The St. Pats fun bus left Toronto, headed for Montreal, this past Friday night. A spirited group of lads and ladies made the 6-hour journey east to take part in the annual Montreal 9-a-side tournament, organized by the Montreal Shamrocks GAA club.

The matches took place all day Saturday, with the ladies playing 4 league games, and the men playing 2. These league games would determine who qualified for the knock out rounds. The ladies made a strong start against the Montreal-Ottawa combo team and were unfortunate to lose by 2 points. They would then face the local Toronto teams, and gave a great display of themselves, showing great improvement by the end of the day.

Their tournament would finish with a strong performance against current Toronto champions, St. Mikes, which saw Orla Masterson score 2 goals, narrowly missing the hat trick! The ladies tournament went to a straight final, which saw frequent rivals, Durham and St. Mikes vie for the title. Mikes pipped Durham to add another trophy to their collection, in an exciting match and great display from both teams. The St. Pats men had a mixed start to their day. Losing their first game to the Toronto Gaels, they faced the local team and hosts, Montreal Shamrocks in a do-or-die match, which would determine who would advance to the semi-finals. The Pats needed to win by at least 2 points to extend their day, and ended up winning by 3 to set up a semi-final tie with the St. Mikes men.

The lads would go into this game as underdogs, playing against the 2012 championship runners-up, but played with great skill and determination. Some fantastic scores from David "Toastie" Crombie, saw the lads in Red and White make their first final in over 2 years!! They would face a tough opponent in two-time Toronto champions St. Vincents, who had brought a strong squad to Montreal.

St. Pats started well with a score from Toastie, and Barry O'Connor saving a few great goal attempts. Scores were going back and forth, and the half time saw the Pats lads down by 2 points. The second half saw the Toronto champs pull away, but the Pats lads gave great displays in every quarter of the pitch and can be proud of their performance. The St. Pats team would like to thank and congratulate the Montreal Shamrocks on hosting a successful tournament, and look forward to 2014.

St. Pats Men and Ladies will be playing the Durham Robert Emmets this Sunday. 
1:30pm Men's game - Field C
3:00pm Ladies game - Field D
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