St Pats GAA Club News

Blennerville Ballad group who won in the North Kerry Semi finals of Scor na bPaisti last Friday.

Lotto

There was no winner of our Club Lotto Jackpot on Sunday night last. The numbers drawn were 2, 4, 5 & 22. The five €30 consolation prizes went to John Cronin Killorglin, Frank King c/o Poff Motors, Tommy Brosnan Lohercannon, David O Callaghan Curragraigue and Richard and Jane Rowan Blennerville.
Next week’s Lotto will have a Jackpot of €4,100 and the draw will take place this Sunday night Mar 12th in Keane’s Bar. Lotto tickets are available from the usual outlets or any Club officer.

Lotto Anniversary

St Pats Gaa Weekly Lotto was 20 years Old on Thursday 26th of January and was started 20 years ago by then Chairman Mike Crean, Secretary Jim Moriarty and Treasurers Paul Byrne & Jimmy Savage and has served the club well. The first lotto draw was made on Sunday January 26th 1997.
To celebrate this occasion, St Pats will enter all lotto players who play the club lotto either weekly, monthly or yearly from the 23rd of January until the 5th of June into a special draw for 2 All Ireland Football tickets plus 2 night’s accommodation on the Saturday and Sunday night of the All Ireland weekend. Naomh Padraig Abu

Dingle Way Challenge 2017

It’s that time of the year again! Yes, The Dingle Way Challenge will take place on Sunday the 4th of June (keep this date free in your diaries). This walk is ideal for groups, teams, friends and solo hikers and you can either opt for The Dingle Way Challenge, a 34km walk which will involve a mixture of grass paths and road walking where walkers will get to experience the famous An Ghaeltacht GAA pitch (there will be a food stop here), the football club of the famous former Kerry footballers, Marc, Tomas and Darragh Ó Sé and culminating in Cloghane or The Ultra Dingle Way Challenge, a 45km walk which starts at Dingle harbour, as the normal route, taking you through a tough 12km mountain route over Mount Brandon and finishing up at Cloghane, where there will be BBQ on arrival.

Buses going back to the clubhouse will be provided where there will be showers available for those who need it. There will also be music in Quanes later that evening. This Challenge gives locals and tourists alike a great opportunity to experience the stunning scenery that West Kerry has to offer in a fun, safe and challenging environment.

This year’s route is slightly shorter than last year but don’t be fooled as the Ultra section more than makes up for it. Registration and launch dates will be finalised in a couple of weeks.

Juvenile Academy

U6: Well done to Rachel Colivet, Dylan Passway, Matthew Murphy and Oscar Curran who put in a great training session last Sunday morning but a huge well done to Bruce McMillan who received our player of the week trophy by showing great skill and determination throughout the session. Keep up the good work.

U8: The wind and rain last Sunday morning wasn’t very inviting to leave the comfort of home so well done to all of the under 8’s for getting to the Academy .

Congratulations to Sam Jones who was awarded the Player of the Week trophy last Sunday. Sam always puts his full energy into these sessions, so keep it up Sam.

Great effort was also put in by Aoife Kennedy, Chloe Passway and Keelin Sinnott…it’s great to see. In our kicking for goal exercise there was some wild and wonderful shots at goal with Erin O’Shea, Sean Berry, Nathan Murphy and James Daly testing goalkeeper Martin.

It’s important to do some practice at home during the week so this week we want you to practice taking four steps and hopping the ball, repeat the four steps and hop again. Try to practice for at least 10 minutes two days during the week.

U10: St Pats under 10’s Academy were training again last Sunday in the Pres hall. There was a great turnout of players all eager to show off their skills. It was great to see all the players putting in a great effort especially Mark O Brien, Ben Jones, Rory Daly and Gary Scollard. Well done to player of the week Kayla O’Connor keep up the good work. It’s important everyone keeps practicing their skills at home during the week.

U12: Our boys and girls had a great training session last Sunday in Presentation Hall. It was great to see a few faces back training this morning and even better that their ball skills hadn’t been forgotten. With the trip to Croke Park a few weeks away, it is important that every child practices at least 20 minutes twice weekly. Training continues on our astro pitch on Sunday at 11.30am, weather permitting. Please don’t forget your gum shields.

U12 Girls: Girls football for U10 and U12s starting soon. We are looking for girls from the ages of 9 to 12 who aren’t with a GAA club and living within the Tralee Town area. They will be most welcome to enjoy the friendly sociable experience. For more information, contact Martina on 087 2849360.

U14: Will be playing in the Town League against Kerins O’ Rahillys in Blennerville on Sunday, the 12th at 4pm. Best of luck to Brendan, Liam, Dan and the team.

U16: Their first competitive game is on Saturday, the 18th at home to Ardfert in the Central League. Throw-in is at 2pm. Best of luck to Luke, Eoin, James and the entire panel.

Minors

It was a goal-fest in Brosna last Saturday afternoon as St Pats and Knocknagoshel/Brosna (KB) shared the points in this MFL encounter played in Brosna due to the unplayable pitch in Blennerville.

