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THERE’S an Irish flavour to sporting action in the kingdom this weekend with seven teams from Bahrain competing in the annual Middle East Gaelic Games.
The tournament will feature a record number of 30 adult teams from all around the Gulf on Friday at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (RFC) in Saar as part of the much-anticipated Irish Festival weekend.
The Middle East Gaelic Games were first ratified as a regional tournament under the Asian County Board (ACB) in 2010. The festival is being organised by the Bahrain Irish Society (BIS) and hosted by the Arabian Celts GAA (Gulf Athletic Association) Club.
James Kennedy, BIS chairman and Celts team manager, said: “This is the 19th year that Bahrain will be hosting the Games and it is the biggest in the region. There will be a total of 360 players participating in the tournament from 20 different counties in Ireland and 13 different nationalities.
“Qatar and Dubai are the main contenders in the Middle East Cup competition. The Qatar GAA (Oryx na hEireann) team are the defending champions of the Middle East and Dubai Celts are the runners-up.
“Both clubs have had an influx of players for the coming season which could be trouble for us. We are the dark horses of the competition and we are hoping to sneak in the back door and surprise a few.”
The Celts recently competed in the 2011 Asian Gaelic Games in Seoul, South Korea where they reached the final only to come unstuck against Seoul Gaels.
Kennedy added: “It was a great competition and we finished second in all of Asia. If it wasn’t for a couple of injuries during the tournament we might have won, but it has given us a lot of motivation for the coming event.”
The Celts also received the ‘ACB Club of the Year’ accolade which is designed to honour the most dynamic and active GAA club in the Asian region. Arabian Celts captain Shane O’Neill said: “I am looking forward to the Games. The guys that came very close to winning their division in Seoul are keeping up the momentum and aiming to pick up trophies in this tournament.
“Unfortunately four of our main players are on the injury list. However, three of them should make the tournament although one is very doubtful. “We are worried about Qatar and Dubai and are trying to get to their fitness levels and standards. They have a bigger pick of footballers whereas our strength is that we are very inclusive.
“We have people who had never played Gaelic football before and wanted a chance to play. A lot of our players are beginners.
“Last year we didn’t do too badly and came out third in the overall Middle East League. This time around we have trained hard and have some new players who have been a great addition to the team. We hope to give the Games a good run and finish higher up the table.”
Gaelic Football can be said to be a mixture of soccer, rugby and basketball, although it predates all of those games. It is a field game, which has evolved along similar lines as Australian Rules Football.
Normally there are teams of 15 but in this tournament there will be nine players on the pitch with each side having three substitutes.
Other teams participating from Bahrain are the Arabian Legends (the Celts second team), the Arabian All Stars (a men’s social team), the Arabian Celts Men’s Soccer team and the Bahrain Rugby Club.
The Arabian Celtettes, a ladies team has been broken into two, the A and B squads.
The Celts will compete in the Middle East Cup competition while all the other Bahrain teams will battle it out for the Middle East Shield. There will also be a social competition known as the men and ladies Middle East Ball.
Also attending the games are former GAA overseas county board’s chairman and president Joe McDonagh from Ireland and the Irish Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dr Niall Holohan.
The games will kick-off at 10am with the finals being played from 4.30pm. Entry fees of BD3 per person and BD5 for families will be donated to Bahraini charities.
Anybody interested in playing Gaelic football should email: arabiancelts@hotmail.com.
