U8s Festival of Hurling 2012
The u8 ‘Festival of Hurling’ tournament took place on Bank Holiday Sunday, 28th October 2012, at a damp and chilly, but thankfully playable Glenalbyn.
The outlook at 8am that morning was pretty bleak looking! Despite the bank holiday and the less than conducive weather on the morning of the tournament, there was a brilliant turnout, both from Kilmacud Crokes players, mentors and parents and from the visiting teams, who came from ‘all corners’ - Dublin, Kildare, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Galway. All in all, approximately 200 boys participated in the tournament.
The Kilmacud turnout was so good that we were able to field four teams, one for each of the groups in the tournament – the Henry Shefflin Group, the Eoin Kelly Group, the Joe Canning Group and the Séan Óg ÓhAilpín Group. The event was organised on a ‘mixed ability’ basis, four teams per group, with every team playing three group games and a final, based on the final group placings.
Our boys faced some really strong opposition across all four groups and acquitted themselves excellently. The mentors were very pleased with the efforts and application of the Kilmacud players throughout the day, as well as their behaviour on and off the pitch. Indeed, as qualified a hurling commentator as the manager of the current Dublin Senior Hurling County Champions, Gearóid Ó Riain, said that he was delighted to see the improvement in the performances of the Crokes’ boys over the course of the day. We are in no doubt that their experience of this tournament will stand them in good stead in their future hurling endeavours. We have a great bunch of hurlers in the u8 group and we are looking forward to seeing them develop. A special mention also for the two u7 hurlers who joined the fray and who more than held their own with the older boys. The future of Kilmacud Crokes hurling looks bright!
The visiting teams were Craughwell (x2) and Carnmore from Galway, Kilmacow from Kilkenny, Naomh Eanna from Wexford, Durlas Óg (x2) from Tipperary, Naas (x2) from Kildare and Na Fianna (x2) and Cuala from Dublin. Craughwell 1 and Na Fianna 2 won the two ‘group winners’ finals in great games, but there were also some fine close games right across the finals, and indeed across the group stages.
A special word of thanks to all the parents and others who ‘dug in’ on the day and undertook the wide range of duties necessary for the successful running of the event – from the ‘top table’ folks who did the registration of teams and kept track of the scoring and group tables, to the pitch coordinators who ensured that all the matches ran on time, to the referees who added their expertise to the mix, proving an excellent ‘official’ feel to the tournament, and their umpires (including some of the younger members who were mad keen to help out and did a great job!), to the photographer whose great team and action photos you can see on this page, the KC team managers who were on duty, and on their feet (!!) for the whole day, and to those who did such a great job of managing the catering effort. All the visiting teams were very complimentary of the organisation of the tournament and of the wonderful ‘spread’ that the parents put on (that was some blindin’ good soup, Tom, and absolutely hit the spot!) both on the day and subsequently by email. A fantastic group effort – well done all!
It just whets the appetite for 2013…!