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Weekly Notes - 14th December 2005For the second Sunday in a row, teams from Greystones – this Sunday it was the turn of the N.E Gaels – passed beneath the blue and white bunting at the Delgany Inn with hearts and minds afire with the injunction of the Spartan wives; to return "with your shields or on them".While their shields on both homecomings were not, unfortunately, in the vertical position they had nothing to be ashamed of; the battling qualities exhibited by the teams on both Sundays were of a proportion which would make even the warriors of Sparta proud. Sunday’s game, the county minor hurling final versus Bray Emmets was, for victor and vanquished, a game truly to be savoured. For the players of both sides there was the joy and satisfaction of having given of their best in a pulse-quickening game unbesmirched by rancour or foul play. For the spectators there was the excitement generated by the closeness of the exchanges and that inexpressible frisson of pleasure which comes from observing the flashes of hurling artistry and graceful movement which were present in abundance. Before the game it would have been a brave man who would have wagered that the Gaels would be, at the final whistle, within the proverbial asses roar of this high-flying Bray team. Wasn’t there the evidence of our overwhelming defeat at the hands of the same opposition in the preliminary rounds? But the Gaels were intent on not allowing history to repeat itself and, from the start, set about ensuring that a Bray victory would be paid for in an amazon of sweat. The Gaels drew first blood with a long distance point from Ronan Keddy and thereafter, for the duration of the half, it was point for point. Two of Bray’s points came just before half time and gave them a one point interval lead. These crucial scores hinged on a miss-call by the linesman – a point resulted from the line ball and the resulting puck-out was returned in spades. The turning point in the game was, however, a goal of the scrambled variety by man of the match Mickey Browne – an object lesson for the backs in the superiority of the subtle flick over the full-blooded pull in tight situations. Craig Smullen at centre-back just about shaded it for the Gaels "man of the match" ; he topped off his efforts with two magnificent long distance points from frees. Shane Vickers had an excellent game in goals and Ronan Keddy excelled at mid-field. Two other Kilcoole men, Mark Curran and Fintan Donnelly, made notable contributions. Paul Gaskin, at corner back, coped well with his very skilful and dangerous opponent and held him to the minimum. Leon Browne, although somewhat hampered by a leg injury, was prominent particularly in the second half. A damper was thrown on the proceedings when, 8 minutes from the end, Daniel Salmon received a serious leg injury in an accidental collision. After a 20 minute delay during which Daniel was removed to St. Vincents in an ambulance, the match was played to completion. Daniel was a member of the County u-16 hurling and football teams. We send him our best wishes. The team was managed by Ciarán Gough assisted by Séamus Hatton, Colm Gaskin and Brendan Cuddihy. Preparations are in train for the St. Stephen’s Day fun mixed -football game so bí ullamh. Further information next week. The club’s best wishes for a speedy recovery go to Joe Mulford who fell ill after attending the funeral of his son-in-law Joe Molloy. Two of Joe’s grandsons, Andrew Molloy – how his father would have delighted to see him play – and Shane Mulford figured on the N.E.Gaels team. County Year Books are available at 10 euro from any committee member or 2875522. |
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