Suzhou Gaelic

We will train at SSIS at 7.30pm Tuesday the 15th.  Meet at Blue Marlin at 7pm.

Saturday the 19th there is a LADIES coaching session from 3pm to 5pm in Shanghai which we have been invited to join.  The session will be taken by a top level ladies coach from Ireland.  So if you are interested please let us know before Thursday.  It will be very beneficial for the womens team to attend.

Men will have the Weekend (Saturday 19th) OFF because of clashes with other events.

REMINDER about Beijing, if you have not registered with us about playing let us know this week.

October 15th and 16th Asian Gaelic Games in Seoul Korea.

Thanks to all that made it to the Asian Gaelic Games in Korea, there were some heroic performances both on and off the pitch.  It was a great weekend which the ladies capped off by winning the bowl in a close final with Shanghai.  The lads were beaten in a semi final that they dominated in possession and territory but couldnt get the scores on the board.

Congrads to the Suzhou Ladies who combined with Dalian to win the All Asian Gaelic Games bowl after beating the Shanghai A team in the final.  Well done Halle, Sherry, Qing and Jade…….

2010 was a significant year for Suzhou Eire Og with the beginnings of a very strong club.  In Feb of last year about 10 lads and lassies decided to get together and turn the rag tag men’s team into a full blown club with a ladies team and a social scene second to none in Suzhou.   By the end of the year they had exceeded all expectations and have established the Gaelic football club as one of the most sought after clubs in Suzhou.

Training kicked off in March with numbers exceeding 20 people turning up in the sleet and snow.  It wasn’t until we reached April did we get into the serious side of business with a trip to Shanghai where we played 3 matches and came out winners in the final 15 a side game.  At the end of April Shenzhen hosted the All China Games and Suzhou had a traveling party of 18 with a full complement of lads and half a ladies team who teamed up with Shenzhen to make history and be the first Suzhou ladies to participate in a competitive tournament.  The ladies did well narrowly losing out to Shenzhen in the Final of the bowl by 2 points.  The men were drawn in a tough group but won 2 and were beaten by our neighbors Shanghai A team.   In the cup quarter final play off the lads collapsed against a decent Dalian team.  They then went into the plate final against the Shanghai B team and after a very close game there was nothing separating the sides.  With a massive effort in extra time Suzhou pulled through by a point in extra time to claim the bowl.

With May a rest month, Suzhou lost a few key players.  June saw some social events with BBQ in our sponsors in Zapata’s.  Shanghai travelled down to Suzhou for a host of games with the ladies starting to get full numbers for a team playing.  In July the Eire Ogs hosted a comedy night at Zapata’s which was a great success.  Suzhou also travelled to Shanghai for another round of matches but unfortunately it was rained off with a torrential downpour when we arrived.  August saw Shanghai return to Suzhou and then we all travelled together to the Kunshan beer festival for a night of beer and team bonding. 

And so with September upon us it was only 4 weeks to the Asian Gaelic Games.  Suzhou had 33 people travel with one men’s team and one ladies team participating in the tournament.  On the Saturday in the group stages the ladies were beaten in their first match and lost stalwart Tracy Steward with a serious knee injury.  The ladies battled and dug deep without their inspirational captain/coach and beat a Thai ladies team who eventually went on to win the Bowl final.  The men also had a bad start and went on to lose their 3 group games to Thailand, India and Indonesia.  On the Sunday the ladies were narrowly beaten by Shenzhen in the quarter final of the bowl.  The lads went onto beat Hong Kong and Vietcelts to reach the final of the bowl against Beijing.  With only a few seconds on the clock and Suzhou up by 3 points Beijing scored a goal to send the match to extra time and unfortunately after winning our last 2 finals in extra time this was not to be and Beijing went on to win by one point.   Halloween costumes were dusted off and the Eire Og with the help of the Shanghai Saints ripped up Si Chuan Jie.  In November Suzhou were represented in Asian All Stars game which proceeded the Irish all stars exhibition match by their 2009 All star Ronan McGuinness in KL. 

With the season finished the only thing left was the end of year dinner and price given in which the main awards were picked up by,

Men’s Most Improved Player:  Turner Sparks

Ladies Most Improved Player:  Yulia

Ladies Player of the Year: Camila Bruda

Mens Player of the Year: Dom Mills

Club Person of the year: Dom Mills

Hall of Fame: Don Coyle

A special thanks has to go to our sponsors for 2010, Zapata’s Bar and Grill, CPM and Glanbia.  

Also special thanks to the trainers, Dom, Tracy and Ronan, and also to everyone who helped out throughout the year.

Suzhou GAA will be participating in the upcoming 2010 Asian Gaelic Games which will be held this year in Hong Kong from the 23rd to the 26th of September 2010.  This is the 15th Annual Games and promises to be the biggest and most competitive yet.

The Games will be played at Kings Park, Kowloon and Kowloon Tsai, Kowloon with clubs from throughout Asia flying in to take part.

Suzhou GAA, the current 2010 All China Plate Champions, will be seeking to defend the Plate won in the 2009 All Asian Games. For more information please visit the Asian County Board website, here.

In the cold November air 38 lads and lassies traveled down from Shanghai for a game of some sort against the newly crowned Asian Games Games Plate Champions.  After a couple of closely contested 9 a side games with the 2 clubs splitting up there teams, it was decided to have a 15 a side game.  Although the experience of shanghai shown through with some excellent points it was the goal scoring of Suzhou that kept us in it right up to the end, going down by only 4 points.

When the football finished the real business started with the 2 teams partying hard into the early hours in Zapatas.  A great day and night was had by all.

A depleted Suzhou traveled to rugby grounds of Pudong for a 4 team inviation with Dalian and 2 Shanghai teams.  Leaving Suzhou with 6 players we managed to recruit another Pitch side, poached Mick Bowens for the second time and Dalian generiously borrowed us Angelo and Scott.

First Match: Suzhou 0-6  Shanghai A 0-8.  A great effort from a bunch of lads that were only getting together for the first time, putting it up to the power houses of Asia.  As usual Swaner was the ever ready bunny in the middle and Kevin and Mick picked off some lovely points to keep us in contention right til the death.  Suzhou came close to a goal in the dying stages with Kevins fisted effort cleared off the line.

Second Match: Suzhou 2-6 Shanghai B 1-4.  A fine battle with suzhou conceding a goal in the opening minute.  A switch at half time between Pebo and Martin proved to be the winning stroke with both having a stroming second half.

Third Match: Suzhou 1-5 Dalian 1-6.  Another close battle which was won with the last kick of the game, a free from 15 yards.  Mick Bowens took no prisinors at the back so it was no surprise he gave away the free…..  only joking Mick, you can play with us all the time.  Mick up front again was in flying form.

Fourth Match Suzhou beat Shanghai B.  In the Losers final Suzhou were in there stride and won easily against Shanghai B in what was a repeat of the All China Championship Bowl Final.  Moment of the match was the goal celebration from Don.

All in all a good trip and its a pity we didnt have a full team, there would have been a few upsets.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!