three wins from three although Ryan Burns picked up a worrying injury in their big win over St Mochtas that could have implications for club and county.
Propping up the table are Glyde and the aforementioned Roche who have yet to register.
County champions Newtown Blues have really hit the ground running this season and sit proudly on top of Division 1 with the maximum six points. The Drogheda men have been very impressive in their three outings to date and racked up another big score over the weekend in defeating St Marys in Ardee.
That’s 4-47 in three games which bodes well for them retaining their Joe Ward title in 2018.
Clans have started brightly also and remain second having seen off town rivals Sean O Mahonys in a close encounter on Friday night.
Geraldines are surprisingly rooted to the bottom of the table with no points having lost again at the weekend, this time to St Brides. Lannleire have made a very positive start to the season in Division 3 and followed up wins over the Westerns and Young Irelands with another on Sunday against Sean McDermotts.
Louth Ladies qualified for the Division Four League final with a superb second half performance against Limerick in Portarlington. Trailing by 0-06 to 0-05 at the break Louth dominated the second period with Kate Flood in fine scoring form contribution 1-05 of her side 1-15 total. Louth now face Wicklow in the decider who were 26 point winners over Antrim in the other semi final. THE dream of an all Irish Heineken Cup final is over after Munster fell to French side Racing 92. Leinster held up their end of the bargain with a clinical demolition of Scarlets at the Aviva on Saturday but Munster looked off the pace in the heat of Bordeaux with the five point losing margin slightly flattering.
Giroud had earlier given Chelsea the lead with a glorious individual goal that had shades of Ricardo Villa’s winner in the 1981 FA Cup final replay.
The clash of Conte v Mourinho on the sidelines is almost a bigger draw than the clash of the players on the pitch.