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Weekly Notes - 20th July 2005Achievement of the week: The Junior B team have won a championship game for the 1st time since 1988. Full account next week. Disappointment of the week: a w.o. from Blessington in the intermediate championship. It was not the cancellation per se which was the problem, rather was it the very short notice. Players rushed back from distant places, cancelled holidays and exercised heroic self-control at the previous nights post golf-classic celebrations; all, as it turned out, unnecessarily. A few weeks ago this column ended with a paragraph headed "and now to hurling". At the time a reader pointed out that the promise of this tantalising expression was hardly satisfied by what followed. The trojan work being done by the club’s small band of highly motivated and dedicated hurling mentors and the commitment and, indeed, the success of their charges is surely deserving of better. A penitent columnist will try to make up for this neglect over the next few weeks. The Féile Iomána in Cork: it was a wonderful experience for our u-14 hurlers who found that some among them have the ability to compete with the best in the country. As with members of all minorities, and hurling is surely a minority sport in Wicklow, our players derived great encouragement and renewed fervour from being part of the bigger picture. Involvement in an event with about 2000 other camán wielders showed that the hurling furrow is not quite as lonely as it may sometimes appear in the home patch. The Éire Óg party was domiciled in Kilbrin whose team Croke Rovers were their opponents in the first match. Very unhostlike they beat our travel weary team well. While defeat was still our lot in the other two games, our performances were much improved and the margins were down to a few points. The adults were effusive in their praise of their hosts, their geniality, their flaithiúlacht – "a lovely people". Would you expect anything else for Corkonions? Mossie Gaskin described it as a great weekend of comhluadar (company) and craic – he said many a song had been sung but neglected to say whether any lubrication had been employed to smooth the delivery. For Carmel Deeney with her Tipp roots the weekend was an antidote to the depression induced by the jeremiad headlines which had been forecasting the imminent demise of the most skilful of field games. She saw hope in the artistry which abounded among these young players, in the standard attained by teams from the non-traditional counties and in the enthusiasm of the large number of mentors who graced the occasion. We in Wicklow would do well to take on board the fair-play charter which defines the ethos of the Féile:
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