CLUB CALL
BRAY BOWLS
Another very busy week on the rink with the ladies Division 1 team taking two points home from Crumlin last Wednesday just losing out on the overall.
Our Division 6 team were also in action against Crumlin last Wednesday and took home all four points on offer.
Well done to Frankie Byrne and the team.
Thursday saw Vets 2 away to Dun Laoghaire and they brought home all four points to climb the table. Ger Mahony was impressive on the day.
Vets 3 were away in Westmanstown and on a difficult rink Eoghain Brady’s quartet won a point.
Saturday saw our new Ladies team at home to Westmandstown and they recorded an 18/7 win. Margaret Doyle and Terri McKeon impressed.
Also, our Division 1 team were at home to Pickie Bowling Club from Bangor, Co. Down in the IBA Cup but found our friends from the north too strong. Thanks to Betty, Breda and Marge for organising soup and rolls for the visitors on their arrival.
This week sees action taking place Monday to Thursday with Division 4 away to Leinster on Monday night.
Tuesday sees Division 1 travel to Aer Lingus and Division 2 at home to Skerries.
Wednesday has the ladies Division 1 at home to Skerries and Division 6 away in Terenure against CYM.
On Thursday, Vets 1 are away to CYM, Vets 2 at home to Westmanstown and Vets 3 at home to Dun Laoghaire.
Finally, on Saturday, Division 1 are at home to Crumlin and Div 2 away to Westmanstown. Who said life as a bowler was easy!
The winner of the weekly lotto was Brendan Duffy. The club championships are up and running and the organisers will be keeping a keen eye out to make sure all games are completed by the due date.
WICKLOW ROVERS
Our senior men lost 2-1 at home to Drogheda Town, after taking an early lead through a Mark O’Sullivan goal the lads rued several missed chances when the away team stormed back with two goals of their own to claim all three points.
The lads put in a good performance and with some better finishing in front of goal the lads could have won this game comfortably.
The senior ladies claimed an excellent 3-2 win over cup favourites Shankill FC last Monday night at Whitegates.
The girls were slow into their stride with the away side having the majority of the early possession.
But it was Rovers who went in front when Rachel Bolger found Niamh O’Brien and she finished past the advancing keeper.
Shankill drew level just before the break, but Rovers retook the lead five minutes into the second half when yet again Rachel Bolger found Niamh O’Brien and she powerfully finished to the bottom left hand corner of the net.
O’Brien netted her hat-trick soon after when she latched onto a Natasha Fitzgerald pass and tucked the ball neatly past the keeper.
Shankill pulled one back with ten minutes left but with some stubborn defending from the Rovers back four and some excellent saves from Laura O’Brien, Rovers held on for a big win.
Junior midweek action saw the under-11As record an excellent win over Rathnew winning 5-2.
Charlie Czwalina fired in two with singles coming from Jack Macklin, Tom Donoghue and Dan Kavanagh.
The 12As moved a step closer to the treble when they defeated their nearest rivals St Anthony’s 5-0. Top scorer Kai Fitzsimons and Jack Noble banged home two a piece with Sam Greene completing the scoring in an all round excellent team display.
The 12Bs suffered a disappoining 2-1 away defeat to Aughrim, losing 2-1. Charlie Phelan gave Rovers the lead and the lads missed a series of clear cut chances to increase the lead.
This came back to haunt them as Aughrim scored two second half goals to claim all three points.
The 13As kept their treble dreams very much alive when they defeated their nearest rivals for the league title Arklow Celtic 3-0; goals from Callum Gibney, Willoughby Woods and Conor Hunter earned them the win.
The 14Bs went down 5-2 away to Arklow Town; Reece Doyle and Harry Broxsan netted their goals.
Our 14Cs lost 7-2 to Arklow Celtic with Donal O’Donoghue hitting both their goals.
The 15Bs had a good 3-1 win over Greystones with Nathan Sullivan nabbing two and Michael Ryan registering a single.
Saturday saw the 12Bs edge closer to the league title when goals from Ben Bowen, Charlie Phelan and Peter Dunne gave them a 3-2 win over Rathnew as they move closer to the double.
The 13As remain on course to complete the treble when they narrowly defeated local rivals Rathnew winning 2-1 with goals from Conor Hunter and Sean O’Meara.
Our 14Cs went down 7-2 away to Arklow Town, Adam Shepherd and Donal O’Donoghue scored their goals.
On Sunday our under-13 girls went down 4-2 away to Malahide with leading scorer Molly Sweeney scoring both goals.
The 14Bs got back to winning ways with a good 2-1 away over Arklow Celtic with goals from Scott Bushe and David Lally.
The 14As went down 7-3 to neighbours Wicklow Town, Eoin Doyle fired in all three Rovers goals.
