Adamstown/Cloughbawn to celebrate
THE MEMORIES are sure to come flooding back in the Cloch Bán, Clonroche, on Saturday night when the All-Ireland winning Adamstown/ Cloughbawn ladies’ football team of 1988 hold a 30-year reunion.
History was made in John Lockes Park, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, on November 20 of that year when they defeated Ballymacarbry from Waterford by 2-6 to 1-4 to capture the coveted Dolores Tyrrell Memorial Cup.
The match DVD will be played on the big screen at around 8 p.m. on Saturday, followed by refreshments and music. All friends, family members and supporters from near and far are invited to attend.
The management team in 1988 included Benny McCabe and John Michael Porter who featured in a similar capacity with their current clubs, Shelmaliers and Rathgarogue-Cushinstown respectively, in men’s county football finals last weekend. Clearly both men still have that winning touch.
They were joined in that successful backroom set-up by Matt O’Neill, Michael McCabe and Peter Caulfield.
It was a very successful period for the team, as Adamstown/Cloughbawn ladies won the Leinster Club title in 1987, and retained it in 1988 before becoming the county’s first All-Ireland Club champions.
In fact, they were the first team to bring an adult All-Ireland football title to Wexford since the great four-in-a-row men’s Senior outfit from 1915 to 1918.
The ladies of Adamstown/Cloughbawn had been beaten in their All-Ireland quest the previous year, but made no mistake at the second time of asking.
They won in Wexford with a big final victory over Clongeen, and then disposed of Coolkenno of Wicklow, Rochfortbridge of Westmeath, and then old rivals The Heath of Laois in the Leinster final.
They hammered Tara of London in the semi-final and then clinched the All-Ireland Club title with a wonderful display, seeing off Ballymacarbry by that five-point margin on a never-to-be-forgotten winter’s day.