SENIOR HURLING CHALLENGE GAMES Tipperary's Senior Hurlers continued their preparations for the upcoming National Hurling League when they played the County Under 21 hurlers on Saturday. The game was played in wet conditions at Dr. Morris Park. The final score was 1-16 to 2-9 in favour of the Under 21's. Pat Shortt scored the goal for the Under 21 team while Tommy Fitzgerald and John Keane hit the net for the Senior side. Willie Clohessy (Drom & Inch) refereed the game. The Tipperary Senior Hurlers lined out as follows: - Damien Young (Drom & Inch); Eamonn Buckley (Drom & Inch), Philip Rabbitte (Borrisoleigh), Michael Phelan (Ballybacon-Grange); Wayne Cully (Thurles Sarsfields), Colm Everard (Moyne-Templetuohy), Paul Kelly (Mullinahone); Liam England (Roscrea), Niall Curran (Mullinahone); Pa Morrissey (Galtee Rovers), Noel Moloney (Nenagh Eire Óg), Mark Bourke (Borrisoleigh); John Keane (Borrisoleigh), Tommy Fitzgerald (Roscrea), Paul Ryan (Templederry). The Tipperary Under 21 Hurlers lined out as follows: - Paddy McCormack (Thurles Sarsfields); Martin Treacy (Borrisoleigh), Ian Murphy (Killenaule), Michael Bergin (Moneygall); Brendan Hanley (Lattin-Cullen), Jim Bob McCarthy (Golden-Kilfeacle), David Morrissey (Galtee Rovers); Kevin Quinlan (Kilruane McDonaghs), Paul Collins (Drom & Inch); Tony Scroope (Burgess), David Sheppard (Moycarkey-Borris), Conor O'Brien (Eire Óg Annacarty); Noel Gleeson (Burgess), Mark Ryan (Roscrea), Pat Shortt (Upperchurch-Drombane). The subs on the day were as follows (not all played) - Gerry Kennedy (Killenaule), Enda Forde (Borrisokane), Michael Heffernan (Gortnahoe-Glengoole), Richie McGrath (Carrick Davins), Darragh Hickey (Boherlahan-Dualla), John O'Dwyer (Killenaule), Conor O'Mahoney (Newport), Tommy Collins (Ballina), Ian Delaney (JK Brackens). The Tipperary Senior hurlers will continue their preparations on Saturday when they play NUI Galway in Portumna. NUI Galway will have Tony Scroope (Burgess), Damian O'Brien (Burgess), Darragh Egan (Kildangan) and Brendan O'Sullivan (Thurles Sarsfields) at their disposal. DECLAN BROWNE SHINES ON ALL-STAR TOUR Moyle Rovers and Tipperary footballer Declan Browne ended up as the top scorer in Hong Kong at the weekend as he helped the 2003 All-Star Football team defeat the 2004 All-Stars by 6-20 to 6-9. Declan ended the match with one goal and five points. Congratulations to Declan on his performance and we look forward to many more class displays in the upcoming National League and Championship campaign. UPCOMING YOUTH FORUM The Youth Committee of the Tipperary County Board have organised a Youth Forum, which will take place in the Anner Hotel Thurles on Friday, February 18th. The keynote speaker for the event will be Bansha native John Lonergan, the Governor of Mountjoy prison. All clubs in the county are asked to send youth delegates to this Youth Forum. While many youth members of the GAA are involved on the playing field, this forum will examine the other roles for the youth including administration, public relations, refereeing etc. County Youth Officer Nicholas Moroney in conjunction with the County Youth Committee is organising this event. VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS HURLERS The 2004 Tipperary Vocational Schools Hurling team were presented with their All-Ireland medals at a function in the Anner Hotel last Friday evening. Tipperary won the title last May after a 1-15 to 2-10 victory over Offaly. Well done to all concerned. TIPP PLAYERS IN LIT The launch of the 2005 Fitzgibbon Cup took place last week in the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT), the hosts for this year's competition. LIT have a sizeable Tipperary contingent involved in their Fitzgibbon Cup panel. The players involved include Conor O'Mahony (Newport), Eoin Kelly (Mullinahone), Philip O' Shea (Mullinahone), David Morrissey (Galtee Rovers), David Young (Toomevara), Shane McGrath (Ballinahinch), Padraig Ryan (Sean Treacys) and Alan Byrne (Shannon Rovers). LIT will play Cork IT in the first round of the Fitzgibbon Cup at a Limerick venue. WIT FRESHERS HURLING TEAM The Waterford IT Freshers Hurling first team have qualified for the All-Ireland quarterfinal after winning three out of four matches in the Munster League division. To date, WIT has defeated UL, CIT and LIT and lost to UCC. Tipperary is represented by Kevin Lanigan (Carrick Swan), John Scully (Loughmore-Castleiney), Jim Bob McCarthy (Golden-Kilfeacle), Ian Delaney (JK Brackens), Martin Butler (Drom & Inch) and Stephen Lillis (Thurles Sarsfields). Wexford hurler Rory Jacob is the