Fixture: RFL Division Three v Killeevan (Home) at 2pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 3, 15, 26 and 27. Jackpot of €1,100 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Pamela Treanor c/o Barry Sullivan; €40 Emmet Smith c/o Noel Hennessy; €40 ‘Barry’s Dozen’ c/o Jim Dalton (Hurling Club); €40 Betty Clerkin c/o Séamus Treanor. Jackpot for Sunday, March 1 is €1,200 and Monica and Paudge Connolly are on duty. All support for our Lotto is greatly appreciated.

 

Membership: Membership fees for 2015 are being maintained as follows: €20 per adult, €10 per child or €50 for a family of two adults and any number of children. Money can be paid in the clubhouse each Sunday night, or any time to registrar Dermot Coyle (086 0734098) Jimmy Croarkin (087 1249635), Peter Coyle (087 9700858), or in Terry’s Bar or the Cosy Bar. Players (and parents of juveniles) at all levels are reminded that they must be registered before they can play in competitions. All members must be paid up by March 31 to have voting rights at the club’s AGM.

 

Juvenile presentation: The club’s juvenile presentation night took place in the clubhouse last Saturday. Juvenile Chairman Damien Morgan welcomed the huge crowd for a busy night, which marked a very successful 2014 for our young players in all sections of the club. Jim Dalton introduced the Under-12 Under-14 and Under-16 hurlers, before Gerard Clerkin and Martin McEntee congratulated all who had participated and enjoyed success in Scór and handball. Pádraig Callan called up the Under-12 Division 1A and Division 3B winners, Finbarr Conlon introduced the Under-14 Division One Shield winners, Brendan Burns announced the Under-14 Division Five runners-up and Michael O’Donoghue named the Under-16 Division One League and Championship double winners. Martin Sheridan also introduced the Monaghan Town Under-10 Community Games Football team, who won county and Ulster titles before coming third in the All-Ireland weekend. The bar has been set high for 2015! Thanks to Peter Coyle, Conor Galligan and Shane Smyth for presenting the medals, to everyone who attended or brought food and to everyone involved, on and off the pitch, in making it a very smooth-running and enjoyable night. See elsewhere in the paper for photos.

 

Reserves: Our first competitive fixture of 2015 is this Sunday’s RFL Division Three game at home to Killeevan. Good luck to new manager Michael Buckley and the team. The Reserve Football Championship draws took place on Monday night. We will be away to Clontibret in the first round of the O’Duffy Cup, with the winners to play Cremartin away, while in the McKeown Cup opening round, we host Emyvale, with an away game against Clones on offer for the winners.

 

Dates to remember: Two club events coming up next month are the town’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17 and the Juvenile Club’s Cake Sale in the Shopping Centre on Saturday, March 21. We are also preparing to host the second Darkness into Light Monaghan 5km walk/run in the early morning of Saturday, May 9, while our annual Juvenile Club Street Collection will take place on June 20 & 21. On the pitch, our senior footballers will start their league on Sunday, March 22 away to Donaghmoyne, with our RFL Division One and MFL Division One campaigns to begin on March 7 and March 17 respectively. The start dates for the underage competitions are as follows: Under-16 Football League: April 9; Under-14 Football Leagues: March 14: Under-12 Spring Leagues: March 21. Provisional club fixtures for 2015 can be viewed on our website, www.monaghanharps.gaa.ie.

 

Management: Our team mentors for 2015 are as follows: Seniors: Cathal McAnenly, Adrian Trappe; O’Duffy Cup: Declan McArdle, Jimmy Croarkin; McKeown Cup: Michael Buckley; U-21: Michael Buckley, Maurice Galligan; Minors: John Hahessy, Gary McAleer, Johnny Sherry; U-16s: Michael O’Donoghue, Thomas McCabe, Brian Lenehan; U-14s (two teams): Finbarr Conlon, Mel McMorrow, Chris Conway, Brendan Burns; U-12s (three teams): Jimmy Croarkin, Pádraig Callan, Colm Shalvey, Mel McMorrow, Martin Sheridan.

 

Know Your Sport: Our senior team’s Know Your Sport fundraiser is up and running, with forms available from all players. Time is running out to get your name in to answer the 20 questions, prove your knowledge of a range of sports and gain bragging rights in the club! Entries cost €10 each, with a prize-fund of €300. All support appreciated.

 

Pitch bookings: All pitch bookings for matches and training sessions this year must be made via 086 1957155. Training times have been allotted and any changes must be notified. Mentors are reminded that the main pitch remains closed until March 10 on the advice of the grounds development committee.

 

Clubhouse: The Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 for more information.

 

County/Colleges teams: Good luck to Neil McAdam and the Monaghan senior footballers in this Sunday’s NFL game against Mayo in Castlebar. Hard luck to Kevin Loughran, Fearghal McMahon and the county Under-21 footballers on last Sunday’s Shamrock Cup Final loss to Tyrone and to Fearghal on St. Pat’s, Drumcondra’s defeat in the Trench Cup decider last Saturday. Well done to Tessa Fleming and Muireann and Eimear O’Rourke on the ladies’ win over Cork.

 

Indoor Gaelic: We are coming towards the end of our Total Indoor Gaelic Football programme for Under-12s in the Barry McGuigan Sports Hall, Coláiste Oiriall. This takes place on Thursday at 5pm for children born in 2003 and on Friday at 5pm for those born in 2004 and 2005 (cost €2 per session). All current and new eligible players are welcome to attend. There is also indoor football currently running for U-10s on Mondays, with blitzes taking place on Saturday mornings.

 

Refereeing: Anyone interested in taking up refereeing at any level is asked to contact a committee member. For more information on the new ‘Put Your Whistle Where Your Mouth Is’ recruitment campaign, see the Monaghan GAA website.

 

Coaching: Monaghan Coaching & Games Development are running a series of Coach Education programmes and there are also a number of coaching workshops coming up in Cloghan in the next few weeks. See the Monaghan GAA website for more details.

 

Well done: To our own James McKenna, who won his bout in Ballybay’s white-collar boxing night at the Four Seasons Hotel last Saturday.

 

Hurling: The Harps senior hurlers have been drawn to play Carrickmacross in the championship preliminary round. The last man standing competition got off to a dramatic start last weekend, with Chelsea’s failure to beat Burnley the main reason for the 139 entrants already being reduced to just 24.