Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 3, 11, 21 and 22. Jackpot of €1,700 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Matty Bradley c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Páraic Donnelly c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Rose Donnelly c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Hennessy grandchildren c/o Noel Hennessy. Jackpot for Sunday, March 12 is €1,800 and Ann and Adrian Trappe are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in our clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. Thanks to everyone for their support for our Lotto, which plays a critical role in our club’s funding. We ask all club members to continue to promote our Lotto as much as possible.

 

Reserves: The fixtures for 2017 began with a keenly-contested Reserve Football League Division 2B game away to Éire Óg last Sunday. We trailed by 1-6 to 0-5 at half-time, despite points by Shane McMahon and Dylan McKenna, but an improved second-half performance brought us back into it, with Francis Lynch and Shane among the scorers. Points by Conor Duffy and Niall Greenan gave us a two-point lead late on and despite some late pressure, we held on for a hard-earned 0-15 to 1-10 win.

Team: Dessie McGarry (Capt.); Aidan Connell, Aidan Burns, Paul Smyth; Conor Forde, John Mulligan, Francis Lynch; James McKenna, Remy McKenna; Ruairí Forde, Shane McMahon, Conor Duffy; Colm Shalvey, Dylan McKenna, Niall Greenan.

Subs: Conor Flynn for Connell (inj.), Pat Meehan for J McKenna (inj.), Jamie Shields for R Forde, Reece Treanor for Shalvey.

We start our RFL Division 1A campaign away to Scotstown this Sunday at 2pm. Good luck to all involved.

 

U-14: Our two Under-14 football teams start their league campaigns this Saturday: away to Magheracloone in Division One at 2pm and away to Scotstown in Division Five at 4.30. Good luck to all involved.

 

Race night: We host a race night in our clubhouse on Friday, March 24. Anyone who wants to get involved can sponsor a horse for €10 by contacting any adult player.

 

Meetings: The club’s monthly meetings for March take place this Thursday in the clubhouse: juvenile at 7pm, senior at 8pm.

 

Membership: Registration fees of €20 for 2017 can now be paid to club registrar Kevin Treanor or in the clubhouse. All players and members must be paid up by the end of March and are asked to register as soon as possible. Members can now avail of the GAA’s new ‘GRMA’ scheme, with access to exclusive discounts and special offers. See gaa.ie for more details.

 

Dates to remember: The Senior Football League is scheduled to start on Saturday, April 8 (away to Killanny), with the Minor Football League getting underway on Tuesday, March 28. Provisional fixtures for 2017 are available on our website. Our annual Cake Sale is set for Saturday, April 29, while our Saturday-morning coaching for juveniles will also kick off in April and our juveniles will again be taking part in the St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 17. We will be participating and hosting at Féile Peil na nÓg 2017 (June 23-25), a week after our juvenile street collection. Darkness into Light 2017 will take place in the early hours of Saturday, May 6. Keep an eye on club notes for more details on these events.

History night: We will host another club reminiscence night in the clubhouse on Wednesday, March 22 at 8pm.

 

Juveniles: Training has commenced for all of our juvenile football teams. We will be entering an Under-16 team and two teams at Under-14 and Under-12 levels. The following are the start dates for fixtures: Saturday, March 18 for U-12s (Spring League); and Thursday, March 30 for U-16s. Well done to all our young players who have been taking part in the indoor leagues at Coláiste Oiriall in recent weeks.

 

Coaching: There are several upcoming coaching courses/workshops. These include a Skill Development Workshop for U-14/U-16 coaches scheduled for our own grounds on Monday, March 27. Check the Monaghan GAA website and contact Pádraig Callan if you wish to attend any. Keep an eye out for details about a possible upcoming Child Protection course.

 

Notes: Anyone who has news for inclusion in the club notes can send an email to pro.monaghanharps.monaghan@gaa.ie by Tuesday morning.

 

Gavan Duffy Park: The refurbished Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 or Pádraig Callan on 087 4515206 for more information. Anyone looking to book the clubhouse for meetings, functions, etc. is asked to please give a week’s notice for convenience.

 

Handball: We have 3 players into the All-Ireland finals following victory for Tiarnán O’Rourke, Konrad Kowal and Justas Dambinskas over Kerry and Clare. Tiarnán, although injured, outlasted his Kerry opponent Seán Quirke as he recovered to snatch a close match 15-14 in U-14 singles.

A nail-biting tiebreak was required for Justas and Konrad against Clare’s Conor Downes and Fionn Slattery. Well done boys on a marvellous achievement. The mighty Kilkenny will be tough opponents in two weeks.