SPORT ROUND-UP
LGFA celebrates 50th birthday this year
This year marks 50 years of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, with the sport’s governing body celebrating its 50th birthday on July 18, 2024. To mark this milestone the LGFA has unveiled a 50th anniversary commemorative logo. The organisation has also released a video to kickstart its celebrations – this can be viewed on YouTube on the LadiesFootballTV channel. Sligo LGFA celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, with Ladies Football first played in this county back in 1993.
Introduction to the fun of table tennis
The Table Tennis Roadshow is coming to four Sligo venues next week. This initiative involves table tennis taster sessions, with the aim of introducing table tennis – a sport for all ages – to communities in the county. Each 45-minute sessions will include fun games and activities, bat and balls skills, how to learn the sport’s basic techniques as well as information on rules and scoring. Events are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next. On Monday, January 29, there are two taster sessions as North Sligo Sports Centre, Grange (5pm to 5.45pm and 5.45pm to 6.30pm) and the Knocknarea Arena, ATU Sligo (7.30pm to 8.15pm and 8.15pm to 9pm). The tastest sessions scheduled for Tuesday, January 30, are at Easkey courthouse (5pm to 5.45pm and 5.45pm to 6.30pm) and Sooey Community Hall (7.30pm to 8.15pm and 8.15pm to 9pm). These taster sessions are free but under-18s must be accompanied by an adult.
The Table Tennis Roadshow, organised locally by Sligo
Sport and Recreation Partnership, is an initiative of Sport Ireland LSP (Local Sports Partnerships) and Table Tennis Ireland.
Sportsground is now Dexcom Stadium
The Sportsground in Galway city is to be known as Dexcom Stadium due to a new naming rights partnership between Connacht Rugby and Dexcom Inc. This is the result of a 12-year agreement between Connacht Rugby and Dexcom, a pioneer and leader in real-time continous glucose monitoring for those suffering from diabetes.
The Sportground – now Dexcom Stadium – is the home of Connacht Rugby and the famous venue where teams from Sligo Rugby Club have won and lost provincial finals over the years, so too a variety of Sligo secondary schools. The next phase of the venue’s development, which begins in March, will see the construction of a new High Performance Centre (HPC) and North Stand. Connacht Rugby’s HPC is expected to be completed by March of next year.
Sloyan helps Longford win O’Byrne Cup
Easkey’s Dessie Sloyan was part of the management team that guided the Longford senior Gaelic footballers to O’Byrne Cup success over Dublin on Saturday last at O’Moore Park, Laois.
Longford retained the O’Byrne Cup with a sixpoint defeat of the Dessie Farrell-managed Dublin, last year’s Leinster and All-Ireland champions. Although Longford won the O’Byrne Cup last year (beating Louth in the final), they only won
HANDBALL FUTURE: Pupils from Corballa NS that competed at the recent Cumann na mBunscol Shligigh handball competition. Pictured are,
Niall Burke, Cian Corcoran, Calvin Foody, Michael Jones and Lorcan Foody. two more competitive games in 2023 as they were relegated from Division Three of the Allianz Football League and failed to impact in the Tailteann Cup. This is Sloyan’s second year as part of the Longford management team – the Longford manager is ex-Dublin player Paddy Christie. Former Sligo star Sloyan was the Sligo U-20 manager for the breakthrough Connacht success in 2022.
Gaels are walking this month
Shamrock Gaels GAA Club are taking part in the GAA’s ‘Ireland Lights Up’ initiative. This encourages GAA clubs to get their members and others in their community active by walking on a weekly basis in a safe environment during the dark winter evenings of January. Shamrock Gaels will host walks twice weekly (Monday and Thursday) at Riverstown Park, 7.30pm each evening. Everyone is welcome including those who previously may not have been active. The winner of Shamrock Gaels’ 50-50 draw held last week was Sinead McGuire, who collected €702.
Meanwhile, Shamrock Gaels are also participating in the GAA’s National Club Draw. Tickets cost €10 each – clubs can sell up to 3,000 tickets and keep all monies raised. The prizes are provided by the GAA and its partners. The first prize for this year’s draw is a new Dacia Sandero car. The GAA NCD draw takes place on March 27.
Corballa NS kids win titles in handball
Corballa National School dominated the Cumann na mBunscol Shligigh handball competition took place on the Sunday before last, January
14, at Collooney handball court.
