Monaghan Harps
Fixtures: Thursday, June 21: SHC v Carrickmacross (Home) at 8pm; Under-16 FL Division One v Doohamlet (Away) at 7pm; Under-14 FL Division One v Clontibret (Home) at 7pm
Friday, June 22: RFL Division Four v Clones (Home) at 8pm
Saturday, June 23: Under-21 FL Division One (North) v Clontibret (Home) at 7pm; Under-12 FL Division One v Emyvale (Home) at 1.15pm; U-12 FL Division Five v Aghabog (H) at 12pm
Tuesday, June 26: MFL Division One v Clontibret (Away) at 8pm
Meetings: The monthly club meeting takes place tonight (Thursday) at 8pm.
Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 2,12,14,18. Jackpot of €6,100 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Liz Brennan c/o Self; €40 Jerry Kerr c/o Nicholas Scott; €40 Seamus McCarville c/o Neil McGinn; €40 Sarah O’Neill c/o Brian O’Sullivan. Jackpot for Sunday, 24th June is €6,250. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome.
Juvenile Collection: Our annual juvenile collection takes place this Friday and Saturday. All help is gratefully appreciated. We are working in two hour slots: 9-11, 11-1, 1-3 and 3-5. Please contact any committee member with your preferred time if you are available to help.
Seniors: After Ballybay and Carrickmacross drew in the SFC, our next senior match will not be until the weekend of July 6th – 8th.
Reserves: The O’Duffy Cup team drew at home to Scotstown in the league last Wednesday evening. A couple of points from Liam Hahessy kept us in touch in an evenly-matched opening quarter, while Conor Devlin also got forward to get his name on the scoresheet. Niall Hahessy, Paul Kelly and Nicholas Treanor added points before half-time, but we conceded a goal to leave us trailing by 1-5 to 0-6 at the interval. A brace of frees by Nicholas brought us level early in the second half and it remained neck-and-neck throughout the half, with Nicholas and Liam keeping us in touch. Scotstown edged ahead once more late on, but Nicky kicked a fine point from play to give us a share of the spoils. The O’Duffy Cup team played Castleblayney on Tuesday night (see website for result).
Team and scorers: Conall McKenna; Conor Devlin (0-1), Niall McKenna, Johnny Sherry; Séamus Brannigan, Paddy Kelly, Niall Hahessy (0-1); Paddy Connolly, Robbie Moyna; Paul Kelly (0-1), Nicholas Treanor (Capt., 0-6, 5f), David Loughran; Finnian McKenna, Bernard Murphy, Liam Hahessy (0-4, 1f).
Subs: Fionntán Cassidy for N Hahessy (inj.), John McCoy for Murphy, Donal Cuddy for F McKenna, Colm Shalvey for Loughran.
The Crawley Cup team won away to Fergal O’Hanlons on Saturday evening. A well-taken goal by Finnian McKenna helped us into a 1-6 to 1-1 half-time lead and we pulled away in the second half to secure the two points, with Bernard Murphy, Donal Cuddy, Séamus Brannigan, John McCoy and Jimmy Croarkin also among our scorers. We are out again tomorrow night (Friday) at home to Clones.
Team and scorers: Ronan McGann; Fionntán Cassidy, Niall Brannigan, Donal Cuddy; Séamus Brannigan (Capt.), Johnny Sherry, Niall Greenan; John McCoy, Robbie Moyna; Dean Treanor, Mark Mulhall, Colm Shalvey; Finnian McKenna, Bernard Murphy, Lorcan McAdam.
Subs: Jimmy Croarkin for McAdam, Dermot Brannigan for Treanor.
U-21: Our Under-21 footballers played their first league game away to Scotstown last night (Wednesday) – see www.monaghanharps.gaa.ie for details – and they are at home to Clontibret on Saturday.
Minors: Our minor footballers return to league action after the Leaving Cert with an important game away to Clontibret next Tuesday.
U-16: Our Under-16s are also back after the exam break with a league game away to Doohamlet this evening (Thursday) at 7pm.
U-14: Our Under-14 Division Five footballers fell to a narrow defeat at home to Aghabog in the league last Saturday. Despite very difficult conditions, the teams produced an entertaining game with some great scores. Despite a goal by Michael Mulligan and a point, our lads trailed by 0-5 to 1-1 by the end of the first quarter, but the Harps battled back to draw level at 3-4 to 1-10 by half-time, thanks to goals by Conor McCrystal and Michael and points by Aaron Coyle, Seán McKenna and Conor. Oisín Power came on to score 2-1 in the third quarter and Michael completed his hat-trick to give our lads the advantage, but Aghabog stayed in touch and could have been closer but for a couple of great saves by Dylan McAree. The final quarter saw Oisín kick a fine point and Conor get a brilliant goal, but they were our only scores and Aghabog hit a string of points to edge us out in the end on a scoreline of 2-22 to 7-6 (28-27!)
Team and scorers: Dylan McAree; Jordan Clerkin, Anthony Greenan, Zach Mallon; Seán McKenna (0-1), Michael Mulligan (3-0); Nathan O’Donoghue, Kelvin Cawley, Liam Leonard (0-1f).
Subs used: Conor McCrystal (2-1, 0-1 ’45), Aaron Coyle (0-1), Oisín Power (2-2, 0-1f), Colin Peppard.
Our Under-14 Division One team are at home to Clontibret this evening, Thursday.
U-12: Both of our Under-12 football teams are at home on Saturday. The Division Five team play Aghabog at 12 noon, which is followed by the Division One match against Emyvale at 1.15.
U-10: Our Under-10 footballers represented the Harps and Monaghan at an Ulster/Leinster Blitz in Carryduff, Co Down last Saturday. The lads did themselves and their mentors Jimmy Croarkin and Pádraig Callan very proud by reaching the semi-finals of the Peter Cassidy tournament. After qualifying from a group involving teams from Kildare, Armagh and Antrim, the Harps were knocked out in the last four by eventual winners, Erin’s Own from Lavey in Derry.
Good luck: Best of luck to the Monaghan senior and minor footballers in Sunday’s Ulster SFC and MFC semi-finals against Down in Armagh, especially our own representatives: Neil McAdam, David Hughes, Shane Smyth and Conor Galligan with the seniors, Michael Galligan with the minors and minor manager Colin McAree.
Cúl Camp: As usual, we are hosting a Monaghan GAA Cúl Camp this year, taking place from July 9-13. The cost is €55 for one child, €45 for a second child and €40 for additional children. Full details are available on the Monaghan GAA website.
Aido file: Congratulations to the U-14 hurlers who won the double following their success in the league final on Sunday. This result will put the lads in good stead as they prepare for feile and showed how despite missing key players they have the reserves on the bench. At the back all players formed a wall that Carrick struggled to break down but in particular Sean McKenna and Conor Duffy gave it their all. The backline ably lead in by joint team captains by Sean Grant and Thomas Croarkin. Our scores came from Remy McKenna score 1-3 from play and Cathal Power’s precision from frees. The lads cannot afford to rest though with feile coming soon. Our seniors host Carrickmacross tonight in the senior championship at 8 in Gavin Duffy Park, please come to support the locals as they look to get their season on track.
By michael Tue 19th Jun
