Sport

Back in the day: sport shorts from The Irish News on November 22 1996

DEVINE GIFT.....Sean Devine is congratulated on his Ulster Sports Trust Award by Olympic gold medalists Mary Peters and Tessa Sanderson 
DEVINE GIFT.....Sean Devine is congratulated on his Ulster Sports Trust Award by Olympic gold medalists Mary Peters and Tessa Sanderson  DEVINE GIFT.....Sean Devine is congratulated on his Ulster Sports Trust Award by Olympic gold medalists Mary Peters and Tessa Sanderson 

IT HAS been a good year for St Paul’s Sean Devine, and he completed a unique double last week, taking the GAA Sportswriters Handball award and the Ulster Sports Trust Young Sportsman merit award within the space of a few days.

The Queen’s law student hopes to become the first Antrim player to win the All-Ireland intermediate singles and he made an impressive start to his campaign defeating Dwyers’ Brendan Rainey in two straight games on Monday night.

He now meets fellow clubman and doubles partner Seamus O’Tuama who had an emphatic straight games victory over Joe Rainey in the semi-final while in the other half of the draw Rossa’s Donal Armstrong  easily defeated Joe Murphy and meets his doubles partner Collie O’Hare.

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BELFAST’S master of the ring, Damaen Kelly, is through to the semi-final medal stages of the second Commonwealth Amateur Boxing Championships in South Africa, after a flyweight war with Julie Bruno (Mauritius).

The four-times Irish title winner and world ranked No. 5 swapped standing counts with the man from Mauritius in the final round.

But when the computer stopped counting at the final bell, it was victory for the little Holy Trinity boxer on a 9-7 scoreline and a bronze medal at least to show for his pains.

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TYRONE manager Danny Ball has reshuffled his pack as his side go for their first win of the league campaign against Meath on Sunday. Jody Gormley, who last played for Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat against the same opposition, returns to midfield.

His partner is former Tyrone captain Enda Kilpatrick who is making his first appearance in a Tyrone jersey for over two years.

Tyrone: J Cassidy, P Devlin, P O’Neill, C Lawn, P Donnelly, F Logan, N Donnelly, E Kilpatrick, J Gormley, B Dooher, S McCallan, A Cush, S Lawn, G Cavlan, C McBride Subs: P McCallan, S Conway, S McLaughlin, B McGinn, E Gormley, B Gormley, D Hagan, T O’Neill, E McCaffrey, V Owens, D McElroy, A Kilpatrick.

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HEAR the one about the referee who was suspended after stripping off in the showers after a game with the players?

Hardly a hanging offence, although the wives and girlfriends of the players thought it was.

They didn’t seem to think it was the sort of thing a 41-year-old Devon mother of four should be getting up to and this week lodged an official complaint with the FA about her inappropriate behaviour.

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LEADING national hunt jockey AP McCoy reached another milestone in what has been a brilliant career when he guided Class of Ninety Two first past the post in the Shipton Steeplechase at Warwick yesterday.

The Tim Foster-trained gelding was the 100th winner for 22-year-old McCoy in the current season and gained him a place in the record books as the fastest ever century of winners.

The previous fastest hundred was recorded by now retired former great Peter Scudamore who reached the mark on December 15, so McCoy reached his total with 30 days to spare.

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Derry have a more consistent look to their team as they travel for a division one derby to Cavan.

Paul McFlynn comes in for Kevin Bryson at cornerback, Sean McLarnon replaces Sean McGuckin at corner-forward while Feargal McCusker comes in at full-forward for Ronan Rocks.

Meanwhile Anthony Forde and Fintan Cahill have returned to Cavan’s starting line-up.

Derry: J Kelly, P McFlynn, J McBride, E McKeever, S Lockhart, D Heaney, G Coleman, R Boylan, H Downey, G McGill, D McIlvar, D Dougan, S McLarnon, F McCusker, P Farrell Subs: J Brolly, K Bryson, B Henry, E Muldoon, R Murphy, R McGuckin, R Rocks, K McKeever, S McGuckin

Cavan: P O’Dowd, P Kermath, C Brady, M Riley, G Sheridan, A Connolly, B Morris, D McCabe, P Smith, P Reilly, S King, A Forde, M Graham, R Carolan, F Cahill.

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