Our 15As were involved in an eight goal thriller drawing 4-4 with Coolboy, Paul Marah and Frankie Reynolds both scored two a piece.
The 16As took on club mates the 16Bs with the As winning 11-2.
Scorers for the As were Sean Leonard and Nathan Sullivan both netting hat-tricks, Conor Byrne (2) and one each from Sean Farrell, Shane Lincoln and Dylan Frazer. The B team goals came from Nathan Wynne and Joe Geraghty.
The club’s annual summer camp dates having been released, Week 1 - Monday 3rd July 2017 to Friday 7th July 2017, Week 2 - Monday 10th July 2017 to Friday 14th July 2017.
The camp will take place in the Whitegates and will run daily from 10am to 3pm.
The camp is for children from four years old to 13 years old, the cost is €65 per child, €120 for two children from same family, €170 for three children from same family, €200 for four children from same family. For registration forms or further information please contact Johnny Dunne 087-7802098, Robbie Dover 087-3621049 or any committee member.
Registration forms can also be downloaded from club website at www.wicklowrovers.com . Every participant will receive a ball, jersey and medal.
All participants should bring a packed lunch, drink, rain jacket, football boots and shin guards.
INDOOR BOWLS
Kildare West Wicklow Indoor Bowling Association (KWWIBA)
Straffan In House Bowling Tournament - he Straffan bowling club ran a bowling tournament among their members for a number of weeks and it concluded on Sunday, May 7.
This was a very competitive and hard fought encounter by all participants, with the eventual winners of Linda Daly and Joe Quinn having the bragging rights after seeing off some serious contenders. Congratulations to both.
Recent League Results (home team first) - Div. 1: Allen 5, Baltinglass 0; Brownstown 5, Kildangan 0; Kill CBC 2, Caragh 3; Kildare 5, Ardclough 0.
Div. 2: St. Laurences 3, Coill Dubh 2; Coill Dubh 3, Castlemitchell 2.
Div. 3: Rathmore 5, Naas 0; Kill 0, Balyna 5.
Bowling championship reaches conclusion - The bowling championship came to its conclusion in the Rathcoffey GAA Hall on Sunday, May 7, with a large attendance there to see the action. The following is just a snippet from the six different categories matches.
First Final In This Category For Both Players - Ladies-Singles: Rita O’Rourke (Ryston) and Phian Neylan (Rathangan) were the finalist in this match.
This was the first time for both of those players to reach the final. It was a very close game for a little over half the match, but from there to the finish it was the Rathangan lady that was in full control and won convincingly, Rita gave a good account of herself but nerves seemed to be a factor at times.
Rathangan Ladies Make It Three In A Row - Ladies-Pairs: Phian Neylan, Josie Deegan (Rathangan) and Phyllis Burke, Josie Garvey (Kill CBC) contested this final. This was the same opposition as the 2016 final.
It certainly proves the consistency of those players. Rathangan would be the slight favourites in this one, but would be expecting a tough battle.
But once again they showed how formidable opponents they are, as they coasted to an easy victory to make it three in a row.
Kehoe Succeeds At First Attempt - Open-Singles: John Kehoe (Baltinglass) and Mark Caldwell (Kildare) went head to head in this match.
A tough opponent for the Baltinglass man against the champion of two years ago, especially as this was his first time to reach the final.
John was in devastating form throughout this championship and continued in that vein in this match to see off the former champion to win the title on his first attempt.
No Losers For Kildare Club - Mixed Triples: No matter what the outcome of this match there would be no losers, as it was two Kildare teams contesting the final. Fintan Downey, Una Downey and Mark Caldwell were competing against club colleagues Margaret Gorry, Frank Connolly and Eddie Heffernan.
It was Mark’s team the honours go to, with an impressive performance, while Eddie’s team take the runners up prizes.
Rathmore Produce Impressive Display - pen-Pairs: The Rathmore husband and wife team of Helen and Frank Feane were pitted against Christy McDonald and Donal Burke from the Kill CBC club in this final.
The Rathmore pair produced an impressive display to send their opponents packing and take the title without too much difficulty.
First For Baltinglass - OpenFours: Baltinglass made no mistake in claiming the title for the first time with a fantastic display of bowling against Balyna.
Balyna appearing in the final for the first time certainly played some very good bowls, but inexperience probably cost them at times against a very experienced side, but no doubt they will have learned a lot from this game that will help them in the future.
Baltinglass: Joey Fagan, John Kehoe, Pat Brazil and Edward Lawrence.
Balyna: Tommy Grifferty, Eileen Grifferty, Paul Hillen and Frank Holden.