KB started brightly in the first half and St Pats goalkeeper, Sean Hogan was called into action 30 seconds into the match when he had to make a point blank save from the opposition’s full forward and 2 minutes later, registered the first score of the match. St Pats’ Fergal O’Brien levelled a minute later from a free but this seemed to galvanise the “home” team as they raced to a 3-point lead which could have been more but for the brilliant defending from St Pats back line led by Damien Quirke and Brian Murphy, who stopped the rot by scoring a point in the 21st minute. St Pats confidence grew as they dictated most of the play and were rewarded with 2 goals, both scored by Eoin Greaney. First half scores were St Pats 2-04 KB 1-06

The second half was 4 minutes old before the white flag was raised for The Pats after an interchange of passes, the last of which fell to the boots of Luke O’Carroll. This half was evenly matched as both teams traded points for points. Eoin Greaney’s 3rd goal in the 16th minute of this half didn’t deter KB as they went in search of a goal of their own and 2 minutes later, Paul Walsh, who was clearly the best player on display struck the back of the net to level the game once more.

They nudged ahead very late in the game but perseverance, determination and a rub of the green saw St Pats Raymond level with the last play of the game to leave the final scores at St Pats 3-09 KB 2-12.
It was a very exciting match and credit to both teams for the clean manner in which the game was played despite the wind and the pitch being very heavy underfoot.

Ladies

Best of luck to our senior ladies who are away to Beale this Sunday for their first game in the Ladies Senior County League. Throw-in is at 12 noon. We wish them all the best.

Seniors

Our St Brendan’s league match against Ardfert scheduled to be played last Sunday in Blennerville was cancelled due to the unavailability of a playable pitch after the rainfall during the week. The time and date for the rescheduled match is yet to be confirmed.

Our next match is this Sunday, the 12th of March when we will be at home to John Mitchels. Throw-in time is at 3.30pm. Best of luck lads!

Scór na bPaistí

It was a great evening for the club last Friday in the North Kerry semi-finals of Scor na bPaisti as our contingent almost had a clean sweep of all at stake on the night. Congratulations to our acts:
Ballad group – Ciara Fitzgibbon, Katie Moriarty, Sorcha O’Donoghue, Caoimhe O’Sullivan and Siobhan O’Sullivan;
Music group – Caoimhe O’Sullivan, Thomas Sheehy, Emma Healy, Oisin Gallagher and Orlaith Murphy; Novelty act – Oisin Gallagher, Emma Healy, Siobhan and Caoimhe O Sullivan, Keelin Enright, Sinead Murphy, Orlaith Murphy and Thomas Sheehy.
The club also scooped the prestigious Best Club award. Best of luck to all in the County Finals in Castleisland on the 11th of March.  A big shout out to Mary O’Sullivan and James Allman for their valuable time and expertise. Naomi Padraig Àbu

Blennerville/Ballyard Community Games

Congratulations and well done to all the swimmers who took part today at the Kerry Community Games finals. We had a great haul of medals. Well done and huge congratulations to Sean Fitzgibbon who won GOLD in the U16 Butterfly, it was a very exciting race and Sean goes on to represent Kerry at the national finals in Dublin.

Ava O’Mahoney finished up her community games by getting silver in the freestyle U16, she has swam every year since U8. Her sister Grace had a brilliant swim today with a touch of the wall for 2nd place. She also won the bronze medal in the U14 Breaststroke and her other sister Rachel also swam a brilliant race with just a touch of the wall separating the first 3, however, Rachel won bronze in the U12 front crawl (so a happy O’Mahoney household).
Barry Fitzgerald swam in the butterfly U14 and did brilliant to finish up with a bronze medal.

Rachel Mulgrew swam in a very tough race and came away with a 4th place cert for her hard work. Jenny Slattery was also in a very fast final and swam a great race to finish up with 3rd place and a bronze medal for her hard work in the U14 front crawl.

We won our last medal with the U16 relay, it was very exciting and with a huge team effort of Jenny Slattery, Ciara Fitzgibbon, Ava O’Mahoney and Grace O’Mahoney, we came away with a 3rd place finish. A special mention also to Elizabeth Slattery, Lucy Mulgrew, Ciara Fitzgibbon, Aoife Burke and Brian Reidy who all swam great today and did Blennerville/Ballyard proud.

Congratulations

Congratulations to U10 player Jack Costello and his sister Lainey who both won gold in the Swimming Community Games and now go forward to represent Kerry at the National Finals in May.

Well done to U12 player, Caoimhe Dairo, who was part of the Tralee Imperials team which won the U12 Division 3 Plate Final against Cougars of Killarney in Duagh last Sunday.

Congratulations to Louise and Thomas Greaney on the birth of twins.

Family Mass

A family mass will be held in St. Brendan’s Church, Curraheen on Sunday March 12th at 11.00am. All are welcome.

Sympathy

The club would like to extend its sympathy to the family and friends of Padhraic Moran, Corbally, Limerick and Cliff Road, Ballybunion.