Kilburn Gaels Hurling Club London

April 2007

League tables

26th April 2007: To help you keep up to date with how all our teams are doing in their respective competitions a league tables has been added via links on the 'Fixtures' page. These tables will be updated on a weekly basis along with the results. To view this week's league tables >>>

U12s get off to impressive start

24th April 2007: London's U12 hurling fraternity hit the ground running last week as they came to terms with the rules and regulations surrounding the new 'Go Games' format. This appeared to be more a challenge for the adults than the players, however, as 40 children happily adopted the new format and set about mounting their challenge for 2007. Kilburn Gaels had the luxury of being able to enter two teams with 20 U12s attending on the day and opened the day against each other. After a luckless first half for the green team, in which they conceded 1-4, they found form to quickly register 1-1 of their own and put it up to their 'yellow ' counterparts. In the end the gap proved too much to claw back in just eight minutes but the stage was set for an exciting and unpredictable afternoon's hurling. The yellow team went on to record victories over both Sean Treacys and Granuaille, with the green team also claiming victory against the former before battling it out with Granuaille in the final game of the day. In a closely contested match the scores remained tight until the last few minutes when Granuaille registered a second goal to take victory and claim second place in the blitz. The management and coaches of the U12 team were delighted to see the sporting and fair manner in which the pleysr approached the day and have already noticed a vast improvement in many of the players, due in part to the changed format. The next Go Games blitz takes place on Sunday 6th May in Mitcham, South London and with the number of new players arriving at training each week it may not be long before we have a third team in the competition!

Juniors register first win

24th April 2007: The Junior team collected their first league points with a convincing 5-11 to 3-1 win over Clan na Gael in Greenford on Sunday. Early goals from Patrick Troy and Liam Jordan gave the team a comfortable half-time lead over their older and more experienced opponents, with much of our Junior panel drawn from current and recently graduated underage panels. Thomas O'Neill continued his scoring ways picking up three points to add to the 1-1 he registered against Bros. Pearse last week, while Tommy Lawrence and Jim Collins controlled the proceedings around midfield. The team were disappointed to concede a couple of soft goals, slightly taking the gloss off the scoreline, but will be happy with such a convincing display and victory over seasoned opposition. The next Junior match will be in three weeks time in the Ronan Cup.

Seniors make it two out of two

23rd April 2007: The Senior team secured their place at the top of the league table by virtue of a 3-9 to 0-2 win over a struggling Sean Treacys side. Top performances from Brian Forde, Keith Kennedy, Mick Hayes, Tomas McAuliffe and new recruit Paul Fagan saw the team claim an easy victory in a game that was all but wrapped up at half time. The Seniors will now take on the same opposition in the first round of the Collins Cup next Saturday at 5:30pm in Ruislip.

Kilburn celebrate underage success

23rd April 2007: Over 50 underage players, together with parents, family and club officers, converged on Quex Road Social Club on Saturday evening to collect their medals for the 2006 season and celebrate their achievements. In the year that Kilburn Gaels marked their 15th Anniversary, the club enjoyed success at U16 and Minor, with great improvements made at the lower end of the club - not least the addition of an U10 team for the first time in 8 years. Club founder, Mick O'Dwyer, along with Minor Board Chairman Tony O'Halloran and our generous and ever-present sponsor, Andrew Carey, were on hand to present the awards as a record number of children received their rewards for an excellent year's work.

2006 Individual Awards
U12 Merit Award	Eirean Quilkin
U12 Player of the Year	Jack Doyle
U14 Merit Award	Nicky Heston
U14 Player of the Year	Martin Scanlon
U16 Merit Award	Shane Murphy
U16 Player of the Year	Conor Lyons
U18 Merit Award	Declan Ruddy
U18 Player of the Year	Thomas O'Neill
Club Person of the Year	Patrick Kerrigan

The club wishes to record their thanks to Andrew Carey who, not only sponsored the awards but also made a generous donation to the club; Angie and all the staff at Quex Road Social Club for their ongoing support, Briege Kerrigan, Teresa O'Neill and Rachel Stephenson who launder the kit and ensure that all the teams are well turned out on match days, Tony O'Halloran of the London Minor Board for attending and our photographer, Brendan Moyles.

Seniors get off to good start

17th April 2007: The Senior team made a promising start to their league campaign with victory over St Gabriel's at the weekend. The team struggled to find their form in the early stages, with Sean Dunne's goal proving the scoring highlight, and it took some superb saves from John Joe Burke in goal to keep the side in touch going into the break. An improved second half performance saw the team find their form and pull themselves back on level terms with St Gabriel's. With the momentum swung in their favour the team continued to pile on the pressure and found enough in the tank to overcome their opponents, winning by just a single point - 2-8 to 1-10. The following day the Juniors began their own league campaign with a difficult fixture against last year's JHC finalists, Bros. Pearse. Despite going down 1-11 to 2-1 the team can take confidence from the solid performance they put up against a much stronger side and look to their remaining league fixtures with much optimism.

Committee Meeting

12th April 2007: The next committee meeting will take place next Thursday, 19th April in Highgate after training. All officers and committee members are asked to attend.

Underage training

4th April 2007: Training for all U10, U12 and U14 players will resume on Wednesday 18th April at 6:30pm, continuing at 2pm on Saturday 21st April. Players are welcome to attend whichever session suits them (both if possible!) and are asked to make every effort to attend at least once a week. Fixtures will be taking place for each age group every couple of weeks so there will be plenty of matches to look forward to and if we have good numbers at training then we will be able to have good practice matches and bring along the portable posts. There are a few dates when training will not be held due to fixtures and other events; these are detailed on the training schedules that went out in the post in February. U16 and U18 players should be attending training with the Junior and Senior players in Highgate on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm, starting after Easter. Any queries regarding training should be directed to John O'Neill.