Fixtures: Saturday, March 15: Under-12 Spring League v Scotstown (Away) at 12pm and 1.15pm; Development HL v Clontibret (Away) at 5pm

Sunday, March 16: RFL Division Three v Blackhill (Home) at 2.30pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 1, 6, 8 and 20. Jackpot of €4,200 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Hugh McKenna c/o Maria McKenna; €40 Peter Carbin c/o Liadhan Treanor; €40 Emma Galligan c/o Ann Treanor; €40 Ben O’Sullivan c/o Eileen McElvaney. Jackpot for Sunday, March 16 is €4,300 and Monica and Paudge Connolly are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. The Lotto plays an essential part in the running of the club and we ask for everyone’s continued support. Please note that tickets can be brought down to the clubhouse from 7.45pm on Sundays.

 

Meetings: The club’s monthly juvenile and adult meetings for March take place this Thursday in the clubhouse at 7 and 9pm.

 

Family Fortunes: As part of our St. Patrick’s weekend celebrations, we host a ‘Family Fortunes’ night in the clubhouse on this Bank Holiday Sunday at 8.30pm. All sections of the club will be represented on the night and admission is just €5. All support welcome!

 

Reserves: An understrength O’Duffy Cup team fell to a six-point defeat at home to Clontibret in the league opener last Saturday. Liam Hahessy, Gerard Gilsenan, Niall Greenan, Ashley White and Conor McCaughey were on the scoresheet as we led through most of the first half, but a late goal sent Clontibret in level at 0-6 to 1-3. We struggled to score against the wind in the second half, allowing Clontibret to hit an unanswered 1-5 before Liam Hahessy converted a free. Niall Greenan added a fine point and Gerard found the net late on, but we lost out by 2-11 to 1-8. Our next game in this competition is away to Truagh on March 31.

Team and scorers: Cónall McKenna, Conor Burns, Peter Coyle (Capt.), Niall Treanor; Turlough Clerkin, Conor Devlin, Brendan McQuaid; Philip Drohan, Ashley White (0-1f); Francis Lynch, Conor McCaughey (0-1f), Niall Greenan (0-2); Liam Hahessy (0-3, 2f), Gerard Gilsenan (1-1), Evan Doherty.

Subs: David Mullen for Doherty (43 mins), Paul Smyth for Clerkin (48), Dessie McGarry for McCaughey (52).

This week, it’s back to RFL Division Three action with a home game against Blackhill in a repeat of last year’s championship final.

 

U-14: Our Under-14 Division One footballers had to settle for a draw in their first league game away to Scotstown last Saturday. Goals by Colin Peppard and Annan Connor got the Harps off to a good start and with Lochlainn Power also finding the net, the lads stayed ahead by 3-6 to 2-7 at half-time. Conor McCrystal led the scoring in the final two quarters, with Annan also on target to keep our lads in front until late on, but Scotstown rallied in the end to salvage a 3-11 apiece draw.

Team and scorers: Oisín Fagan; Seán Conway, Andrew Lyden; Killian Conlon, Lorcan O’Rourke (0-1), Brendan Óg Duffy; Annan Connor (1-2, 0-1f), Stephen Ward; Conor McCrystal (0-6, 1f, 1 ’45), Lochlainn Power (1-0), Corey McArdle (0-1); Shane McCabe (0-1f), Colin Peppard (1-0).

Subs used: Luke Coyle, Ryan Leonard.

 

St. Patrick’s Day: All of the club’s juveniles are invited to take part in the Monaghan town St. Patrick’s Day parade. Children should assemble at Gavan Duffy Park on Monday at 1.50pm, returning to the clubhouse afterwards for ceol agus craic.

 

Membership: Membership fees for 2014 can now be paid to Maurice Galligan, who is standing in for Dermot Coyle for the time being. Fees for 2014 are being maintained as follows: €20 per adult, €10 per child or €50 for a family of two adults and any number of children. Members must be paid up by the end of this month to have voting rights at our AGM and players must have fees paid to be covered for insurance.

 

GAA National Draw: The GAA National Club Draw takes place on Monday, St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Garda vetting: In keeping with best practice and child protection legislation, it is important that everyone involved in the club committee, coaching etc. completes a Garda vetting form. Children’s Officer Tommy McCabe is now completing an up-to-date audit of successfully vetted club personnel. If you have a certificate, please provide Tommy with a photocopy and if you need a vetting form, you can contact him at 087 7635891.

 

Fixtures: The Senior Football League will start on Sunday week, March 23, away to Scotstown and the minor league is to get underway on Tuesday week, March 25, also away to Scotstown. The start dates for juvenile competitions are as follows: Under-16 football: April 3; Under-12 hurling: June 2; Under-14 hurling: March 24; Under-16 hurling: June 23. Full club fixtures are now on our website.

