The Men’s Community Series commences this weekend with 12 Ulster senior sides competing in two provincial conferences over the first three months of this unusual season.
We’ve set up a competition static page here and fixtures, results and all our content related to the Community Series will appear there.
Ulster Conference 1
Conference 1 features AIL 1A side Ballynahinch, AIL 1B sides Banbridge, City of Armagh and Malone plus Rainey Old Boys and Queen’s University from AIL 2A.
The competition will be played on a league basis over 10 weeks with the first placed club going into the (All Ireland) Bateman Cup and second place goes into the Bateman Plate.
The fixtures for Saturday, 26th September, are as follows.
| City of Armagh | 14:30 | Rainey Old Boys | Palace Grounds |
| Malone | 14:30 | Ballynahinch | Gibson Park |
| Queen’s University | 14:30 | Banbridge | Dub Lane |
We’ve had a look at City of Armagh, Malone and Queen’s in our preseason matches. Our planned coverage of Hinch against Omagh was cancelled.
Early days, and the preseason games were very much squad hit outs, but City of Armagh looked very impressive in their match against a hard working Ballymena.
Given the teams involved, this competition is going to throw up three cracking games each week and, if circumstances were different, we’d be encouraging everyone to get out and watch these games. Far, far more entertaining than the formulaic biff, bash, bosh of the professional sides.
No big previews as yet and these games could go either way, but at the moment we’re tipping wins for Armagh, Hinch and Banbridge in the opening round!
Ulster Conference 2
Conference 2 features Ballymena from AIL 2A, Belfast Harlequins and Dungannon from AIL 2B plus Bangor, City of Derry and Omagh Academicals from AIL 2C.
It will also be played over ten weeks on a league basis with the winners going through to the Bateman Shield.
The fixtures for Saturday, 26th September, are as follows.
| Ballymena | 14:30 | Dungannon | Eaton Park |
| Belfast Harlequins | 14:30 | Bangor | Deramore Park |
| Omagh Academicals | 14:30 | City of Derry | Thomas Mellon Fields |
This league also has some cracking local fixtures. We’ve had a look at Ballymena and Quins and the Belfast side have looked mighty impressive after intense recruitment over the summer.
Ballymena also looked good for the first 50 minutes in their match against Armagh and I’d guess that Dungannon are also positioning themselves to do some damage this season.
I haven’t a lot to go on, just yet, but I’m going for home wins in the opening round for Ballymena and Quins with City of Derry maybe nicking one against a disrupted Omagh.
Other Conferences
Well be keeping an eye on the other conferences and hopefully well get down for a couple of matches in the men’s and women’s series’ as the situation improves.
Corrections, comments or questions?