Athea GAA

A look back at 2013:

We had another busy playing season last year at adult grade. We competed in seven competitions, West Minor A Championship, U21 Premier County Championship, West Junior B League and Championship, West Intermediate Championship and Intermediate County League and Championship. Our Intermediate team brought home the silverware this year in capturing the West Intermediate Final. Four years in a row we contested this final and it’s great to secure the win after narrowly seeing off St. Marys/Sean Finns of Rathkeale in the Final on a score1-11 to 2-07. Great credit is due to the players and management of Noel Barry, Sean McMahon & Martin Doyle. In the intermediate league we played seven games, won four, drew one and lost two and just lost out by one point to contest the league final. In the county championship, we played five games, lost three, drew one and won one. We retained our intermediate status for 2014 but it was disappointing not to progress further in this competition after a huge effort put in by the players and management. Our Junior B’s coached by John Hunt reached the West League Semi-Final and narrowly lost out to St .Kierans to reach the final. The last time we contested and won a league final was back in 1994. In the West Junior B Championship, we played four games, and lost all of them. We have a pool of players available to field teams but we struggled at times particularly during championship to field a settled team and had to call on different players for the majority of games to make up the numbers. Our U21’s managed by Patrick Ahern and Michael Lenihan were in action in the County Premier competition where again we have joined up with Mountcollins. We failed to progress to the knock-out stages having won one, lost two and drew one, but hopefully next year we will progress further as nearly all the team are still underage. Our Minors who were also amalgamated with Mountcollins, contested the West A Competition. A total of four round games, two wins, a draw and one walkover. Coached by David O’ Connor and Denis Greaney, the Minors reached the West Final but lost out to Ballysteen/St.Senans on a score 2-06 to 1-14. It was a great achievement to reach the final and we were just beaten by the better team on the day. Off the playing field, our fund raising activities were again well supported by the parish. We ran with the Limerick Development Draw along with having our own Club Draw and a Church Gate Collection. Thanks to our main sponsor Betty and Johnny Cotter Top of the Town and to Gerard Whites Bar for their sponsorship last year. There is great work being done at the pitch. We have re-sodded and drained both goal mouths, installed a ball stop net at the back of the lower goals and erected a new gate at the entrance to the field.  We secured the services of a local man for a year through the Túsprogramme to carry out maintenance works at facilities. This will be a huge benefit to the club and our field committee to enable us plan for our works ahead and keep our facilities well maintained. At Coiste level, we had a successful year as both our U14 and U15 teams brought home silverware as County champions and our U13s were unlucky not to win their county final. At U16 level after a poor start to the year they really got stuck in, playing some fine football beating some of the top teams in our group and narrowly loosing out for a place in the knockout stages. Our U12s had a very exciting year playing matches in Limerick, Dublin, Cork and Kerry. They did extremely well in their mini league. Our U10s and U8s attended many blitzes and played a good number of challenge matches. Our U6s trained every Friday night and towards the end of the season a lot of the boys and girls togged out in the maroon and white for the first time as they played three challenge games. We are very lucky to have such a dedicated panel of coaches, committee members and parents to help with the running of the club throughout the year. We now are now looking forward to 2014 and hopefully it will be an enjoyable and successful year at both adult and underage level.

Club Membership:

For those who have not yet become members of Athea GAA Club they can still do so. This is a great way of supporting the Club at only a cost of €20 for the year. The GAA has the largest membership of any sports organisation in Ireland. When one becomes a member of a GAA club, they become part of the GAA family and part of a great community based organisation that continues to enhance the lives of so many people both young and old.

Old Photographs of Athea GAA:

The Club are still looking for any old photographs or match programmes from anyone that has them in the parish. Photographs from days gone by of underage teams up to Senior level, GAA Parish Socials or any photographs with a connection to the GAA club will be scanned and saved digitally,  then returned to the owner. Contact John Hunt, Lal Browne or Jacqueline O’ Connor for further details.

West Intermediate Medal Presentation:

Athea Intermediate footballers were presented with their West Intermediate Championship medals on Saturday night December 21 at the Top of the Town. There was a huge crowd in attendance and m/c for the night Áine Reidy welcomed everyone. Newly elected chairman Paul Curry spoke about the successful team and how he is looking forward to his new role and thanked Sean and Denis for their service to the Club. Johnny Walsh of the West board presented the medals. There was also a presentation to the management team of Noel Barry, Sean McMahon, Martin Doyle and Colm Hassett. Outgoing officers Sean Ahern and Denis Collins were presented with a token of appreciation for their commitment and hard work as secretary and chairman over the years. We would like to thank Betty and Johnny Cotter of the Top of the Town, Johnny Walsh for presenting the medals and Colleen Reidy for the lovely food. This was a fitting end to the season.

