Fixtures: Tuesday, May 10: MFL Division One v Castleblayney (Away) at 7.45pm
Wednesday, May 11: RFL Division Four v Currin (Home) at 7.45pm
Thursday, May 12: SHL v Castleblayney (Home) at 7.45pm
Under-16 FL Division One v Carrickmacross (Away) at 7pm
Saturday, May 14: Under-12 Zone Two v Clontibret (Home) at 12pm
Under-12 Zone One v Clontibret (Home) at 1.15pm
Sunday, May 15: RFL Division One v Scotstown (Home) at 2.30pm
Monday, May 16: Under-14 HL v Cootehill (Home) at 7pm
Tuesday, May 17: MFL Division One v Carrickmacross (Away) at 7.45pm
Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 1, 13, 19 and 26. Jackpot of €2,350 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Adrian Dalton c/o Jim Dalton (Hurling Club); €40 F Mohan c/o Brian O’Sullivan (Hurling Club); €40 Kathleen Smyth c/o Owen Connell; €40 Paddy Donnelly c/o himself. Jackpot for Sunday, May 15 is €2,500.
Lotto Rota: May 15: Liz and Dermot Brannigan; May 22: Mary McRory, Rose Donnelly and Una Forde; May 29: Monica and Paudge Connolly.
Meetings: The club’s monthly meeting for May takes place in the clubhouse this Thursday immediately after the juvenile meeting, which starts at 7.15.
Arch Club: We welcomed Monaghan Arch Club to Gavan Duffy Park for a very enjoyable evening last Thursday. Our Vice-Chairman Seán Boyle welcomed everyone, as did Donal Kenny, representing the Arch Club, before our own Hugh Coyle thanked everyone from his two favourite clubs. Music by Brian Harvey, Patsy McCaffrey and the Arch Club Choir kept everyone entertained. Senior footballers Neil McAdam and Shane Smyth were in demand for photos with the trophies the club won last year and the most recent addition – this year’s Under-14 Hurling Championship. Thanks to everyone who helped in any way.
SFL: The seniors returned to winning ways in the Credit Union SFL when they beat Truagh by 1-10 to 1-3 at home last Friday. Our lads trailed by 1-2 to 0-4 at half-time, with Donal Hahessy (two), Mark McCaughey and Neil McAdam getting our scores and the sides were still level with ten minutes left. The Harps finished strongly, though, with a goal from a penalty by McAdam, three points from Dean Fanning and one from Liam Hahessy to secure the two points. The seniors were due to play Castleblayney next Wednesday, but it has been postponed due to Monaghan’s involvement in Saturday week’s Nicky Rackard Cup semi-final.
Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Conor Galligan, Stephen Driver (Capt.), Mark McCaughey (0-1); David Hughes, Shane Smyth, Gareth Treanor; Peter Coyle, Gary White (0-1); Niall Hahessy, Neil McAdam (1-1, 1-0 pen), Nicholas Scott; Donal Hahessy (0-3, 2f), Ashley White, Dean Fanning (0-3, 1f).
Subs: Shane Coyle for N Hahessy, Liam Hahessy (0-1) for A White, Niall McKenna for Scott.
RFL: The O’Duffy Cup team came from behind to draw away to Magheracloone in a high-scoring game in the Platinum Tanks Reserve Football League Division One last Wednesday. After trailing by 3-2 to 0-2 at half-time, we came back with two goals from Paul Kelly and one each by Adam Cullen and Johnny Sherry before John McCoy fisted the equalising point.
Team and scorers: Conall McKenna; Fionntán Cassidy, Niall McKenna, Pat Murphy; Johnny Sherry (1-0), Gareth Treanor, Conor Devlin (Capt.); Paul Rushe (0-1), Ashley White; Paul Kelly (2-0), Bernie Murphy, Adam Cullen (1-0); Liam Hahessy (0-4, 3f), John McCoy (0-2), Gary Murray.
Subs: Conn O’Hanlon for Cassidy, Finnian McKenna for Sherry, Colm Shalvey for Cullen.
The Crawley Cup team have a home game against Currin tomorrow night (Wednesday), while the O’Duffy Cup team are at home to Scotstown on Sunday.
