Western Canadian Championships 2008

By RONAN DEANE

The Vancouver Irish Sporting and Social Club, and its representative men's and ladies' Gaelic football teams, created their own little piece of history by becoming the first club to secure the Western Canadian Championship double on August 2.

Visiting the Calgary venue - the site of the Harps previous men's championship success (won in the year of the most balanced competitive circumstances) - the Vancouver club made a strong statement in fielding not only their championship sides, but a second men's team also.

The ladies championship was never going to be given up by the Harps, but the Calgary Chieftains girls certainly made them fight for their silverware.

And so it was, in both the ladies and the men's championships, Vancouver Harps were victorious.

Congratulations to the Club in Vancouver for their development since 2003, a dire season, when the club failed to bring either team to any tournament.

Fittingly enough, in their first season, the "Tom's" return to Vancouver, the home town of their namesakes - the Tom Butler Men's Trophy and the Tom Gibbons Ladies' Cup.

On August 2, the Albertan clubs must have been scratching their heads about how they were going to beat the Harps in both ladies and men's.

Alas, in the ladies tournament, the Harps did prove unbeatable, and Tara Philips collected her second tournament title of the season.

In the men's however, B.C.'s dominance was emphatically ignored, and the Battle of Alberta between Edmonton and Calgary was the showcase game on Sunday.

The Chieftains had enough in that semi-final and followed it with an impressive display against the Harps in the final, led on the field by Eamonn O'Keeffe and Michael O'Donnell, they were not to be denied on their own patch.

TOP - or - Back to Sports Headlines