BRAY WANDERERS
Lotto - There was no jackpot winner on May 14. Numbers drawn were 2, 6, 20, and 25. €30 lucky dip winners were Linda Fitzpatrick c/o C. Kavanagh, E. Cox c/o Bray Wanderers on line, Tom O’Connor c/o Bray Lakers, P. Duffy c/o Bray Wanderers on line, Kim McCormack c/o Bray Lakers. Next week’s jackpot is €9,575.
Lotto tickets can be purchased in the club shop at home games or you can play the Bray Wanderers Lotto on line at our website www. braywanderersfc.ie.
Lotto tickets are also printed on the rear of match tickets. Simply fill in the ticket and drop it into the club shop at home games.
Fixtures - Bray Wanderers are at home to Bohemians on Friday, May 19. Kick-off at the Carlisle Grounds is 7.45pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance through our website.
Supporters bus to Drogheda - The next away game is against Drogheda United on Tuesday, May 23.
The Seagulls club will run a bus to this game. Seats can be booked by text to 087 9968969 or by calling into club shop at Fridays home game against Bohemians.
Bus will depart 5.00pm from the Carlisle Grounds. There will be a pick up at the Point (3 Arena). Fares for Seagulls Club members are Adults €20, Student (Age 15-17) €15, Schoolchild (under 15) €10. Non-club members €5 extra.
NEWTOWN JUNIORS
Games at the moment are at a premium for our teams as we wind down towards the end of the season.
Our under-11s lost 3-0 away to Avonmore in a game where the team had their chances.
Among the star performers were Aaron Hackett, Jack Coughlan, Paudie Gammell and Hannah Martin.
Our under-13s had two great away wins last week.
On Wednesday evening they made the short trip to Kilcoole to take on St. Anthony’s and came home with a 5-1 win with the goals coming from Fionn O’Reilly (2), Bobby Dowling (2) and Darragh Heffernan.
It was then onto Arklow on Friday evening to take on Arklow Celtic and the team came home with a deserved 3-2 win thanks to goals from Bobby Dowling, Laragh Davis and Martin Kelly.
It has to be said that in both games every player played brilliantly.
The 15s put themselves back in contention for league honours with a 3-1 home win over table toppers Enniskerry.
Andrew McMahon helped himself to a fine hat-trick in a game where the team played some lovely football and where every player played his part.
If the team wins its remaining couple of games and other results go their way, well they could be celebrating in a couple of weeks (let’s hope so!).
All in the club send their best wishes to Frank Lang from the Under 9’s who had an operation last week to remove his appendix so he will be out of action for a while.
With the season drawing to a close we have set Saturday 1st July as the date for our presentation day.
We are planning to have a Mini World Cup back up and running after a number of years without one but to do all this we will need a little bit of help.
So if you are interested in football and can spare an hour or two every week leading up to finals day on the July 1 to do maybe a bit of refereeing etc it would be greatly appreciated.
Further details for the mini World Cup starting dates and events on the day of the presentation day will be announced shortly on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
We also have all our players out and about with sponsor cards (where players can purchase club gear depending on how much money they collect).
This is one of our main fundraisers so it would be great if we got loads of support, which to be fair we usually do. Well done to all our players who made their Holy Communion last Saturday and it was nice to see the rain stay away for the duration of the ceremony.
Also well done to all our players who acted as mascots and ball boys for Newtown United F.C. at the Wicklow Cup final in the Carlisle Grounds against Ashford Rovers. Ye all did a great job but unfortunately the result didn’t go our way as Ashford came from behind to take the cup. Hard luck Newtown.
The club would like to thank a few people, firstly a popular ex-gaffer in the club John Dalton for his kind donation. We also would like to thank Emma Kearney and Shayne Murphy from Snap Dun Laoghaire who sponsored the printing of our sponsor cards for our upcoming fundraiser. Many thanks Emma, Shayne and John from everyone at Newtown Juniors F.C.
We have three players from the club celebrating their birthdays in the coming week and they are Elijah Donnelly-Kelly from the Development Squad and Marcel Kocajda and Ryan Clarke from the under-13s. Happy birthday lads from everyone at Newtown Juniors F.C.
Our latest Last Man Standing competition will go into a Week 9 thanks to the “Champions League” chasing Arsenal. Eva & Katrina had pinned their hopes on them and they duly obliged with a 4-1 away win over Stoke City, “Girl Power” all the way. Many thanks to everyone for their continued support.
On a sadder note the club wish to extend their sincere condolences to the family & friends of Mollie Murphy who sadly passed away last week. May she rest in peace.
For further information on all matters “Newtown Juniors F.C.” please contact the Secretary at 0876987653 or by email to hughienolan@gmail.com & you can also follow the club on our Facebook & Twitter pages.