St Patrick's Day headaches

Brendan Dempsey who recently took over as chairman of Meath Minor Board.

The first round of the Minor Football League competitions on St Patrick's Day produced some headaches for two clubs who were unable to fulfil fixtures.

East Meath club St Pat's sought a change due to a clash with the traditional St Patrick's Day activities in the parish while Bective were depleted due to the involvement of players with St Patrick's CS, Navan in last Sunday's All-Ireland Colleges' SFC semi-final and also sought a postponement.

St Pat's under-age secretary Myra O'Flaherty attempted to avert the problem with some forward planning and had agreed a re-fixture for Thursday, 1st April with Moynalvey.

Bective were scheduled to play Blackhall Gaels and a club official indicated that he was unhappy that they were unable to get their game rescheduled.

"We made our initial request to the u-18 secretary on 28th February, but by the time I had the matter finalised with Moynalvey I was told that it was too late to grant our request," stated the St Patrick's under-age secretary.

She also told the Meath Chronicle that the club was notified late on Sunday night, around 10.0, that they had to travel to Dunganny to play Clann na nGael for a 6.0 start in the opening round of the u-16 FC on Tuesday.

"We were fixed at home for this game initially and the time was changed from 6.30 to 6.0 due to the possibility of poor light," stated the St Patrick's official who outlined her surprise at the late chage of venue.

"It's not as if the fixtures committee would have been unaware that the evenings are still short and that the clocks don't change until this weekend," she added.

The St Pat's woman served for 10 years as assistant-secretary on the Minor Board.

"I can understand the problems associated with fixtures, but to expect us to be able to get to Dunganny for a 6.0 game on a Tuesday, especially with such short notice, looks like poor planning.

"It's difficult to understand the thinking behind this as next week the players will be on Easter holidays from school for a fortnight," she added.

The matters were raised at Monday night's Co Committee meeting in Navan.

"We dealt with the minor fixtures at the last CCC meeting and the points were awarded to Moynalvey," stated CCC chairman Eugene Comaskey. It was also confirmed that Blackhall Gaels had received a walkover from Bective.

Moynalvey delegate Peter Collins also highlighted the problem of trying to get u-16 fixtures played at 6.0 this week at Monday night's Co Committee meeting.

"This is ludicrous, these games shouldn't have been fixed for 6.0 on a Tuesday evening, but we can't do anything about it," stated the Co Committee chairman Barney Allen.

St Colmcille's delegate Pat O'Neill sought clarification on Monday night regarding the status of suspended minor club Round Towers.

"Discussions are on-going with Kilmainham, Drumbaragh and Gaeil Cholmcille, but we are not disclosing any information tonight," stated Allen.