Football &
Hurling

Éire Óg Greystones
GAA Club

 Ladies &
Mens

Weekly Notes - 19th October 2005

On Monday we became aware of a serious outflow of club funds. A robbery? An accounting fraud? An overrun in building costs? No, nothing of the sort, it was a Lotto hit. The top prize of in excess of €11,00 was won. Quelle surprise! After all, isn’t that in the nature of such lottery draws, to be won? Yet it came as somewhat of a shock to see what appeared to be a healthy financial balance plunge precipitately to a level perilously close to the black-red transition line. Incidentally, the scructineers on the night took the precaution of bringing a few Valium when delivering the news to Lotto Co-ordinator Nellie Vickers.

Contrary to what one might expect, the growing prize fund did not appear to stimulate the gambling instinct of the people of Greystones and for the last few weeks no significant increase in sales was observed. This is a clear indication that the Lotto is for the most part dependent on a faithful core of weekly subscribers for its success. The club cannot begin to express its gratitude to these people and to the tireless ticket-sellers. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir; we hope this win will not weaken your resolve as even now upon its return to the base level of €2000 (with a €200 ‘match three’ prize) the Lotto at €2 a ticket is still a worthwhile gamble.

Boys hanging around Tesco’s with hurleys in their hands – not with intent! but pucking a ball gently from one to the other; three Éire Óg juvenile teams reaching county semi-finals in hurling: what is Greystones coming to?

Two of the aforementioned teams, the u-12s and u-16s, have progressed to their respective finals. The u-14s were beaten 2-7 to 1-4 by a highly rated Bray Emmets team on Sunday morning in Ashford in a game of uncompromising commitment. Is there a match cameo in any other sport calculated to have one gritting ones teeth and to raise the hairs on the back of the neck like the sight and sound of a manly ball-focussed shoulder-to-shoulder clash? This game was not lacking in such incidents as players gave their all for the full sixty minutes.

Our lads were not found wanting, save on the scoreboard. For long periods they camped in Bray’s backyard but just lacked the ability to capitalise. The Éire Óg performance was well above of what Bray would have anticipated and this was reflected in the language, both actually and body, of the Bray mentors as they expressed their extreme anxiety until the final few minutes.

????????? was excellent in the Éire Óg goal and could not be faulted for the Bray goals. ????????????????? was in complete command of his position and his long clearances and puck-outs were a great help to the Éire Óg cause. Leon Hargan battled tirelessy and effectively at centre-back while ???? Walsh gave an eye-catching display at centre-forward.

The beauty of hurling as a sport is the degree to which skill takes primacy over all other player attributes. This was manifested on many occasions on Sunday when in Mutt&Jeff man-to-man contests it was the vertically challenged of the pair who, through skill and stratagem, emerged with the upper hand.

Thanks to both sides for an exciting, well-contested and entertaining game and congratulations to our lads on a sterling performances against a very good Bray team.

Comhgháirdeachas to Conor (Bróg) McCarthy on his recent engagement. Conor played on all Éire Óg teams from u-10 to adult. He was a regular and reliable member of our intermediate team till his move to Cork, a county for which he qualifies under the grandparent rule!