The Brux Mens' Team panel of 10 represented all 4 Irish provinces (albeit with a strong Ulster bias !) as well as 2 other more far-flung parishes as follows: Pat Ahern (Limerick), Kevin Hemmerijckx (Belgium), John Ludden (Galway), Cathal Lynch (Leitrim), Paul Mellon (Tyrone), Mark Mulgrave (Armagh), Conor O'Kane (Antrim), Diarmuid O'Leary (Tipperary), Niko Simola (Finland) and, finally, Leo Toole (Meath & Captain). ALL 10 played repeatedly, unlimited rotation of knackered players is the norm in Sevens footy, which is short, sharp, competitive & fiercely intense. The full set of results is attached. Unfortunately, Brux didn't manage to win it out. There were 2 Groups with only the 2 Group winners qualifying for the Final. In our Group B, we won our first 3 matches - 2 notably against visiting Dublin and Cork teams with regular GAA players - and the third against the Black Stuff Bar in Lux which sponsored the Tournament. The final crunch Group game was against Guernsey from the Channel Islands, the 1999 Lux winners, who'd hammered everyone in sight up to that. The old saying "nearly ain't good enough" applies, we got the early goal and led for most of the match but it was them who got the late scores they needed to win by just 2 points - even at that, we narrowly missed a great goal chance in the final seconds. In the other Group, it was a similar head-to-head between Paris Gaels and visiting Mountmellick, with the Irish visitors winning out by a single point. In the final, our conqueror Guernsey retained their Lux title by the minimum one point margin - even more reason for us to rue losing so narrowly to them ...

Another notable Brux contribution to the Lux Tournament was the visit by the Brux Ladies' Team, under player-manager Patricia Hickey, to play a match and promote Ladies' GAA amongst the other Euro Clubs. A number of girls from Paris, The Hague and Lux joined in and they played out a draw in their match. For those of us on the Brux Mens' Team who thought Kevin & Niko made our panel reasonably international & cosmopolitan or whatever, the Brux Ladies' left us in the ha'penny place as per the following panel:- Sonja Dockx, Patricia Willaert, Maja Van Develde, Karina de Boeure, Hille Hallans & Els Brouwers (Belgium); Patricia Hickey, Mary Shovelin Grace Barrett, Janice McHugh & Niamh Matthews (Ireland), Lydia Bongartz & Nadia Von Bassewitz (Germany), Shanti Aranha & Cheryl Lee (Canada), Patricia Ngo Ndong (Cameroon), Lise Libo (seemingly 50/50 Denmark/Norway …), Jennifer Weber (Sweden), and Jaana Mettala (Finland). Incidentally, Patricia asks us to say anyone new interested is welcome, just phone her at work 02 282 3275.

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Guernsey Gaels 0-7 Mountmellick 1-3