Saturday, 12th June was our first Lancashire Underage blitz of the year and in fact the first one for almost two years as a result of the various lockdowns and cessation of team sports during the COVID pandemic. The sun was shining in Greenbank, Liverpool, where John Mitchel’s were our hosts and for the first time in many years we had five Lancashire clubs in attendance which is testament to the great work being done at youth level within Lancashire GAA.

The picnic blankets were laid out, sun cream administered as parents and grandparents took their places to watch the games, with throw for the first games at 2pm.

Our Under 11s played four games in total matching up against St Peter’s, St Brendan’s, John Mitchel’s and St Mary’s. Of our 9 wonderful players out there, 4 were making their debuts for the club and everyone performed fabulously well with some superb teamwork and skills on show and plenty of tenacious tackling. Some great scores throughout the day spread around the team. The confidence is building all the time. A cracking performance for the first blitz of the year.

Our Under 13s played three games with St Brendan’s, John Mitchel’s and St Peter’s providing the opposition. The lads got stuck in and performed with great heart in what was a very hot and tiring day. Two extremely competitive games against St Brendan’s and John Mitchel’s resulting in 1 win and 1 loss. Plenty of great inter-play, teamwork and scores on show all around the pitch with the lads also sticking to their defensive duties and competing hard in their individual battles. The final game of the day was against a big and strong St Peter’s team that proved too much for our lads as the energy levels began to drop in the extreme heat. However, the challenge was a good one and shows the lads what we can work on to improve. Great to get another three games under the belt.

Finally, our Under 14s girls also made their way over to Liverpool in the hope of some Super Games but unfortunately there was not too much in terms of girl opposition. That was not enough to stop the St. Lawrence’s girls however, who played a couple of challenge matches against John Mitchel’s and St Peter’s. This was the first time this group of girls played as a team in a competitive environment. In some ways it was tough introduction, but the girls stood up well to the challenge and played some good passages of passing football. At this stage our focus is on building confidence and development rather than results. A great experience for them and plenty learnt on the day.

A wonderful day of Gaelic football and a big thankyou to John Mitchel’s for hosting and to Andy Kane our Community Development Administrator for organising the day of fixtures. Its was great to see St. Peter’s back involved with youth football in Lancashire and to all the clubs present on the day that made it such a brilliant occasion.

Meanwhile back at Turn Moss our Under15s & Under17s were joined by some players from John Mitchel’s and St Mary’s for a Lancashire training session ahead of the upcoming All Britain blitzes with 31 lads training on the day. Our Under 7s and Under 9s had their final training session ahead of the first Lancashire Go Game blitz for those age groups taking place at Turn Moss next Saturday 19th June with first Throw Ins at 2pm.

As always, a big thank you to children, parents and coaches for making it all happen! If you want to get involved, then just drop us a line via the usual channels. Everyone welcome!