ANTRIM fielded close to a second-string side against surprise packets Armagh in yesterday’s Ulster SHC final at Casement Park, but the management cast more than a few anxious looks towards the subs’ bench in the closing stages.

Antrim 2-20 Armagh 2-12, Casement Park

ARMAGH staged a strong finish to defeat Monaghan in the Ulster SHC quarter-final at Pairc Esler.

Armagh 2-17 Monaghan 2-7

Armagh 5-19 Fermanagh 5-6

Details of the Champion 15 teams for the Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups for 2010 have been announced today.

FOLLOWING fast on the recent Vodafone awards, Bernard Brogan (Dublin) and Lar Corbett (Tipperary) were last night again named as player-of-the-year in football and hurling for 2010, respectively, but this time by their peers, the members of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA).

Tipperary's Lar Corbett and Bernard Brogan of Dublin have been announced as the 2010 Opel GPA Players of the Year in hurling and football respectively at the Gaelic Players' Association Awards at the Citywest Hotel tonight.

KERRY GAA officials have received the green light from board delegates to press ahead with the purchase of 48 acres of land at Currans, near Currow, to develop a GAA Centre of Excellence in the county.

The Opel-GPA Hurling Team of the Year has been announced ahead of the awards ceremony at the Citywest Hotel on Friday. The selected team includes 14 of the players who received All-Star awards last month.

The Ireland senior and U-21 squads have been named for this Saturday's Hurling-Shinty international matches at Croke Park and Ratoath respectively.

Armagh 3-15 London 3-14

London and Armagh advanced to the Nicky Rackard Cup final next Saturday, following wins over Roscommon and Sligo respectively this afternoon.

IN the end, it was certainly convincing, as Armagh ran out 17-point winners in the Letterkenny sunshine against 13-man Donegal in the Ulster Hurling championship on Saturday.

Armagh 3-23 Donegal 1-13, Letterkenny

The home teams were to the fore this afternoon as the 2009 GAA Ulster Senior Hurling Championship got underway with Armagh, Fermanagh and Donegal securing quarter-final berths for next weekend.

Armagh 1-13 Kildare 1-12

CIARAN POWER (Pezula) would like to take his place among the legends of Irish cycling next week by winning the FBD Insurance Rás for the third time.

IMAGINE the heartbreak of having to end the grievously damaged life of a loved one by turning off a life-support machine.

Dominic McKinley, Ulster's hurling manager for the 2006 M Donnelly Interprovincial Championship, has named a 40-man provisional squad for the October competition.

Five of Ireland's top GAA stars are to act as brand ambassadors for drinks company Club Energise, the official soft drinks sponsor of the Gaelic Players Association.

Armagh will be without Kieran McGeeney for Sunday's NFL Division 1B clash with Galway (Crossmaglen, throw-in 2.30pm) due to a bout of tonsilitis for the former captain.

Ulster champions Armagh take on the side they beat in last year’s final, Donegal, in Clones today.

Armagh boss Joe Kernan has made one change to the side that overcame Fermanagh for Sunday's Ulster SFC semi-final against Donegal at Clones.

MOYCULLEN’S Paul Clancy will captain Galway in Sunday’s Bank of Ireland Connacht SFC semi-final clash with Leitrim at Pearse Stadium.

It was a case of Armagh elation and Wexford woe at Croke Park this afternoon as the Orchard men pocketed their first ever NFL Division One title on the back of a power-packed performance.

Armagh's All-Ireland-winning captain Kieran McGeeney has been recalled, along with sharp shooter Oisin McConville, for Sunday's Allianz National Football League semi-final against Mayo at Dr Hyde Park.

SLOW FOOD West Cork and the Schull ICA recently teamed up to host an event where guild members and their friends and local farming families could meet the foodmakers who sell at the local farmers’ markets.

THE GAA will not be pressurising anyone to join a new official players’ body according to the Association’s President Sean Kelly.

THE enormity of the task confronting Ireland’s Ciaran Power in his bid to become only the third man in history to retain the FBD Milk Rás title became clear yesterday when race director, Dermot Duignam, revealed an international line-up that includes Kazakhstan, one of the superpowers in world cycling.

Armagh boss Joe Kernan has made some telling changes ahead of Sunday's mouthwatering NFL Div 1A clash with Kerry in Tralee.

An elbow injury to Allstar Stephen O'Neill rules him out of the Tyrone line-up for their league meeting with Dublin at Parnell Park. Seamus Mulgrew has been drafted in as a replacement.

NOT SURPRISINGLY, there was a certain amount of ring rust identified during Crossmaglen’s Armagh SFC quarter-final against Silverbridge last week.

BEFORE he died, Damian Meehan phoned his firefighter brother, Eugene, for a bit of advice.