We Struggle on Through a Mist of Highs and Lows

Some good stories to relate of late. Minor footballers top their league with one match to go. They play St Pats and a win will see us capture a minor title for the first time in many a year. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed.

The minor hurlers have had a peculiar season, losing to some of the weakest teams and beating some of the top teams. One of the top teams, Whitehall Colmcilles, came to Ringsend in April with a 100% record. They blew our lads away in the first half and at half time they led by ten points. (I bet you think I make up these stories!) But in the second half the Ringsend boys turned it all around and won the match by 9 points! Hard to believe but true. Even harder to believe was that they travelled to one of the weakest teams in the league a couple of days later and lost– heavily. Can anyone explain it? I can’t. Dermot Nicholson is having a great year and is currently on the Dublin U17 squad.

U 16s are having a great season. They top the football league by 5 points with 5 matches to go and unless there is a major collapse they should capture league honours. Lately, they have been concentrating on hurling. Their nickname is ‘The Warriors’ around the club and they do act as warriors most of the time.

They prepare for their battle well, are disciplined in the fight and to date they have captured many scalps, including two great victories over Round Towers and St Judes. But sweetest of all was their trip to Kilmacud recently where they came out of Crokes back yard with a one-point victory.

Leading by 5 points with just a few minutes to go, Crokes brought it level 4 minutes into injury time. As the ref wrote the score down we took a quick puck out and all of a sudden we were on the attack. The ref looked up and went to grab his whistle to blow full time. He missed the black cord that holds the whistle and by the time he went to grab it again Warrior Nodge O’Leary from O’Rahilly House put the sliotar straight between the posts.

What a victory! What a bunch of warriors! Three warriors of this team, Ray Rush, Cormac Connolly and Graham Watson are training weekly with the Dublin squad and have travelled the length and breadth of Ireland in the last 18 months, beating Kilkenny, Wexford, Offaly, Laios and Antrim to name but a few.

Let’s go to the girls now. The Camogie team are finding it really tough at present in Senior League and will have to improve to stay in this lofty division. I watched them against Round Towers some weeks ago and for 15 minutes in the second half they played to their potential and worried Towers for that period. If they can multiply that 15 minutes by 4 then they will be on the road to recovery.

The ladies football section are competing admirably with the U16s unbeaten in the league to date and the senior girls chalking up some fine wins in the Cup. This section is organising a tournament in memory of former player Tracy Staunton. Tracy was tragically killed in an accident in 2002. This tournament will have teams from all over the country participating and will be run off over the weekend of July 11/12th at Sean Moore Park and Ringsend Park.

Inter hurlers, I’m afraid, have had a bad start to their Championship, losing their first two games to Thomas Davis and Naomh Olaf. They are missing some key players at present due to injuries etc. but there is no doubting that they are finding the going tough.

Junior hurlers: Now let me tell you a tale about this team. They were finding it hard to field a team for their first few matches when the selectors decided that they would try and entice a former veteran and legend of past days out of retirement. They spoke to his wife and children to strengthen their enticement. An attractive package was put in place and the legend was approached.

There were wild scenes of jubilation in the bar when the legend accepted to return on a match to match deal.

And so it was that this legend made his first start for many a year in the recent Championship match versus Na Fianna in Sean Moore Park. From the start it was obvious that the legend’s first touch had never abandoned him as he set up score after score except that there were no other forwards there to take them.

Five minutes into the second half and with the home side down seven points, the legend struck. With his back to goal he followed out an awkward ball, lifted sweetly, turned majestically and smashed a low drive into the bottom corner of the net. The legend’s family went delirious on the sideline and made a show of the legend himself. But the boys were back in the game. After that Na Fianna kept fouling the legend and the boys took their frees to win the day by two points.

Chairman Pat Kane, a near legend himself said that it was a joy to play alongside the legend as he gave him so many more options in his play. But the surprise element is gone now as the news has hit the GAA world and all teams will now be prepared. For those who do not know whom I’m talking about please send your educated guesses to the legend himself at the Club.

One of the most uplifting sights in the Club in recent years is the commitment shown by Mark Moore, Colm Reynolds, Thomas Neville and Ricky Joyce to underage teams. These are players who are giving their all to the teams they play for and yet are finding quality time to pass their expertise on to the younger members. Take a bow, lads.

My monthly match for this period was the U.11 hurling tie against Parnells in Sean Moore Park. A nice summer evening it was and there was a great turnout of parents from both sides for the encounter.
This was only the second hurling match ever for this Clanns team and the pace was frantic from the start. Conor Byrne was like a tiger at full back, taking his knocks like a mature Kilkenny cat. He was ably assisted at the back by Aidan Bolton, Ciaran Crowe, and Joey Sadlier.

