Aodh Ruadh is Up For The Match
Aodh Ruadh are staging the chat night to end all chat night’s ahead of the All-Ireland final with Joe Brolly, Brian McEniff, Kevin Cassidy and Brendan Devenney heading up the bill in Dorrian’s Imperial Hotel on Thursday, 18th September. Sean Perry will be your host as the experts assess Donegal’s chances of All-Ireland glory. We also have an undercard shaping up nicely with Niall McCready and Sylvester Maguire already signed up and Donegal Democrat Editor Michael Daly putting the searching questions. Doors are at 7pm and a great night’s entertainment is assured. Tickets priced just €10 are available in Shannon’s Corner, Pearse O’Neill’s and McCosker’s Centra.
Family Fund-raiser
Some funds are required to complete the fitness trail and provide a Hurling/Rebound Wall for youth coaching of all Gaelic games at Pairc Aodh Ruadh. Tom Daly is co-ordinating a small fund-raiser to meet some of the costs of these works. The Family Fund-raiser is a simple format where a family hosts ten people at a meal in their home for a donation of €20 each. With the prize of two stand tickets and Saturday night accommodation & dinner in Croke Park Hotel available – there has been good interest in the Family Fundraiser which gives each person who participates at €20 the opportunity to win this super prize. The draw will be made at Áras Aodh Ruadh on Monday 15th at 9pm. All returns should be made to Tom Daly by lunch-time on Monday the 15th.
Club members have undertaken this event in different ways, with some hosting their group of ten in smaller groups over two or three nights. The format can be varied to suit individual needs. €20 in respect of a minimum of 10 participants (€200) should be returned to Tom Daly together with a list of those who participated as their individual names can be entered in the draw. Each person who participates and makes a €20 donation will be entered in a draw for two stand tickets for the 2014 All Ireland Final and Double Room and dinner for two in the Croke Park Hotel on Saturday September 20th, the night before the Final. Details from Tom Daly or email ftdaly@hotmail.com. Aodh Ruadh supporters living away from Ballyshannon are particularly welcome to participate.
Football
Aodh Ruadh made their fifth and final trip to Inishowen for this division three league campaign to play their penultimate game at Urris. Both teams had much to play for but for very different reasons, Aodh Ruadh looking to win promotion out of the league, and Urris needing the points to make sure they avoided the drop down from it. In the end Urris’s need proved the greater as they emerged 0-10to 0-8 winners after a tough encounter. Despite the defeat, there were some solid performances, especially in the third quarter when the lads turned the game and were on top, during which we also saw two goal attempts come off the woodwork. Kerry Ryan did particularly well in the middle, as did Johnny Gallagher and Mickey Dolan at the back. The lads must now pick themselves up to make sure they can finish out the league campaign with a win in the final game at home to Naomh Bríd. Aodh Ruadh can still finish top of the league to ensure automatic promotion, but this defeat means we now need other results to go our way. We have pictures from the game and a full match report from David McLoone up on aodhruadh.org.
Aodh Ruadh reserves made the long trip to Clonmany on Saturday afternoon for the final away league game of the season. The Erne men knew that a win would wrap up the league title, but following Urris’s 0-7 to 0-6 victory Aodh Ruadh will have to wait a wee while longer before laying hold of the league honours. Urris clung on to win by the narrowest of margins. The wide count for Aodh Ruadh was at least 16, and in a day where there was so little between the sides, a bit more composure in front of goal would have won this game. The Aodh Ruadh defensive unit were solid keeping the hosts to a low score, and there was good energy in the middle and half forward lines. Nicky Sheerin won a sight of ball when he moved out to the half forward line. We have a full match report by David McLoone up on aodhruadh.org.
Aodh Ruadh’s under 16 championship dreams ended with a 1-14 to 1-10 defeat to Naomh Conaill in Glenties on Monday evening. It was a sorely disappointing evening for players and management, having been two points down at half time there was the real chance of forcing the contest to the third game. Unfortunately for Ballyshannon poor passing in the final third of the field proved our downfall and Glenties managed to get a good few turnovers on the back of this. Aodh Ruadh were without Dylan Gallagher who was injured, but Glenties had their injury problems too so there are no excuses offered on that account. Shane Dorrian was unlucky to see a gallant goal effort come back off the post and had that score gone in it would have drawn the game level with 10 minutes to go and the closing stages could have taken a different complexion. There were encouraging performances from Ronan McMullin and Gareth Sheerin, but beating Saint Eunan’s in the league county semi-final will require more intelligent and precise passing and better decision making in the final third of the field.
The Bakery Cup starts this Saturday 4.30pm – 5.30pm with a light training session.
The under 13s are back in action this Wednesday when they host Naomh Muire at 6.30pm in Father Tierney Park.