coach of this team. Meanwhile the WIT Fitzgibbon Cup panel is currently preparing for their round one knockout game with UCD, which takes place on February 9th at a Waterford venue. Willie Ryan (Toomevara), Conor O'Brien (Eire Óg Annacarty) and Hugh Moloney (Nenagh Eire Óg) are on the WIT Fitzgibbon Cup panel while Colm Bonnar is the trainer of the team. NEW YORK DINNER DANCE The Tipperary GAA club in New York held their annual dinner dance recently. Ralph O'Callaghan from the Carrick Davis club was the guest of honour on the night. Outgoing club president Mike Kennedy presented an award to Ralph on the night while he the Carrick man also received a proclamation of the city of New York from Therese Crowe. Former Tipperary hurler Mick Burns from the Nenagh Eire Óg club travelled over from Ireland for the event with his wife Pauline and was the special guest on the night, receiving an award for his achievements over the years. John Madden of Lorrha was the recipient of the 2004 player of the year award while Sean Quirke of Silvermines, club captain for the past 2 years also received an award. The Clare / Tipperary Junior B Football team was also honoured after winning the 2004 Junior B Shield in only their 2nd year in existence and were presented with their medals on the night. A.I.B. CLUB OF THE YEAR Croke Park has announced that there will be no A.I.B. Club of the year competition in 2005. ADVANCED HURLING DRILLS A Practical Session to work on Attacking & Defensive Drills for Hurling Coaches will take place in Dr. Morris Park on Saturday, February 19th from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Contact the Coaching and Games Development committee for more details. HARTY CUP QUARTERFINALS The all Tipperary clash of Thurles CBS and Cashel Community School in the Dr. Harty Cup quarterfinal will take place on Sunday next in Boherlahan at 2:00pm. The winner of this match will play the winner of the game between St. Josephs Borrisoleigh and St. Colman's Fermoy, the result of which should be known by the time this goes to press. MCGRATH CUP FOOTBALL The Munster Council have announced that they will be forwarding a cheque for ?15,000 to Croke Park for inclusion in the Associations Tsunami South Asia Disaster Fund Appeal. This amount is the total proceeds of the four Quarter Final games in the McGrath Cup on January 16th and 17th, including over ?5000 raised from the clash of Tipperary and Kerry in Clonmel. The full amount is made up of ?9071 (net Gate); ?560 (Stilesmen payments foregone); ?3,700 (participating County Team Expenses/Travel); ?260 (Officials travel foregone) and the balance from the Council itself. NEW REFEREES COURSE Please note that a course for the training of new referees will commence on Friday night February 25th at for consecutive Friday nights starting each night at 8:00pm at the Thurles Sarsfields Centre. There is a big onus on clubs and divisions to promote this course as much as possible to ensure the smooth running of the games in each division. There are still too many clubs without referees despite numerous requests to correct this position. Tipperary will have 15 referees involved on Munster and National panels for the coming year and with new rule changes being implemented, these people will be away each Sunday either refereeing, acting as linesmen or fourth officials. This will put a massive strain on the resources of the Referees Committee in the county, in particular for the County leagues and early rounds of the divisional championships. Anyone interested is welcome to attend but for the smooth running of the course, it would be useful to have the names beforehand. Clubs are asked to forward names of interested people to Willie Robinson (087-7739066) or John Lonergan (086-2417763) or any member of the Referees Committee. The deadline for entries is February 21st. HANDBALL The Munster 40 x 20 Junior Club Championships were played last weekend. In the Junior A semi-final, Ballina (Tipperary) defeated Ballydesmond (Cork) on a combined score of 102 to 75. In the Junior B quarterfinal, Silvermines (Tipperary) defeated Friary Abbeyside Ballinacourty (Waterford) by 94 to 79. The Silvermines team lost out to Liscarroll (Cork) in the semi-final by 89 to 67. TIPPERARY GAA SCENE Information concerning all areas in the GAA will appear in this section in the future. If you wish to include any item of interest in future articles, please contact the County Public Relations Officer Ed Donnelly at 087-2055642 or via e-mail at [email protected] Tweet

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