 

Get fit: Circuit training with All-Ireland winner Ronan Clarke started in the clubhouse last week and will continue each Wednesday and Friday. Cost €5 per session.

 

Coaching courses: Anyone interested in doing a foundation coaching course or doing/renewing the child protection course on March 21/22 is asked to contact Una Forde on 087 6107329. Places on this course are now almost booked up.

 

Congratulations: On behalf of the entire club to Harps handballers Tiarnán O’Rourke, Eoghan McGinnity and Deivydas Kaklaskaus on their Ulster wins last weekend.

 

Well done: To Tiarnán Bramley, Ciarán McQuaid, Conor Flynn, Ciarán Cassidy, Reece Treanor, Ruairí Forde, coach Alan Ryan and the Monaghan minor hurlers on their comprehensive win over Louth in the league last Saturday and to Daragh Croarkin, Aidan Cunningham and Evan Meehan, who played at half-time in Monaghan’s National Hurling League win over Louth last Sunday.

 

Good luck: To Fearghal McMahon, Michael Galligan and the Monaghan Under-21s in the Ulster championship against Down next Wednesday night in Inniskeen.

 

Hurling:

 

Bag Pack: The club will be holding a bag-packing fundraiser in Fleming’s this Friday (5pm-9pm) and Saturday (10am-4pm). Anyone that can spare some time to help out is asked to contact Jim Dalton on 087 2026084 to arrange a time slot.

 

Seniors: Our 2014 season gets underway this Saturday with an away fixture against Clontibret in the Development League. Throw-in is at 5pm.

 

Ladies: The first Harps Ladies game of 2014 took place in Rooskey last Saturday against Truagh in the reserve league. Unfortunately, we were defeated by three points in a tight game that was there for the taking. The team was: Allison Treanor, Dearbhla Lenehan (Capt.), Shauna Hetherington, Laura McManus, Hannah Clerkin, Jennifer Treanor, Gráinne Treanor, Emma Clerkin (Vice-Capt.), Orla Whelan, Carla Doherty, Maria Ferguson & Sinéad Maguire. Final score was 1-11 to 2-5

Congratulations to Dearbhla Lenehan and Emma Clerkin on being named captain and vice-captain respectively of the Harps Reserve Team. Good luck and fingers crossed it’s a successful year!

An exciting night is in store for the club on Sunday, March 16, with Family Fortunes taking place down in the Clubhouse at 8pm. Entry fee is €5 and the Ladies ‘family’ will be made up of Rooney, Allo, Yvonne and Gráinne. Please all come down and give your support to the girls as they make eejits of themselves in front of all. It should be a good laugh for everyone and hopefully raise some much-needed funds for our club!

Reminder again to all that registration is due for 2014 and MUST be paid in the coming weeks to ensure you are eligible to play. Registration is: Over-18s €56, u-18 & u12 €41, u-10 €26, and non-playing members €31. For senior players that amounts to less than €2 per week … great value to play and be insured for the full year.

 

Handball:

Ulster Under-12 Champions:

Eoghan McGinnity won the Ulster Under 12 Singles at Kingscourt on Sunday last while Tiarnán O’Rourke and Deivydas Kaklauskas won the Ulster Under-12 Doubles. Eoghan was in excellent form against Tyrone’s Cahir Monroe. He started patiently and awaited his chance for a “kill” opportunity. He eventually dominated both games and ran out an easy winner on the scores 15-3, 15-5. Congratulations also to Tiarnán and Deivydas, who recovered from a nightmare start by falling 9-1 behind to Brian McAleer and Tiarnán McGarrity in their first game. Some astute changes made all the difference as Deivydas wowed the large gathering with magnificent serves and cheeky backwall returns – the best of which was played behind his back and landed into the top corner. Tiarnán produced his usual determined performance allied with good serves to win in straight games.

Jakub Szkup nearly caused an upset in the first game in the Under 13 singles against favourite Lorcan McBride. He led for most of the game but, when his Tyrone opponent levelled the scores at 11-each, the Monaghan player could not cope with the power and fitness and eventually came out second-best to an excellent player.

There were disappointing displays in the Under-13 and Under-14 doubles. While Konrad Kowal’s serves produced some scores, the Tyrone players were much sharper and won both games easily.

The Under-14 match was perhaps the most disappointing of the day as Caileán and Hubert certainly did not do themselves justice. Perhaps the fact that they had waited nearly six hours before getting to play had something to do with a dismal display.  Tyrone were deserved winners. The Ulster Under-14 singles final which was scheduled for Kingscourt on Sunday last was postponed. Justas will now meet Ronan Curran  in the refixed final in Monaghan this week. Neda played favourite Ciara Mullen in the girls’ U-14 final on Sunday and was delighted to get a score although the result was never in doubt.

All-Ireland semi-final:

Good luck to Paul Cassidy and Conor McDonnell in their semi-final against Wexford opponents in Tinryland, Carlow, on Saturday.