Derry and Antrim boost

DERRY’S footballers and Antrim’s hurlers have been given a reprieve from club fixtures ahead of their forthcoming provincial openers.

With just 19 fit players on his current panel, seven of eight Division 1 club matches in Derry have been postponed to facilitate manager John Brennan ahead of the May 22 Ulster quarter-final against Fermanagh.

The Derry board gave clubs the option of delaying the games or going ahead with them without their county players. Only Slaughtneil and Dungiven elected to go ahead with their game.

However, according to the GAA’s rule, the only period in which senior inter-county players shall not be available to clubs prior to inter-county games is a maximum of 13 days before them.

Antrim play Laois in the Leinster SHC on Sunday week and all this weekend’s club games have been rescheduled, as permitted under GAA guidelines.