County Board Briefs
Tom Comack
Championship dates
The semi-finals of the RTE Raidi Na Gaeltacht senior championship will be played on Sunday August 29, with replays, if required, fixed for the following weekend Saturday and Sunday September 4/5 with the county final set for Sunday, September 26
The three first round play-offs in the Intermediate championship - St. Nauls v Cloughaneely, Sean MacCumhaills v Urris and Bundoran v Carndonagh - have been fixed for Saturday and Sunday August 7/8 with the semi-finals to be played two weeks later on Saturday August 21, or Sunday August 22. The Intermediate semi-final replays are fixed for the following weekend Saturday/Sunday August 28/29 with the final on either Saturday September 11 or Sunday Sepetmber 12.
The Junior A championship semi-finals is on Septermber 11/12 with the final on Sunday October 3. It is hoped to get a number of rounds in the U-21 championship played in by the end of August or early September.
Centre of Excellence
Work has begun on the the county's new Centre of Excellence (training centre) in Convoy, development officer Michael McMenamin reported to county commitee on Monday night.
Curran Contractors from Armagh have been awarded the contract and work began on the project last week. The Armagh company were the lowest tender for the scaled down development at €738,626. The revised development, which has received approval from the National Infrastrucure and Safety Committee, will now include two sandbased playing pitches with bases for floodlighting and ancillary works such as road widening, a gravel car park, a road side fence, an ESB sub-station and the placing underground of overhead power lines.
Once again the suitability of the site for a centre was rasied with Burt delegate Danny Dowds saying that there was a rumour doing the rounds that the site was not great and as a result had incurred a number of additional costs in the preparation of the site before any development work on the playing picthes could get underway.
In response Michael McMenamin said that he had raised the issue himself before and admitted that it was costing more to develop than if it was a perfect site but he insisted it was a good square of land, well sited along the road and was fairly central for the whole county. He also posed the question, what is the perfect site?
Treasurer Grace Boyle stated that one of the difficulties with the site was that it was adjacent to the Deele river and because it was a salmon river they were not allowed to drain into it and instead were forced to drain across the road to a seperate drain.
Summer Camps
Coaching Officer Seamus McAnaw reported that the VHI Cl Summer Camps were up and running and in the 21 camps so far numbers had held up thought he felt they were going to fall short of the 2500 target they had set at the start of the year.
He said it was unfortunate that a number of private camps were being run in competition with the county promoted ones. The development officer also gave a breakdown of the numbers so far which were as follow; Dungloe (72), Red Hughs (52), Gaoth Dobhair (141), Convoy (107), Burt (23), St. Eunans (11), Naomh Ultan (76), Muff (104), Urris (124), Carndonagh (112), Termon (43), Glenswilly (68), MacCumhails (63), Downings (128), Lifford (99), Ardara (120), Kilcar (95), Malin (136), Moville (88), Naomh Colmcille (35), Fanad Gaels (53).
Ardara delegate Mary Kelly called for the reintroduction of the county jersies as opposed to the current uniform jersey which is handed out at all camps right around the country. The call was backed by a number of other clubs who said they had numerous complaints from parents and children about the jersies and there was a general feeling that Donegal kits should be handed out at Donegal Summer Camps.
Concerns were also raised by a number of committee members on the possibility that the jersies being handed out were being sourced from outside the country, though chairman P. J. McGowan said that it was not clear if this was the case.
Letterkenny Gaels delegate Dan Hartnett also raised the cost of the camps and that camps in other counties seemed cheaper.
Seamus McAnaw said that the cost of the camps was set by Croke Park and with the exception of the six counties where they employ their full-time coaches he was not aware of any other county charging less than Donegal.
He also pledged to raise the matter of the jersies at a special review meeting which was due to be held in the autumn and to assist him he asked all clubs that had encountered problems and complaints to forward them to him so that he could forward them on to Croke Park.
Killybegs and Four Masters supporters
Treasurer Grace Boyle called on the remaining clubs in the senior championship race and in particular Four Masters and Killybegs to consider taking some inititiative to get their supporters out for their county semi-final clash.
"The schools may be back by then and maybe the game could be promoted and publicised through the schools," said the treasurer.
Sean Dunnion, Four Masters, stated that they would be very interested in meeting the treasurer and discussing the matter with her.
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Weather for Donegal
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Heavy rain
Temperature: 5 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South
