Shanghai Saints and Sirens
Founded in January 2002 in a drunken haze, the Shanghai Saint and Sirens have gone from strength to strength. This will be there 6th Asian Gaelic Games and after hosting the last 2 they are in flying form and relishing the chance to travel without any obligation to organise. Our kind offer to lend Dick's services to Singapore's AGG committee was politely rejected.
Last year the men came close to a clean sweep of the trophies winning the Plate and the Bowl. (If only they could have got some of the lads out of retirement to challenge for the Cup....ah well theres always Singapore 07). The ladies too had mixed success with the A team narrowly beaten in the Semifinal by the eventual winners and the B's fighting all the way. Last year the men won the international rules series in 5 closely fought battles and lead this years 1 to zero. SFGC has been lucky enough to retain the core of the mens and women's teams and made a few quality additions. We therefore expect to build on our past success and challenge for honors again.
Competition-wise since the Games, well......there hasn't been any but there's been plenty of elbow training over the winter and those tipsy, cold evenings have done wonders for the future of the club with a veritable baby BOOM occurring since the last games. We've had little Conor and Cian added to under-1's team and with more additions from JB & Sarah, Eddie & Kate and Stephen & Helen to come shortly, the future of SGFC is secure!
On the training front Davy "Countdown" Hayes, (6 weeks...5weeks....4weeks to go and it's a disgrace !! ) has taken the Forest Gump approach to training and the lads should be fighting fit ....... for the Beijing marathon. A couple of the lads went into winter hibernation, (bringing a heap of pies, chocolate and a play station with them ) and have reappeared recently looking larger than life....but we wont name names.....Paddy, Mick and James. (Though James's upcoming wedding and recent TV 'appearance' has seen him frantically attempting to lose the bulge) But being like any good Rocky movie (if there was such a thing) Eddie, Davy and Declan should have them below 16 stone by the games. This year the lads will be lead into battle by THE China veteran ..the Marco Polo of Shanghai, Noelie Lennon, the one and only veteran of all 11 Asian games. With 2 teams entered they will be hoping to add to the success of last year.
The Ladies as ever are represented by a multitude of countries - 8 this year . Trained by Declan "Nice Guy" Nolan they've been training extremely hard and in recent times, have been spotted still going strong long after the lads have called it a day and settled into pitch-side pints. The increase in the skill levels of the sultry sirens will be there for all to see, most notably in our "Most improved female player of the year 06" - Mica Quinn and Halle-the-harrier Corbin, who looks like she's benefiting from some extra "coaching" (coaxing) from born-again-Ron McGuinness (Suzhou evenings are long and boring!) The sirens will be lead by never-say-die captains Catherine Tulauskas and Vittoria Depino, who are looking forward to bringing back some trophies ....... heads, arms, legs whatever gets in their way basically.
The Shanghai club boasts over 60 members, with a thriving social aspect to the club as well, so when Davy doesn't have the lads and lassies pushing cars around the car park of Luwan Stadium, our events organiser Michelle Surlis has us running from pub to pub playing golf, answering questions and generally throwing up.....what a great club we have. We would like to thank our committee and through the leadership of Barry Fitz we have managed to keep the momentum going from the previous two years of hosting the games.
We'd also like to thank our sponsors - Glanbia Nutritionals, Santa Fe Relocations, the Blarney Stone and philanthropist Nick Watson for their generous support of the club. We wish Singapore all the best for 2007 and we appreciate all the work that will go on behind the scenes of one of the biggest amateur sporting events in Asia....well done to all involved !