In the middle Dylan Lacy was running the show. His first touch, striking and distribution of the ball were impeccable. Up front Cian Kelliher, Jack Hayes and JP Hugh were keeping the pressure on the Parnells’ back line.

The game amazingly turned around at half time with no score on the board from each side. Balls whizzed wide, hit posts and were stopped on the line at each end. This trend continued in the second half until Parnells went ahead with eight minutes to go.

Not to be outdone, Clanns were awarded a free about 50 metres out and up stepped Dylan Lacy to split the posts and draw it level. Parnells applied severe pressure in the remaining minutes but the lads stood tall and heroic defending from everyone saw this team gain their first ever league point in hurling.

There were two international stars donning the Clanns jersey. Conor Saunders, a native American and Seamus Keating, whose parents have just returned from Australia. Both played magnificently and Conor Saunders received the match ball afterwards for his bravery shown. A great occasion and everyone returned home happily.

The Development Committee is extremely disappointed of late. For the second year in a row the next phase of Development has had to be shelved as we received no grant from the Department of Tourism and Sport.

I don’t know about you folks but we feel that we work extremely hard to bring a better quality of life to the youth of our area. We commend all other organisations in the area that are doing likewise. We are catering for 27 teams and we feel that we have opened up our doors to other sports and all the community who may wish to use our facilities.

We do not apologise for always trying to improve those facilities and we are not unhappy that we have increased our debt threefold in the last few years and our commitment to increase it once more. Because the youth of this area deserve it and we will not be found wanting in our future attempts to bring quality services to the people of Dublin 2 and Dublin 4.

BACKCHAT
A new course for Stress Management has begun at the Club. Known as the ‘Tuesday Club’, it was founded by Paul Duffy and John Dodd, both prominent members of the Irish Stress Relief Society. Tuesday club members gather weekly to talk about the people they detest most in the Club and discuss ways of trying to love them. The method is done by naming the person 10 times in anger, followed by mentioning the same name again 15 times with ‘I love you’ included. To date no one has succeeded in reaching anyway near the fifteenth time!

* In March the Intermediate hurlers had a table quiz in the Bar to raise funds for the cost of hurley sticks. Well known historian Brian Riddock and his fellow historians won the big cash prize with a nail biting last round.

Stephen Bodkins team, which included about 50 and Jack Hayes, claimed that they were getting the wrong answers from a bar staff member, who they believe was a plant for the team of historians. And it’s all a bit of craic. Supposedly.

* Chairman, Pat Kane is planning a brain-storming session shortly among all club members who wish to attend. A top class five-star hotel is mooted as the forthcoming venue. There is also talk of a stay-over in the same hotel. I should have plenty to write about in the next column.

* The club’s new Juvenile Chairman Yankee Saunders is settling into his new job quite well. Having returned from California some years ago with dollars hanging out of his back pocket, he now likes sitting in the top chair and practises the swivel of that chair for hours on end before each meeting. He tells me that he thinks like a Yank and that he would like to get the top seat in the Club by climbing the ladder in the underage section first. Sort of Senator before President job. All aspiring Chairpersons beware!

* The club has a new Juvenile Coach. His name is Eamon Clancy and he once played for Clanns a number of years ago. Eamon will take up his post in the very near future.

* This column forgot to mention the recent engagement between Oran Burke and Suzanne Murray. Oran, a dual star with the club began to tell me that he first met Suzanne, herself an accomplished player with the Camogie squad and financial guru at a prominent P.R. company in the Ringsend area, after he had suffered cramp during a football league match in Ringsend. I told him to stop right there.

* The Club will hold a great fundraising event for the ‘People in need’ Telethon on Friday 21st. A host of activities are planned from seven-a-side football to head-shaving and eyebrow waxing. The moment of the night should be the shaving of Jack Nicholson’s head. Now folks this is some head! This head

resembles the bushes that were recently cut down in Sean Moore Park except there is more wildlife in this hair than there ever was in those bushes. Trinity College’s research lab is taking away the remnants of hair to look for extra terrestrial life there.

* A Poker Classic will start soon in the club. It will be run off over 10 weeks on Thursday nights and will commence some time in June. Please see notice board for details. This competition is open to ladies as well.

* Gillian Early celebrated her 21st at the club last month. Gillian tells us that she intends spending the next 21 concentrating on Camogie, as she had never concentrated on it before.

* Our condolences to the Murphy family on the death of Captain Philip. Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam.