Season of success honoured at Avondhu annual awards
THERE was a very large gathering in the Hibernian Hotel Mallow on Friday night for the Avondhu Board ‘man of the match’ function.
As well as the ‘man of the match’ the Hall of Fame and the 1966 Avondhu Senior Hurling side who won the County SHC all of 50 years ago were honoured. Barry Aherne Board Chairman was MC for the event.
Kieran O’Driscoll Manager Hibernian Hotel who are sponsors of the JAHC spoke. He thanked the Board for honouring the team of ‘66. He paid tribute to the Baord Officers for organising the event and especially John Roche Treasurer who worked so hard in recent weeks in organising numbers for the Hotel.
Barry Aherne extended a Cead Mile Failte to all. He welcomed the 1966 winning panel along with their selectors. He welcomed Michael Scanlon and Dick Matthews County Sound Radio.
He spoke of the recent competitions with 16 of the 25 clubs reaching finals while 11 were successful. Harbour Rovers retained the JAHC title while Grange made the breakthrough winning the JBFC (1) for the first time since 1994.
Avondhu Senior footballers had seven games in the championship before losing to eventual County champions Carbery Rangers. The Chairman paid tribute to the six players from the Division that were nominated for the Reardan’s All Stars with Tomas Clancy (Fermoy) being selected.
It was also a very good year for Shanballymore who won the All Ireland JBHC with Ballyhooly taking the County JBFC(1) title after a replay. Joe Aherne (Kilworth) won the County and Munster Recitation in Scór Sinnsear.
The ‘Hall of Fame’ winner was Phil Singleton (Kilshannig) Phil has given a lifetime of service to the GAA with his club and Avondhu Juvenile Board. In his early days he moved to Castlemagner but moved back to Lombardstown over 40 years ago.
He played hurling and football with Kilshannig Juveniles. He also became very involved in administration with the Glantane club. He spent 15 years as Treasurer and served as Secretary for many years up to 2011.
In 1988 when Kilshannig won the County JBHC title Phil was a selector. Over the years he served as selector to many Juvenile sides who won many titles including the County Under 14 FC in 1986.
The Avondhu Juvenile Board had Phil as a selector to Divisional teams for many years. He was awarded the ‘clubman of the Year’ in Kilshannig in 2002. He served his club as Groundsman.