Harper Hosts Landmark Gaelic Football Final

Posted 7 June 2005

A landmark Gaelic Football competition reached its exciting climax at Harper Adams University College.

Three seven-a-side teams competed to be the first to be crowned winners of the Irish Farmers Journal Cup, which has just reached the end of its opening season. The final took place at the Shropshire-based Harper Adams campus on May 30. The Harper Adams and Round Towers, London teams both fought valiantly, but at the end of the day it was Séan McDermott’s of Birmingham who took the title.

Conditions for the tournament were ideal ensuring a fast free flowing game. The opening game saw Londons Round Towers (with their two relative newcomers to the game Yurii Yenakiiev of the Ukraine and Aleksandar Mihaylov of Bulgaria) pitted against their championship rivals Séan McDermott’s. After a slow start from both teams McDermotts dominated the first half with two goals from Gary Murray and Lee Scanlon and points from Michael Hadyn and Anthony Moriarity. The second half saw the sky blues of London make somewhat of a comeback with some good moves from Charles Ó Hagan and Declan Egan in the middle of the field and in the forward line with Adrian Moloney. This was to prove too little too late with McDermotts finishing with an impressive victory of 4-4 to 2-1.

The second game of the tournament saw Harper Adams in their opening game against Séan McDermotts. Harper Adams, in their home colours of green and gold, had not played together since a challenge match against Glamorgan at the end of January, but showed great composure and settled into the match well in spite of the absence of some key players.

The last game of the first round was one of the closest games of the tournament with Round Towers proving worthy opposition to Harper Adams and securing a one-point win thanks to a last minute goal from Adrian Moloney.

The second leg of the tournament saw a repeat of performance from all teams with Séan McDermotts proving their superiority with narrow wins over Round Towers and Harper Adams to secure their victory of the inaugural “Irish Farmers Journal Cup” with a victory over Round Towers (3-4 to 1-6).

Presentation of the Cup was made by the host chairman William Holohan to Séan McDermotts captain Joseph Dowling. Séan McDermotts were congratulated for ensuring a high standard of football played in the true nature of sportsmanship. This was overseen by the sports administrator and Harper Ireland president (Ben Harper and Stuart Eakin respectively). There was strong support from both the home and away teams particularly the former who were availing of the nice weather to take a break from exam revision.