Athea Coiste na nÓg:

A.G.M

Coiste na nÓg’s Annual General Meeting will take place on Sunday night January 19th at 7pm in the Clubhouse. All club members are welcome to attend. As always we are looking for more people/parents to get involved with the various underage teams for 2014.

Table Quiz:

We would like to thank all those who supported our Annual table quiz at the Top of the Town on Friday night December 27. We would also like to thank Betty and Johnny Cotter, all those who gave spot prizes and anyone who helped out, to make this such a success.

Athea United Soccer

ATHEA UTD CHARITY SOCCER TOURNAMENT
Following on from our very successful tournaments held over the last years we again organised and ran a very successful charity tournament on St. Stephen’s Day with the money raised going to the charity GOAL. We had eight teams giving a total of ten games all of which were competitive. The first game kicked off at 11.30am and all games ran smoothly and below are the tournament results –
Round 1
A – Shepherds 1 Snowflakes 0
B – Carol Singers 3 The Wise Men 2 (pens)
C – Bad Santas 0 Reindeers 1
D – Wren Boys 3 The Turkeys 2 (pens).
Shield Semi Finals
Snowflakes 0 The Wise Men 2
Bad Santas 3 The Turkeys 0
Cup Semi Finals
Shepherds 2 Carol Singers 1
Reindeers 0 Wrenboys 2
Shield Final
The Wise Men 2 Bad Santas 1
Cup Final
Shepherds 0 Wrenboys 3
PRESENTATIONS
Presentations of trophies took place in The Top of the Town that evening and we would like to thank Betty and Johnny for sponsoring the beautiful trophies. Thanks to Pat King who refereed all the games and to all who helped out in any way to make the charity tournament another great success.
ATHEA UTD FIXTURES
Saturday, January 11th
U11s away to Abbeyfeale in the cup at 11.30am.
U14s away to Glin Rovers at 1.30pm.
Sunday, January 12th
Junior As home to Rockhill Rovers at 11.30am.
Junior Bs away to Feenagh in the Reidy Cup at 2pm.
NOTE –
All schoolboys and junior games last weekend were cancelled due to the very poor weather.
TRAINING TIMES
All players / parents please check with their respective managers with any queries regarding times for the coming weeks.
TRAINING AT THE VALES
In 2008 Athea Utd undertook a major development with the installation by Pride Sports & Leisure of a synthetic training area, the product is known as ‘FIELDTURF’ and is the only one of its kind in Co. Limerick.
Pride Sports  Leisure have this product patented and are the only company in the country able to install this FIFA approved product.
There has being a huge amount of interest from clubs, leagues,
companies and other parties and at the moment we have a limited number of slots available as clearly if you want the best The Vales, Athea is the place to train

BOOKINGS ROLLING IN FAST –
The soccer season is now in full swing and we have had numerous enquiries from clubs and organisations as to what time slots are remaining and as we cater for all events the advice is simple and that is to contact Pat or Denis asap.
The advice is not to delay and phone today.

Remember the numbers again Pat – (087)7934417 and Denis – (087)2069900. “Very limited slots available”.
ATHEA UTD LOTTERY RESULTS FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 23rd
The results of our weekly lottery draw held on Monday, December 23rd at Brown Joe’s are as follows
Jackpot was €11900. Numbers drawn 13, 14, 25, 30. No jackpot winner.
Lucky dips to the following – John Allen, TempleAthea. Peg Mulvihill, Blaine, Athea. Tommy Mullins, Ardagh. Billy McKenna Jnr, Upper Athea. Catherine Hayes, TempleAthea.
Xmas draw winner €50 Theresa O’Brien, Ardagh.
Sellers Margaret Dalton & Pat Hayes.
New jackpot will be €12000 on Monday, January 6th at Batt’s Bar.
Tickets €2 each or three for €5
ATHEA UTD LOTTERY RESULTS FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 6th
The results of our weekly lottery draw held on Monday, January 6th at Batt’s Bar are as follows
Jackpot was €12000. Numbers drawn 8, 18, 27, 29. No jackpot winner.
Lucky dips to the following – Martina M O’Connor, Asdee. Phillip Sullivan, Keel, Co Kerry. Patrick Chawke, Gortnagross. Christopher Barrett, Lower Road, Athea. S.T.N. Ambrose, Gortnagross.
Sellers Kevin O’Keeffe & Paul Collins
New jackpot will be €12100 on Monday, January 13th at JPs.
Tickets €2 each or three for €5