GRASSROOTS

ENNISKERRY

Lotto - Winning numbers on September 26 were 02, 06, 27, and 31. Bonus 38. No jackpot winner, match three numbers receive €125. Jackpot on October 3 stands at €7, 200. Thanks to all buyers and sellers of club lotto tickets for continued support.

Ladies football - Aoife and the girls training away on Tuesday and Thursday nights as we await conformation of final League fixtures.

Juvenile fixtures - The Juvenile annual presentation night will take place in the clubhouse on Friday October 14. More information next week.

In sympathy - Condolences to the Walsh and Giles families on the passing of Kay Walsh RIP, grandmother of ladies footballers Lydia and Kathy Walsh. Also condolences to the Byrne family, Arklow on the passing of Margaret Byrne RIP, wife of CCC member Tom Byrne. Ar Dheis De Go Raibh A Anam Dhilis

Adult football - Junior ‘B’ Championship – Semi-final: Enniskerry 1-10, Kiltegan 0-7. A deserved win in Arklow last Sunday has put us back in a championship final for the first time since 2013.

A Brendan Barton goal in the first half set us on our way as we lead 1-5 to 0-5 at the break. Some fine points kicked by Donal Finch, Craig Williams, Luke Wrynn and Gavin Barton secured the win in a solid all round performance. Full match report in sports section. Final v Knockananna is provisionally fixed for this weekend. Please check club website and Facebook page at enniskerrygaaclub.com.

Thanks to the many supporters who made the way to Arklow for the semi-final and gave us fantastic support.

Junior ‘B’ football championship final - Enniskerry will play Knockananna this Saturday, October 8 in Pearse Park, Arklow. Throw in is 2 pm. Best of luck to Alan and the squad.

Support was fantastic for the semi-final, be great to see you all down there again to give the lads much needed and deserved support.

NEWTOWN

The seniors last league game away to Avondale due to be played this week has been cancelled but will be refixed in the coming weeks. It is a must win match so all support will be most welcome.

Pearse Gaels had a great win over Baltinglass last Friday in the Minor championship semi-final and now face the defending champions AGB in the final which is in Aughrim next Sunday prior to the Senior final. Best of luck to all involved especially our own large crew of players and management.

Our junior Magpie’s nursery was cancelled because of the weather last week but continues next Saturday. We are now entering the final few weeks and an hour’s fun and excitement are guaranteed every week under the watchful eyes of Barry and his team of coaches.

The under-8 and under-10 girls have finished playing and training for the season, the girls have improved with every game and have proven to be a match to any team. Thanks to all the parents who helped out over the year and a special thanks to the hard working coaches Sarah, Amy, Bernadette, Carol, Dave and Megan and most of all the players.

The under-12 girls are also finished training but they hope to have a challenge match on Saturday.

The under-14-under-16 girls are training on Mondays at 6.30pm and the under-16 girls are playing their shield final on Saturday in Ballinakill and all support is most welcome, no opposition or time have been fixed as yet.

The under-8, 10, and 12 boys have all finished for the year while Marty (the boxer) and the under-16s are playing in the ‘A’ shield semi-final and are awaiting a fixture.

Well done to Ruth Prenderville, Christina Martin and Robert Nolan who won the All-Ireland tickets in the club draw.

It’s early to be mentioning Christmas but there is a good stock of club gear now available to buy and it can be viewed or ordered in the clubhouse on Saturdays at 10am, for any enquiries regarding club gear please contact Ruth on 087 7472682.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest and up to date information.

There was no winner of the €2k lotto jackpot last week on numbers of 2, 11, 14, and 26, there were two match three winners who took home €100 each.

EIRE OG GREYSTONES

Fundraising - Wear you club loyalty on your sleeve! Or should one say ‘on the window of your car’ by purchasing an Éire Óg sticker for €5.

The Pota Óir (jackpot) stood at €11,800 on Monday, October 3. The numbers drawn on Monday, September 2 were 4, 10, 15, and 27. There were no match three winners.

Football - Our Senior footballers, by virtue of their defeat of Kiltegan i bPáirc na bPiarsach in Arklow, have advanced to the semi-final of the Keating Trophy. Their opponents will be Aughrim. This match had originally been fixed for last Sunday in An Tochar but was rescheduled for this coming Sunday. It is advisable to check out what the story is before one sets out to travel to a non-championship game.

