A great weekend for the Hurlers and Camogie players of Belgium GAA as we saw both teams winning the first tournament of the year in Den Haag. A total of 38 players made the trip across the Dutch border which had an action-packed afternoon of small ball.
There were two Belgium GAA teams split evenly for the camogie competition with Cologne/Dusseldorf and a combined team of Den Haag, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Luxembourg. Belgium ‘A’ and Belgium ‘B’ won their opening two games against Cologne/Dusseldorf and the combined team. Belgium ‘B’ managed to win their game against Belgium ‘A’ in the last game of the group. This meant that both Belgium teams qualified for the final with the cup guaranteed to make the journey back to Brussels. The final was a close encounter that saw Belgium ‘B’ win 2:07 to 2:05 against Belgium ‘A’. Soline Whooley captained the Belgium ‘B’ side who thanked the referees and Den Haag for hosting a great day.
There were 8 teams in total for the hurling competition which saw two groups of four teams. Belgium also had two teams on the day with Belgium ‘A’ competing in the championship group and Belgium ‘B’ in the shield. Belgium ‘A’ started the day with a tough game against Luxembourg but they managed to get the win. Next up was against the hosts’ Den Haag which resulted in a win of 0-16 to 1-03. With Amsterdam winning their two games as well, both teams decided to skip the last group game against each other and play the final instead. It was a great physical game had Belgium ‘A’ leading at halftime by 1 point. The hurlers had to dig deep but gave a great 2nd half performance to win 1:18 to 2:10. Belgium ‘B’ were competing in the shield group with Eindhoven, Cologne/Dusseldorf and Lux B/Maastricht. Unfortunately, Belgium ‘B’ didn’t manage to get a win out of the 3 games but the 9 hurlers gave it their all without having any subs to bring on.
Another successful day overall that saw both codes complete the double. Soline Whooley and Brendan O’Donoghue captained their respective sides. Both teams had great individual performances all around with congratulations to Aoife Mahon and Alex Quinn who won player of the tournament in their respective codes. Alex has now won a hurling and football player of the tournament in Benelux this year which is great to see. Next up is another Benelux round in Maastricht on June 11 where both teams will be looking for a repeat of the first tournament.
Belgium GAA 