Prendergast excels on the Partry Mountains

Fri, Aug 02, 2013

Having come close to a win only days previous in the hotly contested Westport town centre criterium junior rider Jason Prendergast riding for Cong based Cunga CC managed to come up trumps this time around taking a fine solo win in the Western Lakes CC promoted Tourmakeady Festival race on Wednesday evening. In what proved to be ideal racing conditions the 45 rider field took to the line for the 50km handicapped event. With six minutes covering the field from front to back the last group to start had it all to do. Riding steady they worked well to whittle down the lead of those in front. By the halfway point most of the riders had been swept up by the strong men and the attacking started in earnest, with Ballinrobe man Padraig Marrey the first to fire a bullet from his gun. This move was gradually reeled in and just as it came together it was Jason Prendergast who took the initiative and launched a strong attack. Sensing the danger, it was Marrey who responded first and as the duo gathered momentum up front several more managed to close the gap making it five in the newly established breakaway. With the majority of the clubs present now represented out front this move had every likelihood to succeed, and while those behind mounted a consistent chase the strength of the front group never looked like being overhauled. On to the finish where Prendergast decided to go alone with approximately 2km remaining and managed to hold on for a fine win with Marrey left to settle for second on the night.

Deane’s hat-trick at autocross

Fri, Aug 02, 2013

Derek Deane’s run of good luck continued as he annihilated the competition at round three of the Mayo and District Motorsport Club’s Loose Surface Autocross at Harrington’s Quarry near Swinford. Since his first win Deane seems unstoppable as he now makes it three wins in a row. Deane put in an incredible time on the third run of the day to finish over five seconds ahead of his brother Mervyn driving a similar JB Buggy. Mervyn managed to fend off the challenges of Martin Tynan in his impressive Mitsubishi Evo 8 to finish second. Foxford’s James McGreal was the next top Mayo man, finishing to round off the top 10 in his sprightly Subaru Impreza. The Mayo and District Club Award was won by Adrian Deane. The event was also the fourth counting round of the inaugural 2013 National Loose Surface Autocross Championships, a series that coincidentally Derek Deane has been victorious on the opening three rounds off.

Minors look to avoid Monday blues

Fri, Aug 02, 2013

The fixture gods deemed it fitting that Mayo would have to face Donegal in the senior quarter-final on Sunday afternoon, however they weren’t so kind as to place the county’s minor side on the same billing. Instead Enda Gilvarry’s men will be the opening act of a double bill of minor quarter finals in O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Monday afternoon, while the Kerry minors have been given the matinee slot in Croke Park the day before against Tyrone. However Mayo minor manager Enda Gilvarry isn’t complaining and is just looking forward to getting on with the job in hand. “To a certain extent we can't control the day and venue, any pitch is the same. It would have been nice to be with the seniors but it wasn't to be. It's the same for Westmeath, they would have looked forward to playing a quarter-final in Croke Park the same as we were.”

Casey's Call

Fri, Aug 02, 2013

And then there were eight. Watching the qualifier between Tyrone and Meath and Ger Canning announcing that Donegal seem to be into the quarter final after a struggle against Laois, I promptly let my Donegal wife Rita know that Mayo could now get drawn against Donegal. I knew it would happen, it was written in the stars, a chance for this Mayo team to right what went wrong in last year’s All-Ireland final. They could have got an easier draw in the likes of Cavan but getting pitted against Donegal - the All-Ireland champions, the team that made us sick to the pit of our stomachs last September means there is little needed in the line of motivation and complacency is gone out the window. It also means not much chat in the Casey house this week. I hope and expect to have bragging rights at 5.30pm next Sunday.

Donegal are not playing with the same panache and hunger as last year, it happens to teams that win All-Irelands, and Mayo by chance are a dab hand at dethroning All-Ireland champions. We have knocked the likes of Galway, Tyrone, Cork, and Dublin out in the not to distant past and prevented them from retaining Sam Maguire. I expect Sunday to be more of the same. There is no question Donegal have issues and Jimmy McGuinness’s interview in which he declared his team were been targeted by extreme physicality confirms that. I never like to see a player getting injured but when Paul Finlay of Monaghan and Mark McHugh collided in the Ulster final there was absolutely no malice intended from Finlay, just two players desperate to win a ball. It may be an Alex Ferguson type tactic by McGuiness to influence the referee next Sunday. He will use this to galvanise his team for their quarter final.

Collision course

Fri, Aug 02, 2013

Once Monaghan had ended Donegal’s three-in-a-row Ulster championship dreams in St Tiernach’s Park in Clones, a couple of hours after Mayo had wrapped up their own hat-trick of provincial titles, this Sunday’s quarter-final pairing was the one that the neutral and plenty of non-neutrals wanted to see come out of the hat. And so it came to pass, not long after 8.30pm last Saturday, the gods conspired to set up a rematch of last year’s All Ireland final, with Cavan man Joe McQuillan the man brokering the peace in the middle of the two packs.