Under 10s did very well down in Ardara on the finals day last Friday and were unlucky not to come away with the spoils. This is the last week of the official season. We will be having the final skills test of the season on Friday evening at 6.30pm. Just to remind players of the four stations so they can be practicing ahead of the test. 1: Hand pass between poles off left and right. 2: Pick up and solo off left and right. 3: Kick pass between poles off left and right. 4: Point score and goal score. There will also be a mark for speed around the course. We will need some parents / guardians to help out with marking at stations, so if you are free we’d love to have your help. Then on Saturday we will be hosting senior and junior teams from Glencar Manorhamilton, Melvin Gaels, Grange and Saint Naul’s for the annual Mick Shannon under 10 tournament. The clubs will be competing for the two trophies up for grabs on the day and we will also be presenting the skills awards for the season too. With around a hundred children expected we need parents / guardians to help out by supplying a loaf of sandwiches, tray of buns or similar refreshments to help feed all present on the day. Also, we would appreciate if parents / guardians could lend a hand in the kitchen on the day.
Prizes for the second under 8 skills test will be presented at this Friday’s training which will be at the usual time of 6.30pm. There was a great display from the 26 players who took part. Part of the point of doing the skills test is to benchmark players’ progression over the season. For the first test the average points scored per player was 70.9. In last Friday’s test the average score was 80.7, which is great to see. On Saturday the under 8s will be taking part in the Southern Minor Board Finals day. The blitz takes place in Ballintra with Aodh Ruadh, Naomh Bríd, Naomh Ultan and Bundoran taking part. We will need assistance with transport to this game. All players, along with anyone available to drive to the blitz, are asked to assemble at Father Tierney Park at 9.30am this Saturday morning.
Under 6 training continues this Friday in Páirc Aoidh Ruaidh at 6.30pm.
We have signed up to Lucozade Kit Out Project. We are not asking people to start buying Lucozade, but could anyone who does drink it please note the code on the bottle under the wrapper and pass it to your manager or to Tracey Flood. Codes will be added to our account and we get some free kit. Please pass this on to your friends or anyone you know that drinks Lucozade and ask them to keep codes for the club. The more codes we collect the more gear we can get.
Hurling
The senior hurlers final competitive game of the season is down for this Saturday in O’Donnell Park, where they take on Saint Eunan’s in the championship, throw-in 6.30pm
The under 16s had a good win against Carndonagh in the Centre of Excellence in Convoy on Thursday. We were very slow to settle and only led at half time by four points. A much improved all round performance in the second half saw us run out convincing winners 3-15 to 2-6. The lads now play old rivals Buncrana this Thursday in the championship semi final in Buncrana. It is a big challenge for our lads against the very strong Inishowen men, but as always we’re sure our boys will give it everything they have. Thanks to our very loyal parents who once again drove the lads to the game as always your support is much appreciated. Thanks to Tara Keenaghan for the photographs she put up on the Aodh Ruadh CLG Facebook page.
The under 12s had a narrow win over Letterkenny Gaels in Father Tierney Park on Thursday, this very young team have had a tough campaign, but it was encouraging to finish the league with a win. They have now qualified for the C final which they play this Thursday against Burt in Hibernian Park, Burt. Another tough challenge faces the lads we wish them all the best in this game and hope they can build on recent encouraging form.
On Saturday last our under 8s made the short trip to Belleek to play Erne Gaels in a couple of challenge games. We had 20 players and fielded two teams. All had great fun, it’s great to see our neighbours taking up the caman again, there has always being a great hurling tradition in Belleek and thankfully the ancient game has returned to Erne Gaels. Many thanks to them for their great hospitality afterwards to young and old. We hope to have a return game in Ballyshannon before the end of the season. Thanks to all the parents who gave our youngest team great support and encouragement in Belleek, thanks to Andrea Gallagher for all the photographs she put on the Aodh Ruadh CLG Facebook page.
This Sunday sees the final all-county blitz for the season for the under 8s and under 10s at the Centre of Excellence in Convoy.
Donegal Social night
There will be a Donegal-themed social night in The Bridgend this Saturday 13th September with a viewing of the All-Ireland minor and senior semi-final victories over Dublin. There will be a few special guests present who will be able to give an inside view on how the minor game went! There will also be a draw for an All-Ireland final ticket with raffle tickets being sold on the night and all proceeds going to Aodh Ruadh.
Know your sport?
There will be a Know Your Sport quiz in Melly’s Bar this Friday 12th September in support of the Donegal GAA training fund. The action gets under way at 9pm so get yourself a team, pull on your county colours and test your sporting knowledge against the best quiz master Peter Gallagher can throw at you!
Bingo
The €400 bingo jackpot last Friday was shared between three winners. Bingo continues as usual this Friday night at 9pm in the Abbey Centre, with a €1,700 prize fund. Books priced at €10 for a full book, €5 for a half.
Lotto
There was no winner of the Aodh Ruadh Lotto Jackpot of €2,200. The numbers drawn were 5, 10, 11, 13, 15 and 18. In the lucky dip €20 went to Patsy McShea, Ballintra; Eamon Maguire, Clyhore; Anita Murray, The Mall; Claire Brosnan, Cluain Barron; and Mary Butler, Erne Dale Heights. Next week’s draw for a jackpot of €2,300 takes place at 8.30pm in Pat’s bar on Sunday.
€2,300.
The lotto team for McCosker’s Centra this Saturday is: JUVENILE HURLERS.
The lotto team for Kernan’s Spar this Saturday is: SENIOR HURLERS.
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Mon 8th Sep