The team has been beset by injuries and it travelled to the game with a depleted substitute treasury. It was pleasing to see many of the walking wounded on hand to lend their support to their colleagues.

Éire Óg attacked from the off and Craig Smullen, not to be outdone by his brother James who got the Junior A’s first score against Ashford in their championship game, slotted over the opening point with the sound of the throw-in whistle still echoing in the air.

This was followed almost instantaneously by a trademark Sam Thompson goal from an opportunity created by Darren Hayden.

With the central diamond of Darren Hayden, Justin O’Brien, Anto and Daniel Woods in fine form Éire Óg were very much in control for the remainder of the half and added a further six points before Kiltegan got on the scoreboard.

One of these scores is particularly worthy of mention, a long range effort by Justin O’Brien. It is great to be able to add the epithet ‘long-range’ to Justin’s point because in the game as it is played to-day the ability to score from distance is crucial and hopefully it is a habit and a skill that is being developed in our footballers.

The importance of this facility was brought into sharp focus in the recent Peil na mBan All-Ireland final between Corcaigh and Blá Cliath.

The Dubs had the greater part of the possession but insisted in bringing the ball close to the Cork goal where, crowded by the defence, they were forced to shoot under pressure and as a result clocked up quite a number of self-defeating wides.

On the other hand the Cork full-forward, late in the game with the outcome still very much in the melting pot, kicked 3 points (one from a free) from around the 40 meter mark and this essentially determined the outcome – a win by the minimum of margins.

As the pundits are constantly telling us, referencing Stephen Cluxton’s importance to the Dubs, the targeted kick-out is another strategy which has a huge role in fashioning victory in Gaelic football.

A fact that was illustrated in the few minutes of injury time in the first half of this game. Two Éire Óg kick-outs were poached by Kiltegan hands and were duly dispatched to the Clocha Liatha net.

At the break this left the scoreboard reading 1-7 to 2-1 in Éire Óg’s favour, a score which was totally at variance with their dominance during the half.

After the interval the westerners had a period of dominance during which they added four points. It did not last long however and Éire Óg soon shut out the game with goals from Sam Thompson (2-4) and Mattie Maguire (1-1).

Mattie was a strong contender for MOTM as not only did he accomplish the unusual feat of scoring 1-1 from play while playing in a corner-back position but he was also energetically and constructively involved in much of the play.

Comhgáirdeachas to our under-14 girls who emulated their under-12 counterparts in also winning their ‘B’ county championship.

KILCOOLE

Well done to our under-8s, 9s and 11s on Friday night as we travelled done the road to near neighbours and friends Eire Og for our Winter League! This league is organised by Eire Og and gives our young players extra games over the next five weekends.

North Wicklow Gaels Under-14 Hurling - The lads travelled to Ballinakill last night to take on Glenealy in the county semi-final of the ‘B’ championship.

Glenealy with the aid of the wind in the first half opened the scoring with a goal and a point but as our lads settled into the game they gained in confidence and scored some brilliant points to leave the score after 12 minutes, 0-04 to 1-02.

It was a real battle now around the middle third and as half-time approached it looked like we were not going to be too far behind but in that last dying minutes of the half Glenealy got in for two goals to leave the score at half time 1-04 to 3-05.

The lads came out full of fight in the second half and even though we were doing most of the pressing the Glenealy defence was holding out until a long range shot deceived their goalkeeper and ended up in the net.

The lads could smell blood at this stage and really pulled out all the stops and as the Glenealy defence came under severe pressure and started to concede frees which kept the score board ticking in our favour.

We had our noses in front at this stage and were set for home and next thing we were down to 14 men but this seemed to inspire the lads even further as each and everyone of them put their shoulders to the wheel to close out the match and finish on a score line of North Wicklow Gaels 4-09, Glenealy 4-07. A county final with Avondale Rocks is a fitting reward for these terrific bunch of players.

Details to follow and hopefully a very big support on the day. Well done lads.

North Wicklow Gaels under-16 hurling - We travelled up to Ballinakill yesterday evening to take on the Gaels of Carnew in our second game of the ‘A’ championship.

We got off to a great start and were four points up with eight minutes gone and playing some excellent hurling and you could sense that the lads were really up for it, however when you’re playing teams of quality of Carnew you cannot afford to blink an eye as on two occasions in that first half they got through for two goals which kept them in a game that was ours for the taking as we picked off some excellent points after some brilliant build up play and at half-time we should have been out of sight but instead we were down by a single point, 0-09 to 2-04.

