Galway Advertiser 2005/2005_02_17/GA_1702_E1_125.pdf 

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February 17 2005

SPORT

125

Bish crews undefeated
St Joseph's College Rowing Club have returned to Galway undefeated after a week of intense competition. In the last seven days the senior crew raced all their potential competition for the 2005 championship and they remain on schedule to defend the Irish championships which they have won for the last two years in both the eights and fours. In Limerick the club captured five winning pennants taking the junior 18 eights from St Michael's of Limerick who were pre-race favours and a crew who will be back for revenge at the Tribesmen Head in Galway on March 19. The Bish also won the junior 16 eights and junior 15 quads, while Matthew Carroll and Vincent Ruane took the junior pairs, and Joseph Heskin won the junior 16 sculls in convincing style. The Bish, coached by Mike Heskin, then travelled to Belfast to race in the Lagan Head hoping to repeat their performance against the northern crews and Londoners Hampton. With three internationals from last year eight - Carroll, Ruane and James Mc Laughlin joined by Simon Flaherty, Aonghus O Flaherty, Andrew Lyons. and three 15-years-olds, Heskin, Paul Hanagan and Kieran Beckles, the Bish were up against it. Hampton showed their class early on, while local crew Methodist College and RBAI Belfast both started strongly in very windy conditions. Bish, with a steady star, held their position and gained slightly on Trinity College Dublin, and at the half way stage there was nothing between all four junior crews. However Bish cox Cathal O'Brien upped the tempo to burn off the northern crews, reducing the contest to a two-boat race with the British crew. In the end they took the event by two seconds over Hampton and over 20 seconds on the next Irish crew. St Joseph's also won the junior fours with the fastest time of the day.

THE WAY IT IS
RAY SILKE
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Pic shows L - R: Galway Black Dragon kickboxing coach master Pete Foley, Brian Brosnan (who brought the British Champion to a draw at the weekend) and his clubmate Nicola Collins who was in his corner during the fight.

Galway Black Dragon kickboxer Brian Brosnan was in Liverpool at the weekend with his coach Pete Foley to challenge for the junior European featherweight full contact kickboxing title. Brosnan took the fight with less than a week's notice as the original challenger from Portugal pulled out due to injury. The five-round bout was set at 57kg and both fighters weighed in on the button. Opponent Adam Graham, who is the current British champion, set about despatching Brosnan early, but the Galway man had other plans and caught Graham with a clean straight left cross on the chin to send him crashing to the ground. Although this was clearly a knockdown and merited an eight count, the ref disregarded it and told both fighters to box on. The British fighter committed several fouls throughout the contest, but Brosnan remained calm and easily looked the better of the two - even landing a picture perfect roundhouse kick to Graham's face in the fifth. Despite this the three British judges scored it a draw.

Moycullen's defence holds off Sligo All Stars
Moycullen 67 Sligo All Stars 62
Moycullen gained a vital victory on Saturday in a tense defensive battle with Sligo All Stars in their last home game of the National Basketball League. Moycullen survived some freethrow line jitters and a strong Sligo challenge to eke out a 67-62 victory, which pushes them closer to a place in the end of season play-offs, and if they win all their remaining games, they can clinch the divisional title. They next face Westaro, Castlebar in Castlebar on Sunday and will be determined to avenge their two previous last second defeats to the same opposition. Saturday's game was a tough encounter. Sligo began in a zone defence, putting it up to Moycullen to hit their outside shots. At the other end, Moycullen were focusing on containing Sligo's inside presence and the freescoring Ciaran McGourty at guard. Defence dominated the early stages with both sides containing the opposition. Sligo fared a little better at the offensive end with Ian McMorrow and Ciaran McGourty combining for 10 points. However, at the other end, Moycullen attacked the basket well and put Sligo in early foul trouble. Poor free throw shooting meant they failed to punish Sligo on the scoreboard and the northwesterners went into quarter time 16-11 ahead. Sligo's foul trouble meant they had to rotate their players and this disrupted their play, while Moycullen retained their composure and began to break down the Sligo zone. Marcus O'Grady, John Cunningham, and Adrian Walsh chipped in with good scores. The frustration boiled over for Sligo with a number of technical fouls called and Moycullen soon edged ahead. Their defence dominated the game at this stage, limiting Sligo to four baskets in the quarter as Dara Canavan did an excellent job in containing Ciaran McGourty. Three baskets in a row from Fergal McAndrew saw Moycullen pull six points clear at half time 3125. However Sligo knuckled down on defence and McGourty began to attack Moycullen off the dribble to good effect at the other end. Moycullen became sloppy in transition and a number of turnovers saw Sligo edge back into the game. Evan Keane came off the bench and a pair of scores kept Moycullen ahead. Although the Sligo coach was ejected for a second technical foul, this seemed to help the Sligo effort and they continued to chip away at the lead. However Adrian Walsh took control and scored the last eight points of the quarter, leaving them 45-41 ahead. Walsh continued to dominate the attack, while Nollaig Cunningham put in a dominant rebounding effort at both ends. He scored from a pair of huge offensive rebounds to stretch the lead to 12 points and Moycullen looked like cruising to a comfortable win. However Sligo kept battling and Moycullen's inability to knock down a series of open shots gave them hope. With three minutes left Moycullen were 64-54 ahead. Then Ian McMorrow connected on a three and Ciaran McGourty stole the inbound pass for a lay-up to reduce the deficit to just five. When Danny Mulholland connected on a three-pointer from well outside the line to leave the scoreline 64-62, Moycullen did not panic. Another offensive rebound from the inspired Nollaig Cunningham saw him convert a free throw to open the gap to three. Good defence denied Sligo while Glenn Hynes hit the second of two free throws with nine seconds left to give Moycullen an unassailable lead. Fittingly Nollaig Cunningham stole the ball and again made one of two from the line to close out a hard fought 67-62 victory. Moycullen: A Walsh (22), N Cunningham (13), J Cunningham (11), F McAndrew(8), E Keane(6), M O'Grady(4), D Canavan(2), G Hynes(1), P Cregg, N Carolan, Coach, Gerry Nihill. League Table ============== Pl W L Pts Westaro, Castlebar 13 9 4 18 Moycullen 14 9 5 18 Sligo All Stars 14 9 5 18 Queens, Belfast 14 8 6 16 MDS Star, Belfast 10 7 3 14 PV Falcons, Longford 10 2 8 4 Newport 15 1 14 2

