UL Bohemians v Quins AIB Senior Cup Rnd 2 Annacotty, Limerick 17th October 2009 UL Bohs 6 - Quins 26

Quins (from AIL II) had a great victory over UL Bohs (AIL 1A) 26-6 in the above, contradicting the Irish Independent's prediction of a Home win (tier 1 versus tier 3, in their terminology)! Personally, knowing our selection, I was quite confident of a win. And yet we were missing 16 players! But to the game. In his first full outing John Mills kicked four penalties at 21,28, 62 and 71 and converted our two tries by Alatise Ale (@53) and by Colin Atkinson (@77), in reply to U L Bohs'outhalf  Fergal Lawton's 2 penalties @39 and 46. Congratulations to John Mills as he controlled the game extremely well and given the excellent service from Michael Heaney and our 11 forwards. Indeed our pair of half-backs varied their kicks to the fullll:box, grubber, Garryowen, as well as sharp passing. Heaney and our outside centre Michael Allen were appearing for the first time as two Academy boys (from Methody). Accordingly our Team Manager Mr Len Young and I, award man-of-the-match to John Mills especially for the manner in which he controlled the game. Michael Heaney and Michael Allen were not far behind along with our entire pack. Thus ULBs had 7 kick-offs at halfway and our Gaelic practice on Thursday night paid off, not to mention 22m drop-out restarts.Well done Andy Ward and Adam Larkin, our hard-working coaches! Quins started with 1 Alatise Ale 2 Alan Rankin 3 Adam Macklin 4 Neil McComb(C)  5 Gareth Rourke 6 Stephen Neill 7 Andrew Joseph 8 Tamaiti Horua  9 Michael Heaney 10 John Mills 11 Richard Reaney 12 Colin Atkinson 13 Michael Allen 14 Rob Creighton 15 Miles O'Hagan. In the 2nd half, Alister Heatlie for Stephen Neill, Robert Logan for Alan Rankin, Mark McGrath for Alatise Ale, Tim Shaw for Richard Reaney and David Creighton for Michaael Allen, were our replacements. This meant the successful employment of all 20 squad members! My word, I was thinking of entering our entire Management Team for the Circuit of Ireland next Easter, two laps having already been completed. And of course  tachyons are virtual particles which exceed the speed of light! Many thanks to Clonakilty and UL Bohemians on successive weeks for their very kind hospitality.On a more sombre note, in the middle of all our excitement, we wish our colleagues and Club workers all the very best of good fortune, concerning their rapid recovery from illness: in alphabetical order: Hillary McLean, Rodney Mairs and Roy Rennix. Also, after a short illness, it is good to see one of my former NIFC alickadoes, Johnny Graham, back in the Club followinga short illness. Still a lot of duck-diving in the game: even a 6-month-old child accidentally practised with a train rather than a ruck: thank goodness he was all right! In our day we would have called them flying angels, over a broad-vaulting-horse. In Judes we just have reserved angels! It was great to have our Captain Neil McComb in his first full competitiveClub match: well done Neil! and I thought our two try-scorers took their chances extremely well. So Dolphin at Home in Round III of the Cup on November 7th. See you at Philips Arena, Deramore Park,for our AIL II match versus Greystones at 2-30pm,next Saturday 24 October! Derrick Crothers(prof) Philips Belfast Harlequins RFC PRO/CMO

Quins v Naas AIB Senior Cup Rnd 1 Philips Arena Deramore Park 26th September 2009 Mild prevailing conditions included a gentle dry Southerly breeze, veered Westerly, by half-time. Naas kicked off, Quins having elected to play towards the Black Mountain. At 3, Naas kicked a penalty for a Quins' offside. At 6, Rory BlakeKnox dropped a well-taken opportunistic goal. At 19, Fiyin Olayisade, fed by flanker Andrew Gillespie, from a ruck in our 22, made a great break down the right wing at pace and put Colin Atkinson in for a well-taken try on the right, converted by Richard Reaney. On the half-hour, Naas equalized with a try converted by Ahearn, following several missed tackles. Two minutes later, however, David Creighton and Chris McCarey inter-passed at pace for the former to score an excellent try in the left-hand corner. After only three more minutes, Alitase Ale used his undoubted strength to score an unconverted try to the right of the posts, to leave the half-time score at: Quins  22  Naas  10. Early in the