The temperature ahead of the battle was turned up by a confident and composed looking James Horan last Sunday night, when he made some pointed comments about Donegal last year bringing “a new dimension to football in many ways, particularly in the area of physicality they brought that to a new level”, and on their injuries to key players, pointing out he had his own concerns to deal with this year: “They're suffering from a number of key injuries, but I've yet to see a top level inter-county that hasn't suffered from injuries. Over the course of this year it's been phenomenal, we lost eight players from our match day 26 in the first round of the club championship, and a number of our key players have been out for a number of months, look getting injuries is par for the course, there's no need in whinging and whining about it, you just get on with it and that's what we've done.”

Horan ready for Donegal challenge

Mon, Jul 29, 2013

The luck of the draw pitted Mayo and Donegal against each other in next Sunday’s All Ireland quarter-final and with that James Horan will square off against Jim McGuinness once again on the sideline. The Mayo manger looked confident and relaxed at the Mayo press event in Breaffy House on Sunday night and was looking forward to taking on last year’s All Ireland champions once again.

Balla 10k celebrates its twenty first birthday

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

The 21st Balla 10k takes place tomorrow, Saturday, July 27 at 7pm. This event has been organised by the same committee led by Brendan Conwell since its inception. The Balla 10k is the first of six races in the 15th Mayo AC C & C Cellular Road League. The Balla 10k has attracted hundreds of runners, joggers, and walkers to the village from all over Ireland over the past 21 years, many of them raising funds for various worthy causes in the process. The course is over a testing one lap AAI measured and permitted circuit. The start and finish line is just a few metres away from race headquarters which is located in the community centre in the middle of the village.

Tough battle in Mayo cycling championships

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

Westport was the venue recently for the second ever Mayo Cycling Championship. The event attracted the best cyclists that Mayo has to offer with in-form riders such as Patrick Clarke from Castlebar and professional rider Charles Prendergast from Louisburgh taking their place on the starting line along with 51 other cyclists from the nine cycling clubs in Mayo.

Casey's Call

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

What a wonderful occasion last Sunday’s Connacht finals day was in McHale Park. I arrived in Castlebar at 11am and already could feel the buzz and anticipation as many supporters were parking miles out the Charlestown road at that early hour. The day was not as sunny as expected but it was very humid and extremely energy sapping for the players, and even the well prepared Mayo players who did not have to get out of second gear were down on all fours at the end gasping for air.

It was unique to see the camera men wrestle for places where the teams arrive onto the pitch, I thought there was a mini-scuffle until I realised they wanted a good camera angle to catch the London team arriving to the field for this historic Connacht final. The majority of the huge crowd stood to applaud London’s arrival, however that was as good as it got for them. I was wondering whether my co-commentator Noel Dunning (former London manager) was serious or taking the mick when he suggested to me before we went on air that he hoped London would do it. They were completely outclassed and outplayed by a somewhat complacent Mayo team. I did mention last week Mayo would score a few from dispossessing the London defence, and in the first quarter after great tackling by Alan Dillon and Alan Freeman - Freeman coolly rounded the last defender and side footed the ball to the back of the net. Aiden O’Shea had a blinder at midfield from general play, however his radar was a little off and after one particular back pass to Rob Hennelly in the second half I am sure his ears were burning as James Horan removed his cap with annoyance and berated the ground in front of him. On a day that Mayo did not scare the lights out of any potential opponents because of their wayward passing and poor shooting resulting in 10 first half wides, they still went in comfortably at half time.

Historic big two meet in last eight showdown

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Treanlaur Catering Senior Football Championships have pitted the historic big two of the game in the county against each other for a place in the semi-final. Pat Holmes’ Castlebar Mitchels’ reward for topping their group including Breaffy, Crossmolina, and Davitts is a meeting with John Healy’s Ballina Stephenites, whenever the games get around to being played. Both sides are far and away the top dogs in the role of honour in the championship with Ballina Stephenites having claimed the title on 36 previous occasions and Castlebar Mitchels winning 27 titles.

All roads lead to Croke Park next weekend

Fri, Jul 26, 2013

In the immediate aftermath of Mayo’s win over London last Sunday, as the celebrations died down, the only thing that Alan Dillon was getting ready for was whoever comes out of the hat tomorrow night in the All Ireland quarter-final draw. “Our focus is the All Ireland series, we’ll be keeping the heads down for the next few weeks and focusing.” The Ballintubber clubman was honest in his appraisal of how his side performed on the day saying: “We made it difficult at times for ourselves, our use of the ball at some stages in the game wasn’t as clinical as it should have been. We’ve a lot to work on, it’s a short period now until the next game and it was good to see some of the lads get game time on the pitch, we’ll really put a huge effort in over the next two weeks and all roads lead to Croke Park. We let it drop for periods today, which is disappointing and when we got our chances we took the goals.”

The two-time All Star was also happy to have got another full game under his belt heading into the business end of the season. “Personally, I felt good out there today, it’s the first time since the Roscommon game that I got the lungs up to top pace and I finished out the game as well, which I was happy with. It’s good to be back, I’m getting there.”