HOCKEY, ATHLETICS, HORSE RACING Hockey squad seeking glory
GENERAL SPORT Big weekend for ’Scorthy
COSTIGAN: ‘Well, families are always rising and falling in America, am I right?’ - Billy Costigan, The Departed.
Amend the above quote from Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed 2006 movie ever so slightly, and you could be describing so many clubs of many different sports around the county.
And from talking to those involved in Enniscorthy Hockey Club today, you get the feeling that this club is on the rise again, particularly when after years in the wilderness, the ladies’ first XI have made it to the Leinster Hockey Association Trophy final.
Delve into newspapers of bygone days and there’s a rich seam of hockey running through the Cathedral town, with the sport noted as being played in the 1890s, as the G.A.A. was beginning to flex its not inconsiderable muscles.
Like rugby, fixtures were suspended due to the onset of war in 1914, but when hostilities ended four years later, hockey clubs sprang up once more. Bunclody, Gorey and Bagenalstown were amongst those who fielded sides, as did the Tate School in Wexford, and matches were held between Enniscorthy Hockey Club and their rugby counterparts.
The 1930s saw the activities of Enniscorthy ladies’ club Hempfield grace the newspapers, and through that decade and the next Greenhills flew the flag for hockey in the south of the county.
Fast forward through to the 1970s and hockey was an intermittent attendee of local sports pages. Summer tournaments in Wexford town were well attended but Enniscorthy wasn’t on the map.
That began to change when Enniscorthy Hockey Club was formed in 1982, following a meeting called by Jean Lett and Lorna Dalton. It took time to produce success, but when it came, the Cathedral town women (we’ll get to the men later) were dominant, capturing a sizeable number of trophies throughout the 1980s, then winning the South East league and cup double six years on the trot from 1995-’96 up to 2000-’01.
The latter year saw the biggest success in the club’s short history when the Irish Junior Cup was claimed.
For former player and Chairperson Mary Codd, the stand-out feature of that season was the club’s nomadic existence at the time, with training sessions and practice matches taking the Enniscorthy players as far afield as Kilkenny, Waterford, Dublin and Cork.
‘The most wonderful thing I recall was the joy it brought to so many people, not just the team and management but all the club and supporters.’
Around this time the decision was taken to form an under-age section; relying on former pupils of schools like F.C.J. (Bunclody) and Kilkenny College simply wasn’t feasible anymore.
The current under-age structures are a far cry from the humble surroundings of Hillbrook Tennis Club, which boasted the only local patch of astro-turf suitable for learning the fundamentals of the sport, and where the earliest training sessions began before the arrival of modern facilities at the Astro Active Centre in September, 2007. It also gave the club a permanent, up to date home for the first time.
And it was the success of the under-age set-up that lead to the setting up of a men’s team in 2013. Just when the fortunes of the women’s section hit their nadir, a new lease of life arrived at the club.
The litmus test in interest, remembers Andrew Rothwell, current P.R.O. and player, was a match on a scorching day in the summer of 2013.
‘[It was] young players coming through the ranks in the club plus a few players like myself and Kieran Costello that had been pulled in.’
They took on veterans from the defunct South East Wanderers club in a friendly: ‘The young heads thought they would run rings around the “old lads” but it was far from that, we were well beaten but it did show there was a lot of players of the South-East side that were ready to get out their hockey sticks and start playing again.’
And play they did. All three goals scored by Fraser Rothwell’s side which beat Bray without reply on the opening day of the 2013-’14 season were claimed by products of Enniscorthy’s under-age set-up.
From the basement Division 8 that season, the men’s first team (a second string was added in time for the 2016-’17 season) has won two more league titles and a Walters Cup success - in fact, a trophy won in every season.
The development of the men’s side of the club has been a source of great pride to Fraser: ‘That first season in Leinster was a dream come true, to be honest; to form the team was a dream, to survive a full season and not implode was a dream, but to win the Division, that was a dream I didn’t dare dream’.
This weekend, though, it’s all about the women. On Sunday the first choice eleven make their first appearance in a major final in a longer time than club stalwarts would like to admit.
A key to their success has been a resurgence in women playing, giving coaches Donal Doyle and Ivanna Yeats an ever-improving pool of talent from which to draw on.
Women’s co-ordinator Irene Doyle thinks Enniscorthy have a good chance on Sunday: ‘If our girls turn up with the same game and determination that they presented to Kilkenny in the semi-final, we should have nothing to fear and especially if they get the same support that was in the Astro that day’.
Captain Olive Lett remembers well the 2001 triumph and points out that Enniscorthy play their best when in the underdog role, as indeed they will be when taking on Leinster side Bray.
And to the delight of many, the Under-16 girls have reached a final too, aiming to claim only the club’s third under-age title at any age level.
Should the two sides win on Sunday, it will cap a remarkable comeback for one of the outposts of Leinster hockey. Many supporters will no doubt echo the sentiments of Mary Codd - ‘make memories and bring home the silverware’ - but inside them all burns a fierce ambition to succeed.
Echoing the words of Conor McGregor, Andrew Rothwell insists: “We’re not just here to take part - we’re here to take over’. Fighting words indeed.