Over the last fortnight, schools from all over the county of Roscommon have been competing in the Aviva Health FAI Primary School 5’s
Four days of intense competition took place at the Roscommon and District League pitches in Lecarrow:
On Wednesday, April 24, teams from Loughlynn NS, Carrick NS, Newtown NS, Ballintleva NS, Cloonfad NS, Gorthaganny NS, Cootehall NS, Rahara NS, Kilteevan NS, Ballyleague NS and Tisrara NS all did battle for the honour of progressing to the County Finals of both the ‘A’ Section and Girls ‘A’ Section:
Following their series of matches, Cloonfad A & B, Gorthaganny, Ballintleva and Loughlynn emerged victorious in the ‘A’ competition, while Rahara, Ballyleague and Loughlynn provided the teams for the next round of matches in the girls competition:
On Thursday, April 25, the ‘B’ Section and Girls ‘B’ Sections took centre stage: 16 teams from Roxborough NS, Summerhill NS, Cornafulla NS, St: Joseph’s NS Boyle, St Patrick’s NS Strokestown, Clonakilla NS, Gaelscoil de hÍde, and Abbeycartron NS Elphin participated in the ‘B’ Section:
Four teams made it through to the semi finals, and the eventual winners were Summerhill NS, under the expert tutelage of Gerry McHugh: In the Girls ‘B’ Section, 2 teams from Summerhill NS, 2 from Cornafulla NS and one from Scoil Mhuire, Roscommon played against each other, with Summerhill providing the winners and the runners up:
In the Girls ‘A’ Section, 7 teams from Roxborough NS, Gaelscoil de hÍde, Abbeycartron NS and Clonakilla NS battled it out, before Abbeycartron and Gaelscoil de hÍde qualified for the Finals:
24 hours later, Aughrim NS, Ballyforan NS, Lisaniskey NS, Trien NS, Runnamoate NS, Tarmon NS, Creggs NS, Cloontuskert NS, Ballinagare NS and Ballymurray NS provided 16 teams for the opening rounds, with Ballymurray, Cloontuskert, Tarmon and Lisaniskey all proving to be better than the others in their groups in the ‘A’ section for small schools:
In the corresponding Girls ‘A’ Section, Lisaniskey, Tarmon and Creggs filled the remaining places in the Finals: Some schools went home happy, some disappointed, some sad and others dejected, but everyone had given their all for their jersey:
The A finals were held in Lecarrow on Wednesday, May 1: the ‘A’ Section was played off first: There were 3 groups of 3;
Lisaniskey, Loughlynn and Cloonfad ‘B’
Cloontuskert, Gorthaganny and Ballintleva
Ballymurray, Tarmon and Cloonfad ‘A’
Following some fantastic football and some titanic tussles, the 3 winners emerged: Lisaniskey, Gorthaganny and Ballymurray:
In the first game of the final round, Lisaniskey went behind to Gorthaganny after less than a minute, but hit back to win 3/1:
Gorthaganny then played Ballymurray, and beat them 1/0 following a superb long range strike:
In the final match, Lisaniskey knew all they needed was draw, but ran out 4/0 winners, though they were rather flattered by the score line: Well done Lisaniskey, who are the Aviva Health FAI Primary School 5’s County Champions for the very first time:
This was followed by the Girls ‘A’ Section: There were 2 groups:
Group 1 comprised of Ballyleague, Elphin, Gaelscoil de hÍde, and Creggs:
This was won fairly easily by an impressive Ballyleague, the reigning champions, who still had 3 of last year’s winning team:
In Group 2, Loughlynn and Lisaniskey were both outclassed by two strong Tarmon and Rahara teams, who were only separated by one goal in their head to head game, Rahara coming out on top:
This left Rahara V Ballyleague in the final, a tense, cagey affair, which went to penalties before the two could be divided into Champions and runners up: Unfortunately for Rahara, Ballyleague made it 2 in a row, and will go on to the Connacht Finals again on May 7
Many thanks to all the schools, players, teachers, supporters, parents, trainers and mentors who made this competition the success it always is: Thanks also to the referees who ran the blitzes every day, putting up with various types of weather, and the odd bit of “vocal questioning” of their decisions!
Of course, to the groundsmen and team at the League Grounds in Lecarrow, without whom this competition would probably not have gone ahead, a huge vote of thanks is also due:
All schools who won their County finals will now represent Roscommon in the Connaght Finals, which will be held at Shiven Rovers ground in Killyan, Newbridge on Tuesday, May 7: We wish them all the best of luck:
Report courtesy of Noel Dervan