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February 2007
Folkestone Darters Visit Cork {Photo - Leslie
Condron and Steve Schmid)
On
the last weekend in February members of the East Cliff Tavern darts team from
Folkestone in Kent visited Cork where they played a number of ‘friendly’ matches
and visited some of the local tourist attractions.
On their arrival on Friday their first port of call was Blarney Castle
to kiss the world-famous Stone and they stopped off at the Muskerry Arms in the
village to sample the local brew before heading back to the city to prepare for
their first darting encounter on Irish soil.
The Rock Bar on Gillabbey Street was the venue where Leslie and the
lads rolled out the ’Red Carpet’ to make the visitors feel at home. After a few
’innings’ of Cricket and a team match the East Cliff lads settled in to enjoy
the refreshments served up by the local team.
The Franciscan Well Brewery on the North Mall was their first stop on
Saturday before returning to the Rock Bar where they watched their national
rugby team being humiliated by Ireland.
They travelled to the Brown Derby on Saturday night for another
session and while they lost the darts match they came out on top in the
’sing-song’.
On Sunday they headed down to the Holy Ground in Cobh to visit the
Cathedral and to take in the Queenstown Experience before returning to Cork to
take in some traditional Irish Music in the Spailpin Fanach under the shadows of
the Beamish Brewery.
Steve Schmid and the lads from the East Cliff Tavern were great
company and we hope that they enjoyed their visit to Cork.
As they boarded their Ryanair flight back to Stansted they promised to return in
the near future
Cork Teams at the Inter-Counties
The Cork County men’s and ladies’
teams suffered heartache at the Irish Inter-Counties Championships in Castlebar
when they were both beaten in their respective finals.
The ladies who were going for five
consecutive wins in this event started their defence of their title in great
style on Day One of the Championships winning all four of their matches in the
Round Robin group stages.
On the second day they defeated
Kilkenny in the quarter-finals and Donegal in the semis to set up a clash with
Dublin in the final.
The Cork girls made a blistering start in the final winning the first three
games but then they faltered badly missing many chances to wrap up another
title. But great credit is due to the Dublin ladies as they fought back to win
the next four games and the Championship.
It was an exhausting day for the Cork men on the Saturday as they failed to
qualify from their group after winning their first two matches in great style.
In their third match they were beaten by Donegal and had to endure two play-off
matches which went on after midnight before eventually qualifying for the
quarter-finals.
On Day Two the men defeated Limerick
and Dublin to go through to confront the reigning champions, Donegal, in the
final match of the weekend.
This was another great contest with
the Cork men putting up a great fight before going down 5-7 to a very strong
Donegal team who were winning this event for a record six years in succession.
Was I Really Missed ? ? ?
On a personal note, it was reported back to me that a number of people in the
Cork camp were ‘disappointed’ at my non-attendance at the Inter-Counties
competition in Castlebar even though I had made it quite clear at the start of
the season that I would not be attending the event for reasons that I will not
elaborate on in this column.
It was most heartening for me,
however, to receive many phone calls, text messages and e-mails from some of the
many friends that I have made down through the years and who ‘really’ missed my
presence at the Championships.
Isn’t it amazing ! - - - in all of
the years that I was involved with the Cork County teams since the Irish
Inter-Counties Championship began in 1981, I had never missed a county meeting,
competition or Inter-Counties event before this present season.
And some people used my non-attendance as a ‘stick to beat me with’ ! ! !
It must be very upsetting and frustrating for some individuals, who have not
been seen or heard of on the county scene for the past eight years, to realise
that they were not missed by anyone at all during that glorious period when the
Cork teams won seven Irish and sixteen Munster Inter-Counties titles and became
the first and only County ever to win the Irish Inter-Counties Treble, men,
ladies and youths, in the one year {2001).
I rest my case !
Michael O’Sullivan,
Chairman, Cork County Darts Board
