A Tale of two teams and one city - Liverpool Congratulations to DCU and Waterford IT on the achievement of winning the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups respectively. After all the controversy surrounding DCU concerning the eligibility of a number of their star players, they still retained their focus to win the much coveted Sigerson. I'm sure their spat with the Higher Education Council will not tarnish their victory but just like recent developments it has shown up more grey areas in the application of our rules. Nothing seems to be clear cut at present for officialdom when it comes to imposing sanctions. Personally I find it difficult to accept that someone with a full time job can participate in the Sigerson. If this is allowed to happen then it will only demean the competition and reduce it to a shambles. In my previous article I got my knuckles rapped for paying lip service to the British Universities Championships. Granted our games abroad do not receive the same attention but this should not take away from the sterling work of those who ensure that gaelic games flourish on foreign soil. I hope my report does them credit. In the 15th season of British University Gaelic Games, the largest ever contingent of University footballers from the length and breadth of Britain converged on Birmingham. Twenty eight teams and over 600 participants competed in the three division British Universities Championships in Birmingham on 10th, 11th and 12th February 2006 and produced three days of excellent football culminating in three competitive and exciting finals, and in the end three worthy winners of the 2006 British Universities Gaelic Football titles. The north of Britain dominated the headlines in the 2006 Finals with Sunderland, Preston and Liverpool grabbing the honours. Over the last decade the finals have progressed from being relatively modest affairs with students using a community centre facility, The Ladywood Arts and Leisure Centre Gymnasium Floor as a dormitory to staying in the best hotel accommodation that the city can offer, such as Jury's in Birmingham City Centre. This increased profile has come as a result of the recognition and respect the tournament has gained from Croke Park and registration with the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA). Consecutive GAA presidents have attended the finals every year since 1998, and when BUSA recognition for Gaelic Football was gained in 2001, the profile of University Gaelic Football and accompanying funding/sponsorship has been raised to a new level. The 2006 Plate (3rd Division) with 13 teams competing was never as large or competitive before and the teams fought through tough qualifying matches on Saturday, in a field that was evenly contested with most matches decided by one or two points. In the end it was Sunderland who ran out worthy winners in a very competitive final against Chester. A unique feature of the 2006 Plate tournament was the participation of a team from Rhennes in France who played six Plate matches and in one of these they managed a draw against their Irish counterparts. This is another important component of British University Gaelic Games - to encourage participation from non Irish sportsmen and these young Frenchmen played with typical Gallic flair. Such examples illustrate the point that Gaelic sports can and will continue to develop in different parts of the world. After getting eliminated from Division 1 contention, 6 teams contested the second division finals. Once again all games were played at a high intensity resulting in Preston University and Glasgow reaching the final. After an impressive performance Preston were awarded the John Scanlon trophy. Their outstanding performer Mark Counihan, a County Monaghan man from Truagh Gaels, was named Division 2's Player of the Tournament. The Division 1 championship was not so clear cut, right from the outset the top teams were setting down early markers of their prowess. They achieved clean sweeps in their respective groups in the round robin stage of the competition on the first day of the tournament. St Mary's Strawberryhill were defending a formidable record of success having won the British Championships for the last four years and were confident of making it five-in- a-row. On the other side of the draw, John Moores would battle with Dundee, and then take on the winners of Napier and Newcastle. There were some great and hard fought matches in the quarter-finals, with many ties decided by one or two kicks of the ball. The biggest upset was brought about by Robert Gordons who did what no team had been able to do in four years, which was beat St. Mary's at the championships in Birmingham. It was a tight match decided by one point, 0-5 to 0-4. St. Mary's faced an uphill battle to retain their title following the loss of Paul Malone on the first day of the tournament and corner-back, Donal Lehmann in the quarter final, both through sending off offences. Following the exit of St. Mary's, Liverpool Hope dispensed with Edinburgh in impressive fashion, letting it be known that they were gunning for championship glory. At the Rugby pitches, John Moores were facing a stiff test from Dundee. Their cause was not helped when Monaghan's Trevor Meegan suffered an injury that led to him missing the remainder of the championships. Trevor was also to have lined out for his club team, Inniskeen in the All-Ireland club intermediate final the following week. John Moores seemed more determined then ever to have something to show for their player's sacrifice. They beat Dundee by two goals. In the second quarter-final, the other Scottish team, Napier, had more success and defeated Newcastle to book a place in the semis. The draw for the semi-finals kept the two Liverpool's sides apart -Liverpool Hope played the conquerors of St Mary's, Robert Gordon's University (Aberdeen) while Liverpool John Moore's confronted Napier University (Edinburgh). Would there be a first ever all Scotland final of the British University Championships, or would the final, for the first time in its history be a local Derby? After two hard fought games on a deteriorating pitch the two Liverpool sides came out on top thanks largely to the influence of their county stars. Donegal`s Colm McFadden scored the only goal in Hope`s 1-6 to 0-2 victory. In the other semi it was Tyrone goalie and my Errigal clubmate John Devine that inspired John Moores putting in a majestic display at midfield. The scene was set for the spectacle of a local Liverpool Derby to decide the British Championships and direct entry to the semi final of the Trench Cup Championship. This was always going to be a close fought and intensive affair between two clubs with a great history in the tournament and with both sets of players very familiar with each other the individual battles weren't going to be pretty. Hope had bettered John Moores in the regional qualifiers by two points in November, but the Moores team had been training hard under the guidance of former player, and University All-Star, Shane McCann (Tyrone). Their preparations included a challenge match against Monaghan club-side Inniskeen, who themselves were preparing for All-Ireland glory in March. John Moore's applied the early pressure and took an early lead after some great play by captain Paudie Finnegan, supported by inside forwards, Breslin and Traynor On the re-start Hope came out on fire recording the first score of the second half to bring themselves level but they could never get their noses in front. As a tense second half drew near an end referee Martin Mohan did well to keep things under control. With Finnegan getting crucial scores John Moores had the look of champions. Despite moving McFadden to full-forward Hope could not find the target and their disappointment was evident at the final whistle. This was the third British title won by Liverpool John Moore's in the 15 years of the tournament with their previous victories coming in 1996 and 1999.After the celebrations on the pitch team captain Paudie Finnegan (Monaghan) accepted the trophy and dedicated the win to his two team mates who could not take part in the final due to injury and illness. A few moments later Finnegan was back on the podium to collect the Paul Montague 2006 Player of the Tournament Award. Their reward for winning the British title was a place in the semi-final of the Trench cup in Dublin. Here they faced a well fancied Trinity College team and despite making a gallant effort, they went down by the slenderest of margins, losing by just two points. Nonetheless, John Moore's did not let themselves down and may gain some consolation from the fact that Trinity went on to win the competition. Other British universities can be heartened to know that they too are more than capable of competing at Trench Cup level. Tweet

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