On Saturday 10^th November 2018, Randox Ladies GAA team took to the field at the Tyrone GAA Centre of Excellence, Garvaghey, to compete in the FinTrU Ulster GAA Football Inter-Firms competition.

Catering for all levels of skills and fitness, the Inter-Firms competition is a tournament open specifically to workplaces across Ulster, in which teams can represent their workplace in Gaelic games.

On the day of the tournament, the Randox Ladies were placed in a group alongside Premier Electric, Options IT and FinTrU, and the first 7-a-side group match saw the ladies up against Premier Electric, who from the start proved to be very tough and experienced opponents.

Team Randox met the challenge head on however, and were leading the game from start to finish until a second goal against the run of play narrowly denied the Randox Ladies the win in the last minute of the game.

For their second match of the tournament, the Randox Ladies showed great character and hunger to bounce back and defeat Options IT 2-6 to no score, in what was an outstanding performance. This victory was not without cost though, as the ladies were forced to battle on in spite of a few injuries.

The final group game against financial services company FinTrU proved to be the toughest match for the Randox Ladies. Having played two games back to back, with numerous injuries gained along the way, the game was always going to be a difficult one, but once again the ladies showed a fantastic attitude, battling hard in all areas.

With their exceptional performance in the group stage, the Randox Ladies found themselves in the semi-final of the cup competition against last year’s winners South West College. From the first whistle, the ladies put everything on the line, running themselves into the ground despite injury and fatigue.

SWC picked up a few early points and then scored two goals against the run of play which would have finished off any experienced team, but with minutes remaining Randox admirably battled up the field to score two goals of their own to bring the game to within a score. In the end though the SWC ladies survived to hang on for a narrow win and went head-to-head in the final against eventual tournament winners FinTrU.

Randox Ladies emerged from their GAA début in an impressive third place.

John James Fallon, Randox Electrical Engineer and Bainisteoir / Coach for Randox Ladies GAA Team, commented;

“What the Randox Ladies have done in such a short time is a fantastic achievement. Most have never played Gaelic football before so for them to go out and to be able to keep up with the pace of very experienced players is nothing short of amazing. They should be extremely proud of themselves and with the men’s competition this Saturday the bar has been set extremely high indeed. Well done team!”

The 2018 FinTrU Ulster GAA Football Inter-Firms Junior Men’s Competition will take place on Saturday 17^th November at the Tyrone GAA Centre of Excellence. We wish our Men’s team all the best!

For further information about Randox GAA, please email johnjames.fallon@randox.com

Left to Right: Christine Maybin, Ciara Shaw, Ashleigh McKinstry, Maria McLaughlin, Rachel Walls, Rebecca Molloy, Maeve McAllister, Rachel McCloy, Amy Best

(Team members missing from photo; Claire Donnelly and Jeanette Doherty)