On Saturday at Old Bedians the Wolfe Tone cup took the new format of a 7s competition for ladies football. Played in glorious sunshine all teams fought it out in the round robin group stages in aim of booking their places in either the cup competition or the shield competition. Oisins 1st team and Wolfe Tones 1st team dominated the round robin stages of the competition and both teams booked their places in the cup final with games to spare. This left the rest of the teams to battle it out for 3rd and 4th places to secure a place in the shield final. The three teams that battled it out were Oisins 2nds, Wolfe Tones 2nds and Sean McDermott's. In a end to end game Oisins 2nds managed to firstly beat Tones 2nds and then followed this up by a narrowly beating McDermott's of Birmingham to secure their final place in the shield competition. In the last game of the round robin it was between Sean McDermott's and Wolfe Tones 2nds to secure the fourth place and with that a place in the shield final. The game started at a fast pace and it was an end to end affair with both teams matching each other for scores. McDermott's went in one point up at the break but Tones believed they could push themselves back into the game. Tones equalised from the off in the second half but this spurred McDermott's into action and they produced a strong six minutes to beat Tones by 4 points in the end to book a shield final place.

The shield final was up first and this saw a high scoring game beating Oisins 2nds and Sean McDermott's. A lot of tired legs were showing near the end though and this helped the Manchester side to a few points victory in the end to secure the clubs first of many silverware on the day.

The cup final saw Oisins and Wolfe Tones first teams come head to head in the strong heat at Old Bedians. However there were no signs of tired legs in this tie and both teams went at it right from the start. This was an end to end affair with both teams scoring from impossible angles making the match a great spectacle. It was Oisins who were more clinical though and took a 3 point lead at the break with Tones putting 3 efforts wide. With the Old Bedians crowd watching and shouting on both teams this affair stepped up another level and both teams produced some excellent skills in what was a great game of football. Tones came close in the end and hit the side netting no less than four times in a nail biting finish. But in the end Oisins secured their second title of the day after a strong day for their ladies at Old Bedians.

The competition was a great success and all thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic day out which included football, music, food and drink. A big thanks must go to all at Oisins who put a lot of effort into organising the day out. We all look forward to next year already.


Chris Elliott

Britain ladies GAA PRO / Lancashire PRO