Weekly News April 29th 2012

Post date: May 2, 2012 3:54:52 PM

U11's

A Ballina GAA selection based around the John Joe Nevin Blue team last year travelled to the village of Tallow in West Waterford last Saturday to play against the local boys (who play under the name Cois Bhride). In this first trip to Waterford for our club, this was a great test for our boys as they were up against a team that though small in numbers - were rich in hurling ability. The match was a terrific battle with Ballina racing into a two-goal lead, before falling behind to a succession of well-taken points. In the third phase of the game, Ballina rallied again and scored 3 more goals to really put it up to Cois Bhride and cut the lead to just two pints. Credit to the Bride-siders, they produced the last two points to close out the match. It’s not often that a team scores six goals and loses. The Ballina boys did just that in scoring 6:03 to Cois Bhride’s 4:10. It was a wonderful hurling adventure for the boys and every one of them played their hearts out. Best for Ballina were Corey Ryan who settled down to be a huge presence in the goals, David Grace who kept doing the simple things well, Sam Loughran who was in the engine room all day, Matthew Power who had a real impact at full forward in the third “half” of the match and the twin poachers - Dara King and James Power. It was a special day for Matthew Power and Cian Neill who were playing in a GAA field named after their granddad, Ned Power. We hope to welcome Cois Bhride to Ballina later in the year.

Ballina Panel: Corey Ryan, Michael McMahon, Tadhg Maguire, Daniel Keating, Leon Kerin-Galvin, David Grace. Josh Egan, Sam Loughran, Matthew Power, Conor Power, Robbie Breen, Cian Neill, James Power, Conor Rowley, Dara King, Glenn Ryan, Ivor Larkin, Mark Lyons, Tadhg O’Shaughnessey, Tom Kelly, Hazel McMahon & Cian Commins.

U12s

The final round of football was played on Friday night for the blue team against Kildangan in Ballina. Despite dominating much of the game and showing great skill with plenty of good teamwork and passing our boys were narrowly beated 2:04 to 0:08. Meanwhile, The red team switched codes to Hurling on friday night and had a very impressive win against Newport in a friendly game in their first hurling match of the year for them in Ballina. The coaches will inform the players when the next game is due.

Sports Predictor

For all you sports fans out there we have a challenge for you. See if you can predict the winners of all the major national and international sports events on the clubs' recently launched 2012 Sports predictor competition. The application form can be found on our website or is available from any committee members. First event is the Heineken cup final entry and the competition continues until the All Ireland Football finals in September so get predicting and join in the fun!!

Lotto

The lotto is still maxed out at €20,000 as again we had no winner last week, someone is bound to win it soon and as they say "If you are not in you cannot win". tickets can be picked up at most local shops in the village and on line through our website.

Fun Day

Finally a reminder that next saturday is our 'Give Respect Get Respect' Annual Family Fun & Respect Day. The Kids will have extra focus on fun activities at their normal training times, Spot Prizes will be on offer to players showing respect to teammates and coaches. This will be followed by the parents taking part in activities such as Tug of War, penalty shooting and hurling penalties. Where possible We would like parents to wear their own county colours on the day.