Championship

Our first round match against Arva was played last Saturday evening in Belturbet. The pitch could have been better but we're probably spoiled with the great facilities that we have in Páirc Gaeil na Sionainne. We've been hit by alot of injuries this year and we had a kind of makeshift team out. I was picked at midfield with Enda McHugh. The warm up went well and we were all up for the match.
There was a minutes silence for John Mc's uncle who died earlier and then the game was off. We got the first point and then I went to tackle my marker and something went wrong. One more kick out to test it and then off with my glove. Yup. My finger was definitely not looking right. The physio refused to put it back in an I wasn't able to either so off to the hospital with me.
I was there for about an hour and a half in all and got some xrays and then they numbed my finger and spent 5 minutes trying to put it back into place.
Off home after that to be told we drew the match and had Gerry sent off. We have to beat Maghera now in two weeks to get into the next round.
I'm writing this in the hospital in Drogheda where I was sent to the fracture clinic. A 9:30 appointment and I didn't get seen until 11:30. Strapped up again and told not to play football for 6 weeks! Ha, as if!

Here's a link to my xray
http://twitpic.com/bt5rv 

Football, tag rugby, a duathlon, a wedding and a birthday

We won our last league match for a while against Mountnugent. They had beaten us twice last year so it was nice to beat them for a change. I was playing at corner back and despite us leaking two goals early on, we never really felt like we would lose.

That's a different situation to the tag rugby team on Thursday nights. We finished second last in the league with only one win out of 7 matches. But then last week we managed a win against the team that beat us the week before that. So we have one last match this week.

There was also the third Phoenix Park duathlon last Wednesday. I hadn't pre registered so it meant that I was to set off in the second wave with the women and the other non pre registered guys. It was a good race for me, I was second after the first run, second to someone else after the bike and then ran away from everyone and managed to finish first in the wave, a couple of hundred metres ahead of the fastest woman. I didn't quite get my goal of under 40 minutes but I was happy with the race.

Last Saturday was Andy and Aileen's wedding in Celbridge and they got a lovely day for it all after we got out of the church. It had been raining up to the start of the ceremony but we had lovely weather for the evening. Congratulations to them both and best wishes for the future!

It was also my birthday on Saturday and I got a birthday cake at the wedding dinner. It was probably the best cake ever! A giant chocolate Rice Krispie cake with jellies in it and covered in icing! Thanks Pauline and Greg for that :)

It's back to work today, and I am shattered. I think it'll be a week of resting and recovering.