Sport

Storms play havoc with National League fixtures

Armagh's game with Monaghan went ahead at the Athletic Grounds despite the conditions Picture by Philip Walsh
Armagh's game with Monaghan went ahead at the Athletic Grounds despite the conditions Picture by Philip Walsh Armagh's game with Monaghan went ahead at the Athletic Grounds despite the conditions Picture by Philip Walsh

THE succession of storms played havoc with sporting fixtures around Ireland over the weekend, with some games postponed and others forced to move venues at the last minute.

A full set of National Football League fixtures were originally down for decision over the weekend, but five of those games were called off as first Storm Dudley, then Storm Eunice and finally Storm Franklin battered pitches across the country.

Fermanagh’s Division Three clash with Laois at Brewster Park on Saturday night was the first to fall victim as freezing conditions in Enniskillen made the pitch unplayable. Then yesterday, Cavan’s Division Four game with Sligo at Markievicz Park succumbed to the foul weather, while Leitrim’s bottom flight game with London was moved from Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada to the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence all-weather 3G outdoor pitch.

In Division Two, Galway’s game with Offaly, set for Pearse Stadium in Salthill, was postponed, while the Division Three meeting of Westmeath and Longford at Cusack Park in Mullingar and the Division Four clash between Wexford and Tipperary in Wexford town were also called off in the face of the conditions.

Limerick’s Division Three game with Louth, set for the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick city yesterday, was initially postponed and then given a reprieve as it was allowed to go ahead at University Limerick’s North Campus, where Mickey Harte’s visitors stole a dramatic late victory.

In other weather-related chopping and changing, Slaughtneil’s All-Ireland senior club camogie semi-final against Galway side Sarsfield’s, originally set for Saturday afternoon in Cavan, was called off ahead of an announcement a couple of hours later that the game had been re-fixed for Gorey in county Wexford yesterday afternoon.

In a refixture that entailed a 400-mile round-trip, the south Derry women lost the semi-final by a single point on a heavy pitch.