First festival of fun
New venue in National Sports Centre
ALDI WERE announced as the new sponsors of Community Games in January, and they are committed to promotion at both national and grassroots levels.
The management have launched a new advertising campaign, ‘Get in the Games’, which calls on young and old across the country to get involved in Aldi Community Games and to start participating and volunteering in their local community.
The goal of their support is to help provide the Games with a platform to continue to be enjoyed by Irish children for generations to come. Wexford Community Games welcome them on board and hope to have a long association with them.
The National Festival for May took place at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, Co. Dublin, recently. This was a first in the Sports Campus for Community Games and one can only admire the excellent facilities that were provided for the children from across the country to enjoy their chosen competition.
This is our jubilee year, so it was only fitting that the Games should return to the capital where they were founded in 1967 by the late Joe Connolly. Back then it started small where a group of children took part in preliminary rounds, leading to finals in Santry.
What a long way we have come, heading on to Mosney camp which was our home for a long number of years. They then moved to Athlone I.T. and now we are back in the capital for a year or two.
Wexford had a group of swimmers, gymnasts, cross-country relay teams, a table quiz team, boys’ marathon team and a debating team in action.
All the children had come through their Area and county and were striving to win a medal at the national finals, and if not, to participate to their best and to enjoy the occasion. The children love to represent their county and are proud to wear the purple and gold tracksuits with pride.
We salute all who competed and hope to see many of them back at the Sports Campus again in August.
The gymnastics competitors came from Craanford, Gorey and Kilanerin Areas. There were good entries from around the counties and congratulations to all who competed.
Aidan Kavanagh from the Craanford Area took home the fourth place medallion, won in the Under-9 category, while Jamie Doyle from Gorey won a silver medal in the Under-15 category. Well done boys.
Others who competed were Tobiah Walters, Rebecca Lynch, Megan Hayes, Aislinn Buttle and Shauna Owley.
The swimming events were hotly contested with good entries in most age groups. The county went home with two gold medals and one bronze.
The gold medal winners were Eva Bailey from Bree-Davidstown in the Under-10 freestyle, and Donacha McCarthy from Rathgar- ogue-Cushinstown in the Under-10 freestyle.
A bronze medal was won by Abi Cullen from Bree-Davidstown in the Under-12 freestyle.
Bree-Davidstown represented the county in the Under-16 debating competition. Seven counties took part which was the largest number ever since the competition began four years ago. According to the adjudicators it was also the highest standard they had ever witnessed.
The Wexford team of Leah Canavan, Michael Roche and Shane Feeley took on Lakeside, Co. Wicklow, in the first round, with Bree-Davidstown proposing the motion ‘that this house believes that the school summer holidays should be reduced’, and they had a very convincing win.
At the semi-final stage, they proposed the motion ‘that the legal driving age should be raised to 21 years’, and lost by a slender margin to Skryne/Kentstown/ Beauparc, Co. Meath.
They went into the play-off for third and fourth place positions, against Lanesboro, Co. Longford, where they opposed a tough motion ‘that children’s toys should be gender neutral’.
This was a very tight debate with all supporters expecting a local win.
However, it was not to be in the opinion of the adjudicators and Bree-Davidstown had to settle for the fourth place medallions.
The Meath team went on to win the title from Roscommon. Bree-Davidstown’s mentor was Clare Doyle.
Twenty-four teams were in action in the table quiz, with Aodhán Collins, Grace McGuire, Tadhg Murphy and Nathan Roche from the Piercestown-Murrintown Area competing for Wexford.
The standard was very high and so many of the teams ended up with scores in the 90s. The Wexford team finished outside of the medal placings, but well done to them.
Wexford had three teams in action in the cross-country middle distance relay competitions. It was great to see them in action, as the county has struggled for a few years to get even one team to contest the events at this level.
The teams were boys and girls Under-12 and an Under-14 girls’ team. The Under-12 girls’ team came through their qualifying race in fifth position to make it through to the final.
The final was hotly contested over a tough course run in very blustery and cold conditions. Well done to the panel of Gracie Kehoe, Abbie Doyle (Bree-Davidstown), Ellie O’Mahony (Piercestown-Murrintown), Katie Doyle (Enniscorthy), Cara Kelly (Glynn-Barntown) and Cliona Kearney (Castlebridge-Crossabeg).
The county final of the boys’ Under-10 indoor soccer competition was held recently in Enniscorthy and was contested by Glynn-Barntown and Bree-Davidstown.
The game was only about half a minute under way when Oisín McDonagh sent the ball to the back of the net for Glynn-Barntown, and they added four more goals to take a commanding 5-0 half-time lead.
Bree-Davidstown fought back bravely in the second-half even though Glynn-Barntown added their sixth goal after about 40 seconds.
Bree-Davidstown saved a penalty a few minutes later before Glynn-Barntown tagged on another goal. Glynn-Barntown missed a penalty a few minutes later and Bree-Davidstown saved another penalty in the dying moments.
This was a very polished and strong performance by Glynn-Barntown, and well done to Bree-Davidstown who continued to give it their all, right up to the final whistle.
The goalscorers for Glynn-Barntown were Oisín McDonagh, Alfie Whelan (three) and Rory Goff (three). Referee for the match was Adrian Carr.
The panel of players for Glynn-Barntown featured Cian Donovan, Rory Goff, Callum Kennedy, Billy Martin, Oisín McDonagh, Billy Walsh, Alfie Whelan and Kevin Whelan, and the gallant runners-up from Bree-Davidstown were represented by Cian Doyle, Nathan Doyle, Cathal Ennis, Conn Fraser, Cathal Kelly, Sam Irwan, Dylan Martin and Ollie Treacy.
The semi-final of the boys’ Under-12 outdoor soccer between Castlebridge-Crossabeg and Bree-Davidstown took place recently.
Castlebridge-Crossabeg took an early lead and kept it right up to the final whistle, winning comfortably on a 9-0 scoreline. Despite the result, this was a very good game.
Goalscorers for the winners were Paddy Connors (four), Chris Frawley (three) and Evan Cullen (two). DIARY DATE June 25: county athletic finals in the The Hub, Enniscorthy. The closing date for entries online is May 31.