LEIITRIM FOOTBALLERS BETTER THAN GALWAY HURLERS

Leitrim footballers proved more popular in the national league than Galway hurlers — and that's official according to figures released in the last week.

Leitrim — the county with the smallest population in the country — managed to attract more supporters who paid €31,600 for their Division Four NFL games against Carlow, Antrim, Wicklow and Clare.

Apparently, these figures at league games represent about 55% of what was paid at the gate as 20% was held back in a pool for the eventual finalists, 10% went to the host venue, 6% to an injury fund, 5% to insurance and another chunk to Gardai on duty and referees. Galway footballers, who had home ties against Donegal, Dublin and Mayo, pulled in €54,663, while Roscommon footballers, who hosted Offaly, Longford, Tipperary and Down in Division Three, got €47,991 from their league matches.

GHOSTS PAST

It was good to bump into physio Brian Downey over in Worcester at the weekend. The two of us started within a week of each other at Connacht Rugby over six years ago.

At the time Brian, from Co Down, had just returned from Australia and after several years at the Sportsground he moved to the Ospreys with his Welsh wife Meinir before he linked up with Worcester. But this will be his last season as Brian and his young family are heading back to Australia to settle down — with the weather being cited as the primary reason.

He will be in the Sportsground on Friday and he will be sent on his way with the good wishes of so many in Connacht as he returns to a habitat more of his suiting.

THEY SAID IT: 'I have always gone into every battle fighting to win, but whether I win or not I always shake hands and move on. I congratulate Joe Byrne, it was a fair fight and I will back him 100% of the way" — defeated Hurling Board chairman contestant, former All-Star, Galway hurler and referee Jimmy Cooney congratulates the new boss Joe Byrne from Kinvara and at the same time lays down the way things will be done from now after years of bitterness at the top table — not, it must be stressed, that had anything to do with the two contestants.

IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY: 16th December 1944 — 'The Battle of the Bulge' is usually what inspires leisurely past-times and fitness regimes at the moment but on this day 65 years ago it was the name given to the advances made by the German incursion into the Allies defensive line in the Ardennes. The "bulge" was the initial incursion the Germans put into the Allies' line.

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