The second half was a mirror image of the first with us dominating possession and scoring some excellent points but we just couldn’t get the goals that would really have turned the game for us, on the other hand Carnew were to hit us again with three more sucker punches to keep their noses barely in front and with three minutes left and three points down we were throwing everything at them, with their goalkeeper pulling off a point blank save and the thickness of the goal post saving them on another occasion it just wasn’t going to be our night and as All-Ireland referee John Keenan sounded the long whistle to bring this mighty contest to an end it was Carnew who were to be the victors with their 12 scores to our 17 on a final score line of 1-16 to 5-07.

Well done to all 16 of our players on the night they put in a heroic effort from start to finish with top performances all over the field and if they keep up that excellent standard of hurling they will definitely realise their dreams at the top one day soon.

Best of luck to Carnew who will now contest the ‘A’ final against Bray and as it stands we will be contesting the ‘A’ Shield final against our old foes St Pat’s and if the last two encounters between us is anything to go by, this will be another classic. Bring it on.

Hard luck to North Wicklow Gaels’ under-16 hurling team today as our season came to a close with defeat in the Shield final today. This team put in a mighty effort all year and can feel mightily proud of themselves as we do of them.

They have played some of the best hurling I’ve seen any where in any grade this year and even though the conditions didn’t really suit us today and we couldn’t get up to our usual high standards I’ve no doubt that there are many better days ahead for this talented squad.

From myself, Colm and Gary it has been a pleasure to have been involved with you all and wish you all the very best for the future. Congratulations to St Pat’s who fully deserved their victory today as they themselves have also had an excellent season.

Pearse Gaels Minors had a thrilling win on Friday night by 1-12 to 0-12 against a gallant Balto side. Well done to all seven Kilcoole players who togged out tonight.

Killian Hannon was rock solid at corner back all night. Conor Murphy Toole had an outstanding game at full back, where nothing got by him. He even got himself a nose bleed when he ended up in the opposition 21 in the second half, lucky for him Dublin bus weren’t on strike and he was able to get the 84x bank to his full back position again.

Jack Bellamy have an absolute exhibition of midfield play tonight, that included a masterclass of shooting. He ended up with nine points, three from play, three monster frees and three 45s.

Jordo Murray was a torn in the Baltinglass defence all evening and ran their half-back line ragged. When the game in the balance near the end, Jordo carried ball after ball and won frees or set up other forwards. Lukie Evans worked tirelessly all day. Finally Adam Cummins and Brian Short togged out for the combination team tonight also.

Congrats to all seven players, they’ve a county ‘A’ football final to look forward to.

After a fascinating drawn game in the Junior ‘A’ football championship the weekend before last, we locked horns with Coolboy again. This time we travelled to Wicklow town. We were minus our tenacious corner-back Lukie Reilly, who received a red card the previous outing, so after a Duck shuffled his pack a bit, Toby O’Brien came into midfield to replace Lukie.

The first half followed in similar circumstances to the last day and was very tight affair with the only gap between the two teams coming from Lee Dutton who finished to the net. This gave us a two-point lead at half-time.

The second half really opened up for us as we ran riot and finished out worthy winners on a score line of 4-10 to 0-08. This victory came at a cost though as we lost two of our key defenders in Conor Murphy Toole and Matty Kennedy.

While their loss was not felt during the second half against Coolboy, it certainly will be a big loss when we take on Ashford in the county final in Arklow on Saturday at 3.45pm.

Saturday marks a big year in football for our club as both our adult football teams have reached the county final in their grades. Added to this we our seven minors are part of the Pearse Gaels team that has also reached the ‘A’ Minor final. All the best to the boys Saturday. Kilcoole GAA Club are delighted to announce that we will be hosting Strictly Come Dancing on February 17, 2017, in Killiney Castle.

If you would like to participate in any way in this amazing event please contact us, whether that be a sponsor, a dancer or a helper.

There are still a few spots open for dancers. Great time of that year to: A: get fit while dancing; B: learn how to dance; C: have fantastic fun. Mark it in the diary, we’ll have a ball. Winning lotto numbers: 1, 9, 13, and 18. Three match three winners each winning €135. Nigel Lynch, Michael O’Toole and Amy Byrne were the match three winners.