Castlewellan GAC Notes

Castlewellan GAC The sad news broke early on Sunday morning of the passing away of Mary Rooney, wife of our esteemed Life Member, long time Club and County Official Pat Rooney. The Executive Committee and all our Club Members wish to convey our sincere sympathy to Pat and Daughters Moira, Caroline, Sharon and sons Paddy & Philip. We also extend our sympathy to the wide Rooney Family circle at the loss of Mary. Ar dheis de go raibh a anam dilis. Commitment to one team in any Club is a huge undertaking. When you involve yourself in several teams for most of us you spread thin your huge good will to do your best for your Club. [caption id="attachment_23650" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The five Castlewellan Girls on the Down Under-16 Camogie Panel who won the All-Ireland last Saturday. Left to right: Paidi Hawkins, Ciara Gibson, Claire Cleland, Finola Rice and Aoife Keown."][/caption] Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. Several people do that in every Club and we are always indebted to those people within our Club who do this. The Irish News introduced The Club & Volunteer Awards to recognise the unsung heroes in Clubs. Last Friday Noreen Keown picked up the award in the Medium Club Category in recognition for the Volunteer Work she does for her home club. She has put in a huge commitment to underage Ladies Football and Camogie in the Town. Being nominated by the Executive Committee they recognise the work and she has done and continues to do. We wish to congratulate her on this fine award. Not one for sitting on her laurels Noreen left the awards ceremony to drop of her passengers who had a further engagement and went along with other team mentors and took the Under-14 Girls Football Team to Bredagh for a match. A sure sign of commitment to the young players. Well done to Noreen once again. The club wish our County Minor Player Aidan Dornan a speedy recovery following a very serious knee injury playing for our Minor team against RGU Downpatrick on Tuesday night past. The club wishes to thank all those gave first aid to Aidan especially Tracy Burns from our own club and those from the RGU. Their expertise was truly appreciated. The lads lost to a Downpatrick team who were well up for the game. The match was played in a fine spirit by both sides. The boys know they must do better for this Tuesday night’s game against Rostrevor. Congratulations to The Down Under -16 Camogie team who won the All-Ireland Title on Saturday by one point against Wicklow. The score line of 1-03 to 1-02 suggests a very tight affair with little being given away by either side. Well done to Aoife Keown, Paidi Hawkins, Claire Cleland, Ciara Gibson and Finola Rice. They have all excelled with the Town and the County this year. All-Ireland medals are hard to come by and this is a great boost for our Club and County. Congratulations to Noreen Keown manager of the Down Team and Dessie Rice who is one of the Team Mentors. Their endless hours of commitment have paid off and they too can be rightly proud of their achieveme [caption id="attachment_23651" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Castlewellan Under-12 Hurlers who played against Liatriom on Thursday past."][/caption] The Senior Footballers enjoyed their fourth win of the win of their campaign by defeating Loughinisland by 1-09 to 1-06 last Sunday. A minute’s silence was observed before the game in memory of Mary Rooney who passed away earlier that day. This was a tough struggle in blustery conditions which made life difficult for both teams. A goal from Aidan Burns Cancelled out Loughinisland’s major score just minutes earlier. The town rear guard action was extremely good at times. A fine performance by Colin Flanagan who ran at the opposition all day. Fine points from frees by Sean Russell saw The Town home. A good win despite being short a few players for this fixture but no doubt a result which pleased us all. Keep her going lads. Castlewellan U-12 footballers got back to winning ways after a great victory over a strong Bredagh side in Castlewellan last Sunday. Before the match, both teams observed a minute silence in memory of the death of Mary Rooney, Pat Rooney’s wife.  Match 1 ended in a draw with Castlewellan staging a great comeback in the second half with Cleveland Boyle scoring two great goals. Match 2 finished 2-4 to 1-4 with Castlewellan’s two goals coming in the first half from Sean Keown and James McAleenan. Well worked points also from Sean Keown and Ruairi McGuinness saw Castlewellan take a five point lead at half time 2-2 to 0-3. Bredagh responded in the second half with a goal and a point, but late points from Ruairi McGuinness and Matthew Carville saw Castlewellan run out winners by 3 points. [caption id="attachment_23652" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The U-16 Camogie team management."][/caption] Our Under-14 Footballers lost out against Downpatrick last Monday Night. They continue to show great commitment and effort in all their games. Castlewellan hosted the second Under 6/8 Hurling blitz of the year on Saturday and all our young Hurlers excelled. The Under-6 hurling team were on top in all their games putting up some big scores in the process. The Under-8 team showed a lot of promise with some great long ground striking finishing undefeated drawing twice and winning once against Ballela, Portaferry and Ballycran respectively. The Under-8 team also gave a great account of themselves with wins against Ballycran, Ballygalget, losing by the odd goal in three against Portaferry. Many thanks to all who helped out at the blitz particularly to all the parents who as always turned out in great numbers to support the young hurlers and provided refreshments for our visitors. Well done to Brogan McCay, Darragh Cluskey, Donncha Keary, Luke McCabe, Tiarnan Gallagher, Cillian óg, Conor McVeigh, Tieran Doran, Eoin Hamill, Levi Boyle, Nathan Owens, Daniel Rice, Donnchadh Murphy, Lorcan Garland, Jack McMurrough, Ciaran    O’Halloran, Conor Orderly, Ruairí King, Jack Maginn, Tiernan Connolly,  Alex McAlinden, Matthew McCabe and Dara Rodgers. Training continues on Thursdays at 6.15pm and Saturday morning 10am. The Seconds had a great win on Friday Night at home to Carryduff by a score line of 4-10 to 1-05. A great all round display and an uplifting result for Shay and the boys. [caption id="attachment_23654" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The U-16 Camogie team management."][/caption] The Thirds lost out to Ardglass by a score line of 5-09 to 4-10 in an entertaining game in the Meadow on Sunday evening. A disappointing result but Cillian I just can’t say anything bad about you. Pizza was lovely by the way! Our Under-16 girls football team had a great win over near rival Bryansford on Sunday past by a score line of 11-20 to 1-0. Under-12 Girl’s football training will take place in St Malachy’s Park at 5-15pm on Wednesday. This week’s tote numbers were 2, 18, 24 & 27. There was one £20 winner – Caoimhinn McLaughlin. Next week’s Jackpot is £6150]]>