The dust has now settled on what was an amazing day of Youth Gaelic football in the glorious sunshine at Turn Moss, Stretford.
The volunteers were out from 11am, setting up goalposts and netting and marking out the six pitches in preparation for our 2pm start time, ready for our visitors from St Brendan's, St Peter's, John Mitchel's - Liverpool and JFK - Leeds.
Parents and Coaches had diligently completed Covid Health questionnaires and spectators took advantage of the vast Turn Moss space, taking their 'socially distanced' places to watch the day's activity.
Under 7's & Under 9's
The children from St Lawrence's, St Peter's, John Mitchel's and St Brendan's took to the field to play 4 or 5 games each across the 4 pitches, with St. Lawrence's lucky enough to be able to field several teams in both age categories. There were some fabulous skills on show across all pitches with some cracking point scoring on display. I was fortunate enough to be able to referee some of the under 7s games and it was wonderful to see the confidence grow as the day went on, with some children extremely nervous in their first game to running around like Conor Clifford, Cillian O'Connor or Brian Fenton by game number five! It was great fun watching the mini duels in each zone as the children, whilst being competitive, couldn't stop themselves laughing with each other as they rolled around on the grass tussling for the ball! The day's games came to an end at around 4:15pm. The children were no doubt exhausted but with great memories of a fun day.
Under 15's
45 players participated in the Under 15s blitz, with 32 players representing Lancashire and 13 players who had travelled from JFK in Yorkshire. Lancashire were made up of players from St Lawrence’s, John Mitchel’s and St Peter’s who were split into 3 mixed teams and a round robin was played resulting in a very competitive competition with many new players experiencing the game for the first time.
The afternoon was finished with a 13 a side game between St Lawrence’s and JFK in preparation for next weekend’s All Britain games in Birmingham. The intention is to field two Lancashire teams at the blitz next week with St Lawrence's players featuring heavily.
Nursery, Under 11s mixed, Under 13s boys, Under 14s girls, Under 17s boys, Ladies Transition Squad
Whilst all this was going on, our U11s, U13s, & U14sG squads all trained hard in preparation for next weekend's blitz being hosted by St Brendan's at Trafford Metrovick's (Sat 26th June, 2pm). Our Under 17 boys were joined by other members of the Lancashire squad for a training session as they work towards the All Britain blitz in Birmingham (Sat 17th July). Our Ladies transition squad took part in an internal club challenge game in the morning and finally our 4-5 year olds were put through their paces as they prepare to be our stars of the future.
A wonderful day was had by all, with 105 children from St Lawrence's taking part in Gaelic games on the day and 200+ children from all clubs.
A massive thank you to our CDA, Andy Kane, for arranging the blitz, assisting with the preparation, and ensuring all went to plan on the day. Thanks also to all our wonderful coaches, volunteers, referees and parents/grandparents for setting up, taking down and supporting the children on the day.
If you want to get involved in Gaelic games in Manchester, get in touch with St. Lawrence's via the usual channels. Boys and Girls, ages 5-17, Everyone welcome!
