42 DONEGAL NEWS SPORT Friday, December 27, 2013

Glenswilly’s wonderful run in theUlster Club Championship came toan end when they lost to a superiorBallinderry team in the Ulster final.

A Michael Murphy goal in the firstminute gave Glenswilly a dreamstart, but Ballinderry came back andwere in control by half-time.

Caolan Kelly goaled for the deter-mined Glenswilly men at the start ofthe second half, but the experiencedDerry champions kept their cool towin by four points.

“We left it on the field and those inthe green, white and gold jerseysgave it everything there for theGlen,” said the devastated Glenswillymanager, Gary McDaid.

“Ballinderry are just a class act.We competed well there - right up tothe 50th minute. But that last 10 min-utes just showed their experienceand their ability,” he added.

McDaid took his time to ponderhis next move, before agreeing tostay on as Glenswilly manager.

Buncrana minors put in an excel-lent performance but just came upshort against Watty Grahams in theSt Paul’s Tournament in Belfast.

St Eunan’s GAA club expressedtheir disappointment after Setantawere crowned under 21 hurlingchampions on a walkover, after StEunan’s could not field in the deciderdue to a number of their players sit-ting exams.

Three new faces were elected tothe Donegal GAA executive, with De-nis Ellis (Naomh Columba) appoint-ed vice-chairman, Cieran Kelly (StNaul’s) elected treasurer, while EdByrne fought off Oisin Cannon to winthe vote to be the new PRO.

Former Donegal star Kevin Cas-sidy was named the new player-man-ager of Gaoth Dobhair. In a surpris-ing move, he brought in ex Derryfootballer Paddy Bradley to join hisbackroom team.

Michael Murphy was named Done-gal Footballer of the year at theDonegal GAA banquet in the AbbeyHotel. Danny Cullen was givenHurler of the year, while KarenGuthrie was selected as Lady Foot-baller of the year.

Jason Quigley picked up the out-standing Achievement award at theIABA’s annual awards. The Finn Val-

ley ABC star was linked with aswitch to professional boxing, andhis father, Conor urged the IABA toact quickly or risk losing their prizedasset.

However, the IABA’s High Perfor-mance coach, Billy Walsh encour-aged Jason to keep pursuing hisOlympic dreams.

“Anyone who never goes to anOlympic games will regret it. Afterthat these guys have plenty of youthon their side to carry on,” Walsh saidat the RTE Sports Awards.

Conor Quigley became one of onlyfour Irish boxing coaches to attainthree-star coaching status with theInternational Boxing Association,alongside Billy Walsh, Zaur Antiaand Pete Taylor.

A phenomenal year for Donegalboxing concluded in December, witha number of local boxers tasting suc-cess at the Ulster 9 Counties champi-

onship finals in Burnfoot.St Johnston powerhouse Brett

McGinty blasted his way to a 3-0 winover Conor Gint for his eighthprovincial title.

Convoy’s Bryan McNamee addedthe Boys 4 60kgs medal to his grow-ing CV after an impressive stoppageof Ricky Moore. Callum Toland,Stephen Bonner, Kevin McMonagleand Joseph Reddan also shone at thefinals.

In soccer, Seamus Coleman scoredtwice in December as Everton con-tinued their rise under Roberto Mar-tinez. The Killybegs man nettedagainst Stoke City, before scoring apiledriver as the toffees got the bet-ter of Swansea City.

Shay Given joined Middlesbor-ough on a one-month deal andmarked his 600th club appearancewith a clean sheet against BoltonWanderers.

The Lifford goalkeeper tweeted af-ter the match: “Great to be back inaction today (and) make my 600thclub (appearance). A clean sheet butmore importantly the three pointsmade a perfect day.”

New Finn Harps manager OllieHorgan signed up a number of lastseason’s squad including KevinMcHugh and Ciaran Coll for 2014,while he also brought in formerHarps skipper Packie Mailey for hissecond spell with the club.

Cockhill Celtic pulled off a fantas-tic result to beat Crumlin United inthe Intermediate Cup.

However, there was no joy for Let-terkenny Rovers and Swilly Roverswho were both dumped out of thecompetition.

Rathmullan Celtic finished theyyear on top of the Donegal League af-ter they picked up two derby winsover Kilmacrennan Celtic and Mil-

ford United. It was a poor month forTom Coll’s Glenea United who onlycollected two points from a possiblesix and they dropped into second po-sition as a result.

Chloe Magee’s bid to win her firstIrish Open came to an end when shewas beaten by American BeiwenZhang in the semi-final in Baldoyle.

She also bowed out of the ItalianOpen a week later after being pippedby Spaniard Carolina Marin in thequarter-final of the women’s singles.

Ruairi Finnegan was part of theIrish men’s junior team who finishedninth at the European Cross-CountryChampionships in Belgrade, howeverhe was annoyed with his individualperformance.

Lifford AC athlete Ann MarieMcGlynn got to wear her first Irishsenior international singlet at theage of 33. She was part of the Irishladies team who finished sixth.

SPORTS REVIEW – DECEMBER

The starting 15 for Glenswilly against Ballinderry.

Seamus Coleman scores cracking goal from distance against Swansea.