Vancouver Harps
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| County: | Canada | ||||||||||||||||
| Division | Western Divisional Board | ||||||||||||||||
| Nickname: | The Harps Aer Lingus |
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| Club Colours: | |||||||||||||||||
| Grounds: | Trout Lake | ||||||||||||||||
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| Gaelic football | |||||||||||||||||
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| Western Canadian Edmonton Tournament Vancouver Tournament |
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| Ladies' Football | |||||||||||||||||
| Western Canadian Edmonton Tournament |
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The Vancouver Harps are a Gaelic football and Hurling club based in Vancouver, Canada. They club represents the Vancouver Irish Sporting & Social Club. They play at Burnaby Lake RFC, Burnaby, BC or Trout Lake, Vancouver, BC and are members of Western Canada Division of the Canadian County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
The Harps compete every year in the Western Canadian Championships in both Men's & Ladies' Gaelic football.
The Men have been Champions in the West twice, being undefeated in 2005 (though the record shows a loss, after the team walked off the field in protest to the antics of the Calgary Chieftains in their final Championship game), and narrowly winning the 2006 Championship, defeating the Edmonton Wolfe Tones by 9 points in a game where a 5 point margin of victory was required, in the Final game of the Championships.
The Vancouver Ladies team are the reigning Western Canadian Champions (2007). They broke Edmonton's stranglehold on the Championship by sending their strongest showing to Alberta, and winning the Edmonton Tournament.
Hurling, the poor relation of the Gaelic Games for many years in Vancouver, has witnessed a revival in recent years with the latest achievement being the fielding of a team at a Hurling Tournament in Seattle on July 21, 2007.
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[edit] Vancouver Tournament - 2008
Western Canadian Championship First Round of Matches for 2008 will be held at Brockton Oval, in Stanley Park, Vancouver. The dates are:
- Saturday, 12-July-2008
- Sunday, 13-July-2008
[edit] Spring Mixed Seven's
In an effort to make the build up to St.Patricks Day more interesting, and building on the foundation of the Winter Training sessions led by Keith Clark, the Mixed Seven's League was instigated. Substantial Prizes have been provided by the 'Black Frog' Pub in Gastown to add a competitive edge.
To date, there has been 6 teams each year, and 5 rounds of games commencing mid-February with the Final Round of Matches to be played on Friday night of the St. Patrick's Day week-end. All games are being played at Andy Livingston Park in downtown Vancouver. With its second season under its belt, it is the largest Seven's Gaelic football competition ever organised internally in Vancouver.
The 2008 Spring League was so successful that there have been calls to run a second league in the summer months.
It's also a first in that some experimental rules (with respect to physical contact & scoring) are being applied to make the games more relevant to the Ladies in the team. These rules make the game a nice introduction for new players to Gaelic Football, without the physical demands that the sport 'proper' would involve.
In 2008, a team from Squamish competed in the league with 90% first-timers.
[edit] Vancouver Tournament - Roll of Honour
| Season | Ladies | Men's | Hurling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Seattle Gaels | Harps | Seattle Gaels/ Alberta/ BC Shared |
| 2006 | Seattle Gaels | Chieftains | Seattle Gaels |
| 2005 | Seattle Gaels | Harps | Draw Seattle - BC/AB |
| 2004 | Seattle Gaels | Chieftains | BC/AB Combined |
| 2003 | None Played | None Played | None Played |
| 2002 | Seattle Gaels | Chieftains | None Played |
| 2001 | San Diego | Harps | None Played |
Though the Seattle Ladies have dominated the Vancouver Tournaments, only an act of kindness on the part of the Harps (in the interest of challenging competition) allowed the Seattle A & B teams combine to defeat the Harps (6-3 [21] to 4-5 [17]), in an epic showdown at Burnaby on Aug 5th 2007. The scoreline (and silverware) went to the Gaels, but the Harps were the winners on that fateful week-end.
In 2007, the Harps entered two teams (Shamrock Rovers being the other), and were victorious over the Edmonton Wolfe Tones. Calgary Men, to Vancouver's dismay, have won 3 of the last 5 tournaments played.
The Harps club has hosted several successful games of Hurling in the last three tournaments, and in the latest tournament (2007), the Seattle Gaels competed against 2 BC/AB selections, losing one & drawing the other, showing a re-emergence of the Canadian teams.
[edit] Honours (Since 2001)
[edit] Ladies' Gaelic football
- Western Canadian Champions, Once (2007)
- Edmonton Tournament Champions, Twice (2001, 2007)
[edit] Men's Gaelic football
- Western Canadian Champions, Twice (2005, 2006)
- Vancouver Tournament Champions, 3 Times (2001, 2005, 2007)
- Edmonton Tournament Champions, Twice (2005, 2007)
[edit] Harps - The Aussie Rules Connection
The Harps men compete against the Vancouver Cougars, a local Australian rules football team, every year around Saint Patrick's Day in a game of Gaelic football. The first of these challenge matches was played on 17-Mar-2001.
On 27-Jan-2007, to return the favor to the Aussies, the first annual Australia Day match was played between the two teams in Australian Football.
Since 2001, the Vancouver Cougars have competed in the Gaelic Football tournament held in Vancouver.
On 02-Jun-2007, the Vancouver Harps became the first Gaelic Football club in Canada to enter an Aussie Rules tournament, when they contested the Kelowna Cup. They finished with 1W & 1L, from their two games.
These events stress the co-operation typical of these two similar sports so far away from their native lands. These two sports compliment & enhance each other when mixed.
