Fixtures: Saturday, September 5: Under-14 FL Division Four Shield S-F v Corduff (Home) at 12pm

Sunday, September 6: SFC v Scotstown in Truagh at 6.15pm

Monday, September 7: Under-12 HL Final v Keady in Cremartin at 6.30pm

Tuesday, September 8: Under-14 FL Division One S-F v Castleblayney (Home) at 6.45pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 1, 4, 12 and 25. Jackpot of €1,600 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Jimmy Hughes c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Leo McBride c/o Barry Sullivan; €40 Gareth Treanor c/o Ann Treanor; €40 Irene McGinn c/o Neil McGinn. Jackpot for Sunday, September 6 is €1,700 and Maria and Hugh McKenna are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome.

 

Seniors: We face Scotstown in Round 2A of the Greenfield Foods Senior Football Championship in Truagh this Sunday at 6.15pm. Please support!

 

Handball: We hosted a homecoming reception for our world champion handballers in the clubhouse last Sunday night. We were joined by Ulster Council President Martin McAviney, Monaghan County Board Vice-Chairman Michael Owen McMahon and eight of Monaghan’s ten representatives at the World Championships: the five Harps players plus Darren Doherty, Paul Cassidy and Pete Larkin. Presentations were made to Eoghan and Louise McGinnity, Seán Callan and Conor McDonnell, as well as Martin McEntee for his efforts in coaching the juvenile handballers, while Club Chairman Seán McKenna, Michael and the two Martins all spoke well. Thanks to everyone involved in organising the night and to the large crowd who joined us.

 

U-12: Our Under-12 Division One team won their Shield Final against Magheracloone in Blackhill last Saturday. We played against the wind in the first 20 minutes and in an evenly-matched start, points by Jamie Coyle, Shay Cooney and Tiarnán O’Rourke gave us a narrow lead. Magheracloone scored the opening goal to edge ahead, but Shay, Nathan Lavery and Jake Power all found the net for the Harps to give us a 3-3 to 1-6 lead at the break. Shay cleverly palmed home his second goal early on in the final period, before Jake and Luke McManus added points and Jamie Coyle flicked in another goal as we began to put some distance between the teams. Luke and Shay kicked another point each and although Magheracloone refused to give in and hit back with a couple of goals, Jamie Cooney found the net to help us secure a 6-7 to 3-8 win. It took a good team performance to see off a strong challenge from Magheracloone. Daragh Croarkin was commanding in goals, with Ryan McSkeane, Liam Conway, Kevin Moran and Mark McManus working hard throughout in defence and Tiarnán O’Rourke and Nathan Lavery impressing at midfield. Shay Cooney, Luke McManus, Jamie Coyle and Jake Power showed well up front and all of our subs also contributed well, particularly Jamie Cooney and Gary Devlin.

Team and scorers: Daragh Croarkin; Ryan McSkeane, Liam Conway; Kevin Moran, Mark McManus; Tiarnán O’Rourke (Capt., 0-1), Nathan Lavery (1-0); Luke McManus (0-2), Shay Cooney (2-2, 0-1f); Jamie Coyle (1-1), Jake Power (1-1).

Subs used: Jamie Cooney (1-0), Gary Devlin, Josh Kelly, Ben Myers, Che Treanor, James Curley, Conor Treanor, Diarmuid Magee, Dean Conlon, Seán Callan.

Well done to our three Under-12 teams and all mentors involved (Jimmy Croarkin, Pádraig Callan, Colm Shalvey, Mel McMorrow, Martin Sheridan, Séamus McManus, Jim McConnon, Gareth Swift) for their efforts this year. We will be staging a street league for U-12s in the coming weeks, full details to follow.

 

Darkness into Light: The cheque presentation for Darkness into Light Monaghan 2015 and the planting of the memory tree will take place at the Harps grounds this evening (Thursday) at 8pm.

 

Minors: Our minor footballers fell just short in the Division One Shield Final against Clontibret in Tyholland last Tuesday evening. Points by Shane McMahon, Jack Deery and Reece Treanor kept our lads well in touch throughout the first half and they led by two heading towards the interval until a burst of 1-1 gave Clontibret a 1-4 to 0-5 advantage. Clontibret pushed on after the restart, with a Conor Duffy point and a free by Shane proving to be our only scores of the third quarter, but a thrilling finish saw a Darragh Hannon goal and points by Shane (two) and Thomas Croarkin close the gap from eight points to two. Clontibret got the last score, however, to secure a 2-10 to 1-10 win. Thanks to John Hahessy, Johnny Sherry, Gary McAleer and the players for their efforts all year in a competitive division.