Cian Corcoran, Corballa NS, claimed the Boys U-11 Singles title, beating Donal Watters (St Lassara’s NS, Ballinacarrow) and the Boys U-11 Doubles title went to the Corballa NS pairing of Michael Jones and Lorcan Foody. The Boys U-11 Doubles runners-up were Blake McMorrow and Sean O’Hara (Rathcormac NS). Honours in the Boys U-13 Singles category went to Calvin Foody (Corballa NS). Foody defeated Bobby Cavanagh (Scoil Mhuire Agus Iosaf, Collooney). Niall Bourke and Rory McHale combined for victory in the Boys U-13 Doubles event – the Corballa NS duo got the better of Adam Healy and Noah Zakaria (Rathcormac NS).
The Girls U-13 title was won by Abbie Gallagher (Collooney NS), who defeated Maria Murphy (Rathcormac NS). The Sligo winners will compete at provincial level this coming Sunday in Salthill.
Final defeat for a hurler with a Sligo rugby link
Conor Heary, who is a nephew of Sligo Rugby Club activist Jean McConnell, was on the losing side in the AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final at Croke Park on Sunday last. Heary’s club O’Loughlin Gaels, from Kilkenny city, lost by a point to Galway champions St Thomas’, 0-18 to 0-17, as a stoppage time point from Eanna Burke secure the title in Dublin. St Thomas’ were reduced to 14 players early in the second-half when James Regan was sent off.
The big talking point of this game was a first-half ‘goal’ that O’Loughlin Gaels didn’t get – television replays showed that Owen Wall’s shot went over the goal-line, despite the efforts of St Thomas’ goalkeeper Fintan Burke, but neither umpire awarded the score.
The aforementioned Jean McConnell, a former Sligo Rugby Club president, is a teacher at St Attracta’s Community School, Tubbercurry, and chairs the Connacht Schools Rugby Committee.
Sligo students play for the FAI Schools team
Summerhill College’s Daire Patton captained the FAI Schools Republic of Ireland Boys U-18 team in the schools international friendly against Australia last Saturday afternoon in Dublin – a 2-1 win for the Aussies at the facilities of Home Farm FC, Whitehall.
Also in the starting team with midfielder Daire
Patton was another Sligo native – Tubbercurry’s Kyle McDonagh, who started at full-back. McDonagh is a student at St Attracta’s Community School. Both Patton and McDonagh are with the Sligo Rovers Academy.
Australia scored twice in the first-half to lead 2-0 at the break and the Republic of Ireland scored in the second-half when substitute Calum Costello netted after 71 minutes. There were further chances after that for the hosts, including an 86th minute equaliser opportunity for team captain Daire Patton, who was just off target with a shot.
Positive display from All-Stars women’s team
Sligo All-Stars Basketball Club are making strides in this season’s LLR Senior Women’s League – a competition organised by the Lonleitros (Longford-Leitrim-Roscommon)
Basketball Area Board.
Although Sligo All-Stars were beaten in their most recent game – a 77-63 loss to Mustangs (Castlebar) at the Mercy College gym – it was an impressive display from the home side.
The top scorers for Sligo All-Stars in this game were Lorraine Dolan and Martina Chupata, each with 16 points. Accurate shooter Chupata is the competition’s current leading scorer with 97 points from five games.
Also on target for Sligo AllStars were Katie McCaffrey (8), Sarah Brett (5), Ceoilin Byrne (5), Madeline Keane
(6), Elena Tserkovnaya (4) and Claudia Finnerty (3).
Currently second in the standings, Sligo All-Stars’ next fixture is scheduled for Friday next, February 2, when they are away to Longford Phoenix (Longford Sports & Leisure Centre, 8.30pm).
Their next home game is on February 12 when they take on Mohill Mavericks (Mercy College gym, 7pm). The team’s head coach is Jamie Hayes, who plays with the Sligo AllStars senior men’s team in the Basketball Ireland Men’s Super League.
Excellent wins for Sligo handballers
Handballers from Sligo clubs recorded wins at provincial level (40x20 court). Colm Naughton and Darragh Burke (Castleconnor Handball Club), competing in the Junior ‘B’ Doubles defeated a pairing from Galway at Collooney on Friday last. Also last weekend Josian Oskoz and Clive Slevin, Drumcliffe Handball Club, qualified for a provincial final in the Silver Masters ‘B’ Doubles thanks to a semi-final defeat of opponents from Galway.
Meanwhile, the 31st annual Gerard Jones Memorial