Fixtures: Tuesday, April 5: MFL Division One v Clontibret (Away) at 6.45pm
Thursday, April 7: RHL v Clontibret (Away) at 7pm
Friday, 8: RFL Division Four v Toome (Home) at 7pm
Saturday, April 9: RFL Division One v Truagh (Home) at 7pm
Under-14 Football Championship Division One v Scotstown (Away) at 12pm
Under-14 FC Division Five v Emyvale (Away) at 12pm
Monday, April 11: Under-14 HC v Carrickmacross (Home) at 7pm
Tuesday, April 12: MFL Division One v St. Pat’s (Home) at 7pm
Wednesday, April 13: RFL Division One v Cremartin (Away) at 7pm
Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 3, 4, 25 and 28. Jackpot of €1,600 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Gussy Hughes c/o Philomena Hughes; €40 Aoife Chatten c/o Seán Boyle; €40 J McCrudden c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Séamus McCarville c/o Neil McGinn. Jackpot for Sunday, April 10 is €1,750. Lotto draw takes place in the clubhouse every Sunday at 11pm. All welcome.
Reserves: The O’Duffy Cup team fell to a 0-14 to 1-6 defeat away to Clontibret last Saturday. We never got going in the first half, allowing Clontibret to open up a six-point lead. We improved in the second half, led by Gary White, who scored 1-4, including a well-taken penalty, but it wasn’t enough.
Team and scorers: Ronan McGann; Conn O’Hanlon (Capt.), Niall McKenna, Fionntán Cassidy; Gary Trappe, Gareth Treanor, Shane Coyle; Peter Coyle, Philip Drohan; Paul Kelly, Gary White (1-4, 1-0 pen, 0-2f), Nicky Treanor; Liam Hahessy (0-1), Bernie Murphy, Gary Murray (0-1).
Subs: Ciarán O’Connell for Cassidy, John McCoy for Murray, Finnian McKenna for Trappe.
The Crawley Cup team lost at home to Éire Óg on Sunday. After trailing by 0-4 to 0-3 at half-time, we conceded a goal early in the second half. Niall McKenna gave us hope with his second goal in a week, but we were unable to catch Éire Óg, who went on to win by 2-11 to 1-6.
Team: Mickey Buckley; Lorcan McAdam, Fionntán Cassidy (Capt.); Dermot Brannigan, Finnian McKenna, Séamus Brannigan; Niall McKenna, Ciarán O’Connell; Bernie Murphy, John McCoy, Adam Cullen; Colm Shalvey, Raymond Lee.
Subs used: Colin McAree and Jimmy Croarkin.
Both reserve teams are in action this weekend. The Crawley Cup team host Toome on Friday, while the O’Duffy Cup team are at home to Truagh on Saturday, with both games throwing in at 7pm.
Minors: The minor footballers started their MFL Division One campaign last Tuesday (March 29) with a 1-4 to 0-7 draw at home to Carrickmacross. Despite playing most of the game with 14 players, the lads worked hard to gain a share of the spoils, with Colm Flynn and Darren McMahon leading a fine defensive performance. The minors are away to Clontibret this evening (Tuesday, April 5) for a 6.45 throw-in All support welcome. Next Tuesday’s game is at home to St. Pat’s (Ballybay/Drumhowan) at 7pm.
U-14: Good luck to both Under-14 football teams, who play in the championship this Saturday at 12 noon. The Division One team are up against Scotstown, while the Division Five team travel to Emyvale.
U-16: The Under-16 footballers start their Division One league campaign with an away game against Killanny next Thursday (April 14).
Meetings: There is a meeting of the ground-development committee in the clubhouse this Thursday (April 7) at 7.30pm. The April club meeting takes place next Thursday (April 14), as does the April juvenile meeting.
County teams: Good luck to Neil McAdam, David Hughes, Conor Galligan, Shane Smyth, Stephen Driver and the county senior footballers, who attempt to retain their Division One status in the NFL when they play Mayo in Inniskeen on Sunday. Good luck also to both county minor teams on Saturday.
People’s History Project: Monaghan GAA Board are seeking two or three people from each club to take part in the People’s History Project. Participants would attend a series of workshops on Historical Research enabling them to make contributions to match programmes, yearbooks, GAA websites etc.
Aido File: Congratulations to our Under-14 hurlers who, after a challenge match against Middletown on Sunday morning, beat Clontibret on Monday evening to make it two wins from two. Performances from Conor Flynn and Remy McKenna as well as goals from Andrew Connolly made it a night to remember. Our seniors play Clontibret today (Thursday) in the reserve league so best of luck to all the lads in the year ahead.
Handball: The juvenile successes of recent weeks were surpassed on Saturday last when Terry McElvaney and his Minor Doubles partner Christopher McKenna (St. Mellan’s) reached the All-Ireland Final by virtue of a three-game victory over the much-fancied Leinster Champions, Niall O’Connor and Robert Maguire of Laois. By all accounts, this was a brilliant performance from the Monaghan pairing to win on the scores 21-11, 15-21 and 21-8. Terry and Christopher won the Under-16 Doubles All-Ireland two years ago and, with the standard of handball in the country so high at present; it was felt that it would be very difficult to reach another final. Congratulations lads on a fantastic achievement and good luck in the final. Their Cork opponents include the country’s best Minor player Killian Carroll.
