The Annual City of Derry Golden Oldies tournament wiil take place at Judges Road on the weekend of May 3rd/4th. The tournamemt will once again coincide with the Jazz Festival and will also see the returm of the famous Barker's Butts touring team. Barker's Butts is a feeder club to the English Premiership side Leicester Tigers, and one of their best products is Neil Back who represented Leicester Tigers and the British & Irish Lions as well as picking up the World Cup with England in 2003. Neil hopes to be amongst the Barkers Tourists when they arrive next month. Another touring team making a welcome return is the Limerick Leprechauns who won the inaugural tournament in 2006 under the able captaincy of Brian Spillane. This year the Leprechauns are being led by another legend from the ranks of Munster & Ireland. None other than Peter 'The Claw' Clohessy. It will be a very interesting meeting between the two touring sides. The last time The Claw turned out for Munster was in the Heineken Cup Final in Cardiff in 2002. On that particular day the match ended in controversy. In the dying minutes of the game a Munster scrum undr the Leicester posts seemed likely to produce a decisive score but Neil Back illegally swatted the ball from the hands of Munster scrum half Peter Stringer right under the nose of The Claw. Leicester Tigers held out and lifted the cup and Munster went home very disappointed. You can be sure that not one man from Limerick has ever forgotten Neil Back. I wonder if he will get a warm welcome in Derry? Harry Connolly will play at the clubhouse on Friday night and King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys appear on Saturday night. Both events are free.
