Fixtures:
Tuesday, September 25: RFL Division One Play-Off v Latton in Cloghan at 8pm
Saturday, September 29: SFL v Clontibret (Away) at 5pm; Under-14 FL Division Five Shield Final v Emyvale in Scotstown at 11.30am
Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 4, 6, 23 and 28. Jackpot of €8,200 not won. Residual prizes: €100 M Doherty c/o Barry Sullivan; €40 Claire Breakey c/o Ladies Club;€40 Mickey McNelis c/o Donal Sherry; €40 Seán Donohue c/o Noel Hennessy. Jackpot for Sunday, September 30 is€8,350 and Ann and Adrian Trappe are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. Please continue to support our club lotto. If you’re not in, you can’t win!
Recreational tournament:We hosted a very successful recreational football tournament at Gavan Duffy Park last Saturday in memory of deceased club members. With a great turnout of players on the day, including some former stars, our team manager Val Forde had a selection dilemma on his hands, but he managed to keep most of his panel happy. The Harps defeated Eskra and Clontibret in the group stage to book a place in the cup final against Scotstown, where they held off a strong challenge from Scotstown, with Mattie McGleenan being named Man of the Match. Eskra and Truagh contested the shield final, which Eskra won, while the plate final saw Clontibret get the better of Éire Óg. The cup and shield were named in honour of Peter McNelis, Brendan McCann, John Mulholland and Tom Cuddy, while the plate was in memory of Kieran Morgan. We were blessed with a rare day of beautiful weather, so someone must have been smiling down on us. The club offers sincere thanks to everyone who helped out or contributed in any way to this tournament and we thank all the clubs who took part. A longer report and photos of the day will be available on the club website in the coming days and a full list of thanks will be in next week’s notes. It is intended to make this an annual event, so mark the same weekend in your calendars for 2013!
Minors: The minor footballers are raising funds for next month’s championship final with a breakfast morning at the clubhouse this Sunday morning from 10am-12.30pm. Tickets cost €8 and are available from minor players and management and other club members. The lads will don their aprons and chef’s hats, which promises to be worth the admission fee alone! All support would be greatly appreciated.
SFL: The senior footballers returned to winning ways with an important 1-15 to 0-11 victory over Castleblayney in Oram last Saturday. Our lads made a perfect start when Emmett McArdle got on the end of a long ball to fire a low shot into the net and although Blayney drew level with three unanswered points, scores from Nicholas Treanor (free) and David Hughes regained our lead. A hat-trick of well-taken points by Donal Hahessy and further efforts from Conor Galligan and Neil McAdam had our lads 1-7 to 0-4 ahead at half-time. Blayney, who were now playing with the wind, got the first two points of the second half, but points from Donal (two), Conor, Dean Fanning, Nicholas Scott and Shane Smyth kept our lads well clear. Fisted points in the closing minutes from David Hughes and Conor took our tally from open play to 1-14 and left seven between the teams in the end. The lads have another important game away to Clontibret on Saturday, with another result needed to secure our senior status.
Team and scorers: Mark Hughes; Paul Rushe, Stephen Driver, Niall Hahessy; Aodhán Óg McAnespie, Conor Galligan (0-3), David Hughes (0-2); Gary White, Neil McAdam (Capt., 0-1); Shane Smyth (0-1), Dean Fanning (0-1), Nicholas Scott (0-1); Donal Hahessy (0-5), Nicholas Treanor (0-1f), Emmett McArdle (1-0).
Subs: Niall Greenan for Rushe (inj., 21 mins), Gareth Treanor for D Hughes (56), Peter Coyle for White (57), Shane Coyle for Fanning, David Loughran for McArdle (both 58).
U-14: The Under-14 Division Five team qualified for the shield final with a comprehensive win at home to Scotstown last Friday evening. The lads led by 2-4 to 1-2 at the end of the first quarter, with goals by Ryan McKenna and Michael Mulligan and points from Michael and Nathan O’Donoghue. Michael added his second goal and a brace of points in the second quarter, while substitute Conor McCrystal also found his range to make the half-time score 3-7 to 1-3, before our lads pulled away in the penultimate quarter, thanks to goals by Colin Peppard and Conor and a string of points from Conor (five), Aaron Coyle (two), Colin and Michael. Seán McKenna and Corey McArdle found the net in the final quarter before Michael took our total to 7-17. The lads will play Emyvale in the shield final in Scotstown on Saturday at 11.30am. Good luck to all involved. All support welcome.
Team and scorers: Dylan McAree; Anthony Greenan, Seán McKenna (1-0), Zach Mallon; Soky John, Armands Kamkovkis; Nathan O’Donoghue (0-2, 1f), Ryan McKenna (1-0), Michael Mulligan (2-6, 0-1f)
Subs used: Conor McCrystal (1-6, 0-1f), Aaron Coyle (0-2, 1f), Colin Peppard (1-1), Stephen Ward, Seán Conway, Adam O’Neill, Shane McCabe, Corey McArdle (1-0).
Lotto direct debit: A direct-debit scheme for the Harps Lotto has been developed and forms are being handed out at present. Contact Owen Connell or any committee member for more details.
Reserves: The O’Duffy Cup team play Latton tonight (Tuesday) in the first RFL Division One play-off in Cloghan at 8pm. All support welcome. The winners are due to play Clontibret in Cloghan next Tuesday.
Sponsored walk: The juvenile club’s annual sponsored walk and fun day will now take place on Saturday week (October 6), not this Saturday as was originally planned. All support welcome.
All-Ireland tickets: Anyone interested in entering the draw for the club’s All-Ireland hurling final replay tickets should contact Club Secretary Lorcan McAdam before 8pm this Thursday. Last week’s draw for the football final tickets was won by Jimmy Croarkin and Nicholas Scott.
Clubhouse: There are a number of upcoming events in the Monaghan Harps clubhouse. First up is a guest tea on October 5 (contact Seán Boyle for more details), followed by a Mr. and Mrs. (Part Two) in November. A Poker Classic and a table quiz are also being planned for the coming months. More details to follow.
By michael Tue 25th Sep
