Louth Ladies Club Championships get underway

Louth Ladies Club Championships get underway this weekend

This
weekend sees the start of the Club Championships in Louth with
games in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior divisions up for
decision.

The
first of the Championship games is the Junior Semi-Final between
Roche Emmets and Dowadshill. This game takes place on Saturday
16th July 2005 at 7pm in St. Patrick’s grounds in Lordship. The
winners of this game will advance to the Junior final while the
losers will play St. Mary’s on the 24th July 2005 in the other
Junior Championship decider, with the winners advancing to the
Junior Final on 7th August 2005.

On
Sunday 17th July 2005 in Louth Village, the Intermediate Semi-Final
will take place followed by the preliminary round in the Senior
Championship. First up at 5.30pm will be St. Pats against Newtown
Blues in the Intermediate Semi-Final. The winners of this game
will advance to the Intermediate Final, while the losers will
play Naomh Martin, with the winners of this match advancing to
the final. Catherine O’Connor will captain St. Patrick’s on Sunday
evening while Laura O’Shaughnessy will lead the Drogheda girls
in this championship decider. Newtown Blues will be confident
going into this match having already beaten St. Patrick’s in the
league earlier in the year and Newtown Blues will also be keen
to build on their success of last year having won the Junior Championship.
However, St. Patrick’s will bring experience to this game having
made it to a number of Intermediate finals in the last few years.
In either case, the experience from St. Patrick’s and the confidence
from Newtown Blues, should make this a great game on Sunday evening.

Following
this game, at 7pm it will be the turn of Cooley Kickham Ladies
and Stabannon Ladies to battle it out in the preliminary round
of the Senior Championship. The prize at stake for both teams
is a place in the Semi-Final against current county champions
Naomh Malachi on 24th July 2005. This is the third year running
that both teams have met at crucial stages in the Championship.
In the last two years, Cooley have emerged winners over Stabannon
and with their recent win over Stabannon in the Special League,
they will go into this game as favourites among the betting people
in Ladies Football. However, Stabannon, who have only been playing
Senior football for their third year have gathered a significant
amount of experience at this level of football in the last few
years. Audrey Raftery will lead the peninsula side out on Sunday
next while the mid-louth team will be led out by Mary Maloney.
Cooley Kickhams will be out to regain their Senior title, last
won in 2002, and Stabannon will be out to make to make inroads
into getting their first senior title. Both teams will be fighting
to win their place in the semi-final against Naomh Malachi, thus
setting the scene for a thrilling encounter in Louth Village on
Sunday evening.