Last weekend was a veritable feast of sport for those who like to watch the action up close and personal on TV. You can rest the nachos and their dips on your increasingly rotund stomach, while the bottle of suds is just an arm's length away. The recently launched Setanta Sport (if you have cable) had schools' rugby on Thursday and Friday night. TG4 had Athenry marching on to Croke Park on Saturday afternoon, and Eddie's lads were thundering past thistles at an enormous rate under the watchful eye of George, Brent, and Conor on RTE 2. Kerry and Offaly and then The Premiership and Match of the Day finished you off later that night. Sunday was too much to cope with, two GAA games in a row on TG4. And then Sunday Sport recapping on all the NFL games of the day, with shiny Shane Donoghue and the "I'll tell you what teams should do, but I didn't do it with Dublin myself" Tommy Lyons, just in case you had missed anything. Gaelic, hurling, darts, rugby, soccer, motor car racing, rallying, tiddlywinks - it is a full-time job every weekend just trying to keep up to speed with all that is going on. So yeah, TV can keep you in touch with what is going on, but it cannot replace the emotions, the buzz, the sense of realism that being at a live game gives you. That feeling of being part of the occasion. Last weekend I went to a schools' game (between St Pat's Tuam and St Jarlath's Tuam). The passion and emotion at Tuam stadium had to be experienced to be believed. The raw energy that permeated the whole town last Friday had its roots in football. In many ways schools and colleges football are the best fare. The cynicism and the over-coaching of county players has not afflicted the youngsters. And they play with a joy and sense of abandonment that does the heart good to see. The rivalry between the CBS and St Jarlath's goes back many years. Ironically it is likely to end in the next decade as both schools are due to amalgamate when the Department of Education and Science, and the powers that decide these things, draw up their time schedule. Therefore this game last Friday was all the more intense due to the realisation that it could be one of the last big "Tuam derbies". The singing and the chanting by both sets of schoolboys rocked the old stand to its foundations, and while a few bad mannered yokes threw the odd indiscriminate egg or two, in the main the mood was reasonably good natured. The quality of football was moderate, but the intensity of the tackling and the raw passion of both sides was high octane. The teams were inseparable until the last minute of the game when the St Pat's captain and Annaghdown clubman Wesley Fallon rose to fist the O'Neills into the back of Cathal Hynes net. Cue pandemonium for one side of the stand and pitch, and utter detection for the other. Winning such a tight game is infinitely sweeter than any cakewalk, and beating such a close adversary makes the taste of winning last even longer. For the vanquished, the pain of defeat is hard to take. And the victors face another challenge before Easter. Those who object to sport in schools should attend some of these games. Go and watch the Oranmore basketballers, or the Mountbellew and St Mary's footballers. See what it means to these young men and women before you judge whether sport is a waste of time or not. Evaluate the tangible benefits that such a nonacademic outlet provides for students. The friendships that they forge in trying to achieve their objectives. The skills of working as part of a team which they will bring with them to third level and their working lives. Watch them learn to deal with success and failure. Is it not an excellent opportunity to experience and deal with these issues in sport before dealing with the real thing in life?