MFL: The minors made it three wins in a row in the GRM MFL Division One last Tuesday at home to Truagh. Truagh got the first three points of the game, but the Harps dominated the rest of the first half to take a 1-11 to 1-3 lead, with the excellent Fearghal McMahon scoring the goal. Fearghal and Shane Hannon continued to cause Truagh numerous problems in the second half and the Harps went on to win by 1-18 to 2-7. The lads are away to Castleblayney tonight (Tuesday) and they travel to Carrickmacross next week.
Team and scorers: Ryan Shields; Conor Forde, Anthony Croarkin, Darren McMahon; Benin Devlin (0-1), Kevin Loughran, Brendan McQuaid; Evan Doherty (0-1), Dylan McMahon (Capt.); Myles Dwyer, Michael Galligan, Paddy Clarke (0-1); Niall Greenan (0-3, 1f), Shane Hannon (0-5, 1f), Fearghal McMahon (1-7).
Subs: Shane Loughran for Dwyer, Niall Treanor for Clarke, Paul Burns for F McMahon.
U-16: The Under-16s got their second win of the Division One campaign in a tough battle at home to Truagh last Thursday. Fearghal McMahon’s goal had the Harps ahead by 1-6 to 0-5 at half-time and they held on by the narrowest of margins (1-12 to 1-11). The lads are away to Carrickmacross on Thursday.
Team: Christopher McGonnell; Jamie Cassidy, Donal McCarthy, James McKenna; Tiarnan Bramley, Kevin Loughran, Conor Burns; Turlough Clerkin, Niall Treanor; Isaac John, Fearghal McMahon, Mustafa Admed; Francis Lynch, Jason McHugh, James Keelaghan.
U-14: The Under-14 Division One team had a 2-12 to 1-11 win at home to Killanny in a keenly-contested game last Saturday. The first two quarters were very evenly-matched and it was 0-5 apiece at the halfway stage, before the Harps gave themselves a bit of breathing space in the third quarter with two goals from John Mulligan. Killanny got a goal back in the final quarter, but the Harps were deserving winners after a good team performance.
Team and scorers: Conor Flynn; Ruairí Forde, Aaron Woods; Shane McKenna, Kevin Lyden, Niall McManus, Dara Hannon (0-1) Shane McMahon; David Lowry, John Mulligan (Capt., 2-3), Kyle O’Leary; Remy McKenna (0-6, 2f), Reece Treanor.
Subs used: Dylan McKenna (0-2), James Owens.
The Division Five lost out to a strong Aghabog team. Harps keeper Jack Deery made a number of fine saves before moving outfield to score a goal himself, while Kevin Hall bagged a hat-trick, but Aghabog had too much for our lads on the day.
U-12: Both Under-12 football teams are at home to Clontibret this Saturday, with the games getting underway at 12 noon.
Good luck: To the county minor hurlers, including our own Brendan McQuaid, Conor Cahill, Micheál Ó Mordha and Rory McCann, in this Saturday’s Ulster MHC game against Cavan.
Congratulations: Congrats and best wishes to Shea McAleer and Seaneen, who got married last weekend and to Pat Murphy and Zoë, who got engaged recently.
Aido File: Following their championship success, our Under-14s turned their attention to the league. On Monday night the wee lads beat a determined and strong Truagh team. Mark Murphy and Nathan O’Donoghue shone throughout the game with Mark scoring a goal of note!
Handball: Congratulations to Conor McCrystal, who defeated Tydavnet’s Liam McCague on Saturday last to become the County Under-11 Champion 2011. This was a great achievement for the Harps player and just reward for all the hours of practice. Conor won a very close first game 15-5 and quickly followed up with excellent serves in the second to complete the win. The county had decided to make the competition open to all clubs and to have an unseeded draw. This gave six of our players an opportunity to enter the competition and take their chances in the open draw. There were 17 entries from four clubs. Along with Conor, there were notable performances from Josh Maguire, Lorcan O’Rourke, Conor Myles, Dylan Maguire, Seán Conway and Justas. The next competition to look forward to is the National One-Wall tournament in Breaffy House, Castlebar at the end of June. Entry forms can be downloaded from the handball website www.gaahandball.ie.
