St Gall's win Castlewellan Sevens

Castlewellan O’Neill’s Irish Sportswear Sponsored 29th Annual
> Invitation Sevens took place on Saturday 6th September with 16 teams
> from Down, Derry, Antrim, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Louth and Sligo
> taking part. A number of other teams had to withdraw at the last
> moment due to Championship or league commitments the following day. A
> special word of thanks to our main tournament sponsors O’Neill’s Irish

> Sportswear, and ‘Player of the Tournament’ sponsors ‘Emboidit’ of
> Newry.
> A number of county stars were on show in what proved to be a very
> competitive days sevens and the fact that Paddy Bradley came straight
> from his trial for the compromise rules team to play for Glenullin in
> the knock-out stages of the competition shows the esteem in which the
> tournament is held. Eight teams from 5 Counties contested the
> quarter-final stages with Tourlestrane (Sligo), Glenullen (Derry), St
> Gall’s (Antrim) and Longstone (Down) all winning places in the
> semi-finals. In the final St Gall’s from Antrim retained their crown
> after beating new -commers to the competition Tourlestrane from Sligo
> with St Gall’s Kevin McGourty picking up the Player of the Tournament
> award. Kevin now joins his brother Ciaran and father Sean on the
> ‘Player of the tournament’ Roll of Honour. Ciaran won the award in
> 2004 and again in 2007 while their father Sean Og McGourty (also St
> Gall’s) was
> the first recipient of this prestigious award when it was introduced
> into the Castlewellan Sevens competition in 1983.
> It was great to see a number of new teams compete this year including
> Tourlestrane and also great to see past winners St Mary’s of Sligo and

> Bellaghy of Derry back again this year. Next year 2009 St Malachy’s
> GAC will host their 30th consecutive annual invitation sevens and the
> Club intends to mark this significant milestone in a memorable way.
> Hopefully all past winners of the tournament (see Roll of Honour) will

> be in attendance including many of the clubs that enter the
> competition each year. Entry to next year’s competition will be
> restricted to 30 teams played for the first time over 6 venues in the
> town, with the quarter-final semi-finals and final once again played
> in St Malachy’s Park.
> Special commemerative prizes will be commissioned for this anniverary
> event along with other special prizes and incentives for Clubs and
> further details about all of this will be published when the
> sponsorhip details for 2009 have been fialised. In the meantime we
> would welcome expressions of interest from clubs who would be keen to
> enter. All email enquiries will be acknowledged and recipients will be

> kept informed about details of the competition.  Email An Runai > href=’mailto:.KingR3@fgwilson.com‘
> title=Email’>Ronan King