second half, Keith Pyper was injured, and Rory BlakeKnox moved to the left wing with our new overseas player, John Mills, coming on for the first time at outhalf. Andrew Joseph replaced, first Andrew Gillespie (blood injury) and, later, Alister Heatlie; Mark McGrath replaced Tim Morton while Alan Rankin replaced Alitase Ale and Rob Creighton replaced Richard Reaney.At 70 John Mills kicked a penalty and at 73 the latter made a clean break well backed up by Colin Atkinson who touched down at the posts, his 2nd brace of the season! Mills converted to leave Quins with a fairly hard-earned victory: Quins  32  Naas  10. Quins now meet the University of Limerick Bohemians at Thomond Park or Annacotty on the 17th October in Round 2 of the AIB Cup. Quins started with: 15 Miles O'Hagan 14 Keith Pyper 13 Richard Reaney 12 Colin Atkinson 11 Fiyin Olayisade 10 Rory Blake-Knox 9 David Creighton 1 Tim Morton 2 Robert Logan (c)  3 Alitase Ale 4 Gareth Rourke 5 Danny Annett 6 Alister Heatlie 7 Andrew Gillespie 8 Chris McCarey. Fiyin Olayisade returns to Loughborough this week  - for his sterling performances over our first 7 matches, I make him  man-of-the-match. This was a difficult game, eventually sorted out by our driving mauls. See you at Philips Arena, Deramore Park, on Saturday 3rd October for our first AIL II match this season, versus Old Crescent,2-30pm. Derrick Crothers(prof) Philips Belfast Harlequins RFC PRO     Young Munster v Philips Belfast Harlequins 2pm KO @ Tom Clifford Park, Greenfields, Rosbrien, Limerick 2nd round AIB Cup 1st November 2008 Young Munster elected to defend the Clubhouse and Quins kicked off down the gentle incline with a discernible breeze behind them. (Talking of breezes, who will ever forget "The Claw", a famous International of this Club). Quins were the first to settle and at 4 minutes Rory Blake Knox sprinted in from the YM 22 to score opportunistically under the posts; Keith Pyper obliged with the conversion: YM 0 Quins 7. Pierre Duboit slotted a penalty for the home side at 20 minutes but Miles O'Hagan replied with a perfect drop-goal at the end of the 1st half, to leave the halftime scores at YM 3 Quins 10. In the 2nd half YM benefited from the breeze and incline; prop David O'Dwyer nicking a ball at the back of the lineout in the Quins 22 to touch down: YM 8 Quins 10. Hooker Ger Slattery added a simple penalty at 78 minutes to give YM the lead for the first time: YM 11 Quins 10. At 80 minutes Derek Corcoran secured a 2nd try, under the posts after using a good oldfashioned handoff, after the ball was spun out to the left wing; Ger Slattery converted: YM 18 Quins 10. Not to be outdone, Quins' centre Shane Stewart raced up the incline to score our 2nd try, to the left of the posts at 83 minutes: YM 18 Quins 15; this was to be the final score. Good luck to YM who are at home to UCD in the 3rd round. Including 2 injuries, Quins had seven players unavailable, so although we could - and should  - have won this match, there was much with which we could be pleased. However perhaps a few lessons were learnt regarding kicking and regarding positional selection. Scrums and multiple ruck/maul phases were excellent; lineouts were more than reasonable, despite the transverse breeze. Tackling was very good apart from their two tries. Each side received a yellow card. Replacements in the 2nd half were: Adam Macklin for Dan Roach at tight-head, Fred Cuttle for William Stewart (calf injury) on the right wing and Andy Joseph at 6 for Graham Jewhurst (who required stitches at the local A & E) , with Mike Willis moving to lock. My man-of-the-match is Alister Heatlie who has also been consistently to the fore over a number of matches. However, players like Robert Logan, David Creighton, and Johnathon Hopgood plus the two try-scoring centres can (and should) hold their heads up high. As always hospitality was insurpassable!! See you at Philips Arena this time at 2-30pm for another encounter with Ballynahinch (probably of the 3rd kind) in the Ulster Senior League. Quins started with: 1 Johnathon Hopgood 2 Robert Logan 3 Dan Roach 4 Graham Jewhurst 5 Neil McComb 6 Michael Willis 7 Colin Atkinson(C) 8 Alister Heatlie 9 David Creighton 10 Miles O'Hagan 11 Robbie Creighton 12 Rory Blake Knox 13 Shane Stewart 14 William Stewart 15 Keith Pyper Derrick Crothers (prof) Belfast Harlequins RFC PRO