The Yorkshire U-14 Feile team began their training in early March under the tutelage of Joe McPartlan, Rory Scullion and Anthony Mc Laughlin.
Attendances were excellent - in excess of 22 lads every week - and the management were able to implement plenty of drills to the sessions due to the good numbers. We were able to go to Derry a confident team.
Our first competitive games were at the British Feile in Pairc na hEireann, based in Birmingham, the weekend before the Feile (30th June). We competed against Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Scotland and Gloucestershire.
Our first match against Hertfordshire, who were the eventual winners of the division, was our first get together and this was evident as we were unable to really find a rhythm to our play. Hertfordshire ran out worthy winners by 5 points.
Our second match against a strong Lancashire team was a massive improvement, The Yorkshire team dropped the kick pass philosophy that we were struggling with in the first match and implemented an efficient hand passing game which was to be successful for them in the coming matches. A closely fought game ended in Lancashire winning with a last minute goal, however there were plenty of positives to be drawn from this encounter.
Our next match was against our Scottish counterparts where we recorded a comfortable victory against a young Scottish team. We played Gloucestershire immediately afterwards and we were narrowly beaten once again, fatigue being the main problem for the boys in the final game. Although we recorded 3 losses, we were not to be disheartened as there were glimpses of excellent team play in all of the games so we could be confident going over to Derry.
FEILE DOIRE 2010 - Drumsurn
We met early on Thursday morning on the 1st July at the Leeds Irish Centre for a long journey up to Stranraer and then across to Belfast and finally to Drumsurn in Derry who were to be our hosts for the weekend.
We arrived early evening and were immediately impressed with not only the fantastic facilities that Drumsurn had, but the exceptionally warm welcome that we were given by each and everyone involved with the Drumsurn club.
All the Yorkshire kids were sent away with their respective host families for an early night (I hope!) in preparation for the following day's big game while the adults were treated to an Irish music session in Limavady. The craic was mighty and the Yorkshire PRO got a phone call at 1:20am on Friday telling him so! I'm sure he enjoyed that!
The first fixture of the weekend was held at lunchtime between Drumsurn who had a young but very talented panel with 5 under 10's being included. Yorkshire were sporting a brand new kit and were hoping to play as smart as they looked. Thanks again go to our sponsors JKL for sponsoring all of our training gear and kit.
Yorkshire were unlucky to lose their corner back Tom McDonagh, who had performed well in the lead up to the weekend, to a mysterious finger injury the night before! However Tom would be back playing for us by the final game.
Drumsurn, ever the good host, gave us a guard of honour as we arrived out on the pitch. The first half saw Yorkshire apply plenty of pressure to the Drumsurn team with the wind at their backs and a small height advantage to rack up a 3 point lead at half time.
The second half was a much improved performance from Drumsurn and the two teams exchanged goals early on. Yorkshire managed to slightly pull away towards the end of the game as the forwards began to show a bit of confidence keeping possession in the Drumsurn half. The final score ended 2-08 - 1-04 in favour of Yorkshire but the future bodes well for the Drumsurn players after a spirited performance from the young team.
1. Bailey Lawson-Spinks 2. Niall Conlon 3. Bryn Fletcher 4. Ruairi Cassidy 5. Sebastian Walton 6. Conor Houton (0-01) 7. Zack Widera 8. Michael Cornelly (0-01) 9. James Mc Gonagle (1-01) 10. Sean O' Dowd 11. Conor Gilboy (0-02) 12. Tom O'Brien (0-02) 13. Patrick Gibbons 14. Charles Morgan (1-01) 15. David Tierney (Eamon Cronin)
After the game, the lads returned to their host families to relax before the parade in Celtic Park. We enjoyed the parade very much and had good banter and some loud chanting between ourselves and our Drumsurn hosts. YOOOOORKSHIRE!! ……PUDDING!! ...RED AND WHITE ARMY!! Coach McLaughlin was finding it hard to hold the Yorkshire flag as well waving to all his admirers!
On Saturday morning, we played our 2nd match of the campaign against Naomh Padraig of Muff, Donegal. This match was always going to be a tough one and Messer Mc Laughlin was looking to get one over on his home county rivals! There were some great passages of play which involved hand passing out from the backline setting up great opportunities for our forwards to score. The lads played very well again coming away with a 3-06 to 0-06 victory.