Team and scorers: Conor Flynn; Thomas Croarkin (0-1), Evan Cudden, Ruairí Forde; Aidan Burns, David Lowry (Capt.), Kyle O’Leary; Remy McKenna, Dillon Duffy; Reece Treanor (0-2f), Shane McMahon (0-5, 2f), Jack Deery (0-1); John Mulligan, Darragh Hannon (1-0), Conor Duffy (0-1).

Subs: Niall McManus for Burns (40 mins), Kevin Lyden for O’Leary (46).

Rest of panel: Dylan McKenna, Shane McKenna, Dylan McAree, Jamie Shields, Ethan Murphy, Nathan O’Donoghue, Anthony Greenan.

 

U-14: Our Under-14 Division One team are due to play their league semi-final at home to Castleblayney on Tuesday evening, but this game could be rescheduled so check online for confirmation. Our Division Four team had a play-off against St. Tiarnach Sarsfields on Tuesday, and they now host Corduff in a Shield semi-final on Saturday.

 

Hurling final tickets: Anyone who wants to be entered into the club’s draw for tickets for Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final should contact Lorcan McAdam on 087 8505446 no later than this evening (Thursday). The draw will take place at 8.30pm in the clubhouse.

 

Blitz: Well done to everyone who took part in the U-8 blitz in Clones last Saturday. We host a double blitz at Gavan Duffy Park this Saturday morning. All help appreciated.

 

Harps hats: Hats with the club crest are for sale now at a cost of €8. They are available in the clubhouse and the shop at home matches, or by contacting Una Forde (087 6107329).

 

Vetting: Anyone who has received their Garda vetting clearance form is asked to provide a photocopy to Tommy McCabe.

 

Gavan Duffy Park: The Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 or Pádraig Callan on 087 2139188 for more information. Anyone looking to book the clubhouse for meetings, functions, etc. is asked to please give a week’s notice for convenience.

 

Hurling:

U-12: Our U-12s (sponsored by Mono Furniture) look forward to their league final against Keady which is fixed for this Monday, September 7 at 6.30pm in Cremartin. Well done to the U-12 football squad and their management who won their Division One Shield final last Saturday. Some of the panel will be playing for a football and hurling league double when they take on Keady this Saturday. Best of luck to Jim, Jimmy and the whole squad.

U-16: The Under-16 squad faced Carrickmacross in the championship semi-final on Monday evening last. Carrick started the better and tagged on a few scores without reply in the opening five minutes before the Harps got on the scoresheet. Carrick weren’t to be stopped from reaching half-time with a commanding lead. It was clear from the outset that much of the Harps team that were involved in the previous evening’s minor final were struggling in the heavy conditions and this only served to compound the situation as we found it hard to provide any real threat going forward in the second half. To their credit our lads battled fiercely to the end but Carrick pushed on to record a convincing 3-18 to 0-3 win. Hard luck to Jim, Michael and the whole squad.

Minor: We celebrated a minor championship title last Sunday evening in Tyholland after a hard-earned win over Castleblayney. With neither team settling into the game particularly well it was the eighth minute before Aidan Burns opened the scoring for the Harps. However, this was soon followed by two frees converted off the stick of Conor Flynn before Liam Neeson finished well to the Blayney net to open up a 1-3 lead after 13 minutes. Castleblayney soon registered their first score of the game before the Harps lads hit a purple patch during which Tommy Croarkin was unlucky not to find the target after driving through the Blayney defence. Scores through Burns and Flynn followed this and were added to by the hard-working Nathan O’Donoghue and Niall McManus to bring us in with a 1-12 to 0-1 lead at half-time. A Harps red card just before the half meant some reshuffling during the break and Blayney were quick to pounce on this with a goal immediately from the throw-in but despite the man advantage in the Blayney forward line the Harps were quick to find their feet and our captain Cathal Power steadied the ship with a pointed free from range. The game by now had become much more settled with each team posing plenty problems for the other. Nathan O’Donoghue’s effort on goal was well stopped and Andrew Connolly was unlucky on a couple of occasions not to find the net but insurance scores from Kieran McQuaid, Power and Burns allowed the Harps maintain their advantage to finish on a scoreline of 1-20 to 1-7 with a total of seven players on the scoresheet. Well done to the whole squad who have now achieved the league and championship double.

Squad & Scorers: Dylan McAree, Conor Duffy, Cathal Power (0-4), Anthony Greenan, Ruairí Forde, Reece Treanor, Tommy Croarkin, Liam Quinn, Niall McManus (0-1), Conor Flynn (0-7), Ciarán Cassidy, Kieran McQuaid (0-1), Liam Neeson (1-0), Aidan Burns (0-6), Nathan O’Donoghue (0-1).

Cillian Sherry for Cassidy, Andrew Connolly for Neeson, Michael Gissane for O’Donoghue, Evan Cudden for Greenan, Luke Mulligan for Forde, Seán Grant, Remy McKenna.