Drogheda polo side make splash
DROGHEDA Water Polo Club kept alive hopes of securing a first National senior league title in 14 years when they crushed Clonard 17-1 to close in on Division 2 leaders Corrib.
However, the Galway side proved a thorn in the side of Drogheda’s Under-16 Boys team who were denied a first-ever National Junior title as the more fancied team won their sixth successive crown.
Elizabeth Morland (Cushinstown AC) won gold in the Junior long jump and 60m hurdles and Emily Rogers (St Peter’s AC) won the Under-23 high jump at the National Indoor Championships. Martin Quinn won the Senior Men’s race at the Ras na hEireann, with Garry Campbell the first to finish from host club Dunleer AC. Duleek native Keith Marks (Cushinstown AC) set a new PB of 7.20m to win AAA English Indoor gold in the Men’s Under-20 long jump.
In soccer, Drogheda United began pre-season with a 2-0 home defeat against Cork City and subsequently announced the signings of keeper Stephen McGuinness and American centre-half Joe Jackson. The following week the Boynesiders put in another decent display against Dundalk but lost the Jim Malone Cup on another 2-0 scoreline and their goal drought continued as Bohemians knocked them out of the Leinster Senior Cup.
Robbie Horgan’s Drogheda Town claimed their first win in the Leinster Senior League since August as Tomaze Bobrowski scored both in a 2-1 win at Parkvilla.
NEFL title contenders Newfoundwell boosted their ranks with the signing of 2012 EA Sports Cup-winning Drogheda United captain Paul Crowley. he couldn’t prevent them going down narrowly to Navan Cosmos in a Tully Bookmakers Cup third-round tie, but they did subsequently win through to the Kilmessan Shield decider.
Drogheda’s finest ladies soccer player, senior international Megan Campbell, signed her first professional contract with Manchester City but picked up an injury in pre-season and sadly didn’t feature in the Sky Blues’ run to English League glory.
One of the year’s great local sporting and social events took place in the Westcourt Hotel, the Drogheda Independent Coca-Cola Sport Star Awards, where Special Olympian Anne Hoey won the overall award, Newtown Blues footballer Ross Nally claimed the Young Sport Star accolade and Louth’s All-Ireland Junior Championship-winning Louth ladies were voted Team of the Year. And there was a posthumous Hall of Fame winner in Louth GAA legend Stephen Melia, with his wife Orla Halley accepting the award to a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, a former Hall of Fame recipient at the awards was being honoured by the IABA as Holy Family boxing coach Christy McKenna was presented with a Lifetime Achievement trophy. Fellow Holy Family man Martin Stokes was named Intermediate Boxer of the Year at the same function.
In rugby, successive defeats at the hands of Tullamore, Bruff and Old Crescent led to fresh worries about Boyne’s ability to survive the relegation scrap in the All-Ireland League’s bottom tier. Ardee CS went down 17-8 to Colaiste Bhride of Carnew in the Leinster Schools Senior Development Cup decider.
Colm Boyle of Coast Tavern won the Fosters Duleek & District Dart League Singles with victory over Johnny Andrews from Tullyallen.