1. Bailey Lawson-Spinks 2. Niall Conlon (Joe Gardiner) 3. Bryn Fletcher 4. Ruairi Cassidy 5. Zach Widera (Liam Cornelly) 6. Conor Houton (1-03) 7. Sebastian Walton (Darragh Connolly) 8. Michael Cornelly 9. James Mc Gonagle (0-01) 10. Tom O'Brien (0-01) 11. Conor Gilboy 12. Patrick Gibbons (Rory Devlin) 13. Patrick Gibbons 14. Charles
The skills test took place after this match and our representative was Conor Gilboy, who was pointed out straight away by one of our rival mentors as the player to watch out for on our fantastic team. He did the county very proud during this activity but just missed out on the finals by a few seconds to his Naomh Padraig opponent.
We played our final group match against our British rivals Warwickshire, who had previously trounced Naomh Padraig the day before and beat Drumsurn in the morning before the skills test. We knew it was going to be a tough game and the lads played to the best of their ability but it just wasn't enough on the day against an excellent Warwickshire side who secured a semi-final berth to the eventual winners of the division, South London, the final score of this match was 5-09 to 0-01.
1. Bailey Lawson-Spinks 2. Niall Conlon (Mitchell Carson) 3. Bryn Fletcher 4. Ruairi Cassidy (Joe Gardiner) 5. Sebastian Walton (Tom McDonagh) 6. Conor Houton 7. Zach Widera (Liam Cornelly) 8. Michael Cornelly 9. James Mc Gonagle 10. Sean O'Dowd (Rory Devlin) 11. Conor Gilboy 12. Tom O'Brien (0-01) (Joe Ward) 13. Patrick Gibbons 14. Charlie Morgan 15. Fintan Hughes (David Tierney)
On reflection of the weekend's games in the changing room, all the coaches expressed their enormous pride in how all 24 of the Yorkshire players had performed over the weekend. The lads could return home extremely pleased with themselves. Well done again Yorkshire!
It was here that we said our farewells to our coach Rory Scullion as he had to return to England to represent the Yorkshire team in the All-Britain Inter-County Championship Semi-Final against London the next day. It was very unfortunate that he missed the best night of the weekend but if your county is calling you, you have to answer their call!
The players once again returned to their host families for dinner and relaxation before the great night at the BBQ which our hosts kindly organised for our last night there. There was plenty of music, storytelling, dancing, singing and general craic and was easily one of the best night's entertainment event ever at an underage tournament. Everyone was up dancing around and having a great night. The night continued with birthday celebrations for the former Yorkshire Feile manager Mickey Connors who turned 21 (+ VAT) on the night!
There was even a chance for Yorkshires 4th coach and mentor Chris 'Casanova' Cassidy to finally make his move on a young lass from Drumsurn, who he had been eyeing up since he arrived in Drumsurn! We all know who she is Chris!
Our last day in Drumsurn arrived too quickly for all of us. We organised a challenge match the night before (which was severely regretted by a few the next morning!!) between ourselves and our hosts but with both teams mixed together which included the coaches playing for
Everyone involved with the Yorkshire team had a fantastic weekend which will never be forgotten. We are all very excited to return Drumsurn's fantastic hospitality when they will hopefully accept our invitation to visit Yorkshire for the Leeds Irish Festival next year.
We would like to thank our hosts for putting us up for the weekend, especially Marisa & Adrian Mullan and family, Richard Ferris, for his very kind donation of tracksuit tops for the coaches and t-shirts for all of our players, Joe McHugh, the co-ordinator of the Feile, who put in hours of work organising everything for the visit of ourselves and finally to the rest of the family hosts who went out of their way to make it such an enjoyable experience for our players.
In the future we hope to arrange a fixture for the open-age players of Yorkshire and Drumsurn. I'm sure again this will be another excellent incentive to have the same amount of craic! We're sure Chris 'Casanova' Cassidy will be trying his best to organise his Brothers Pearse GAA club to travel over from Huddersfield in the not too distant future after a blossoming romance with one young Derry girl ;-) !
Yorkshire have made many new friends this weekend and have enjoyed the weekend immensely!
THANK YOU AGAIN DRUMSURN!! Merci beaucoups! YYYOOOOOOOOORRRKKKSSSHHHIIIRRREEE!!!