RGU Notes

annual club presentation night is this Saturday (12th March( at the Club. Any member interested in attending ring the Club secretary on 07815839630. Tickets £15.  Food served at 8.00, followed by presentations and entertainment by Red Biddy. The senior reserve team got off to a great start to the league against Ballyholland winning 3-9 to 2-7.  New manager Gerry Wilson was well pleased with his new team’s performance, in particular the enthusiasm and determination shown by all the players.  Next game is away to St John’s. At the East Down awards on Friday night our very own Peter McCartan was awarded juvenile referee for 2010.  The Club would like to congratulate Peter on his well deserved win and hope it is the first of many. Saturday past saw Daniel Connolly and Blain Lennon put up a great showing in the Ulster U-21 Handball Doubles Final against the Antrim pairing of Sean Clarke and Aaron Burns, contested at the Eugene Quinn Handball Club in Armagh on the site of the newly refurbished Athletic Grounds. The RGU boys went down two games to one 21-12, 14-21, 21-7 against highly fancied opposition which in Clarke included one of the rising stars of Ulster Handball. The fact that Daniel and Blain have two years left at this grade should provide great incentive for future success. This Sunday see’s Niall Quinn and Sam Burns take on Conal McKevitt/Ciaran Duffy (Armagh) at Kingscourt, Cavan in the Ulster U-17 Doubles Final. While on Saturday St Paul’s, Belfast will host the Ulster Cumann na mBunscoil Finals. Down representation from RGU is the U-11 Boys Doubles Philip Dornan/Niall Laverty, U-11 Boys Singles Tim Prenter, Rachel McKeown U-11 Girls Singles and Aoife Barnes U-13 Girls Singles. Best of luck to all players. On Friday 11^th March The RGU play hosts to a number of local Primary schools who will all be participating in a Heritage Quiz which has been organised by our Culture Committee in conjunction with the local St Patrick’s day celebrations. All parents please feel free to come along and cheer on your child’s school team. In the meantime, plans are taking shape for the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Clubrooms. From 4pm to 6.30 pm there will be live session music in the lounge while the All-Ireland Club hurling and football finals will be shown in the bar. Free stew will be available for everyone! Later, Celair will be on stage from 9pm to close of play. Tickets will be a keenly priced £4 and you can pay at the door. The Club will be holding two membership/registration nights on Monday 21st and Monday 28^th March between 7pm and 9pm. All members should avail of this opportunity to renew their membership for the 2011 season. The development work at the Club is well under way.  A new fence will be erected to block off the drain.  Electronic turnstiles will be installed as will a new state of the art Public Address system.  A small area on the cemetery side has been designated for terracing with an underfoot heating system.  The current work will be completed by the end of March. Ticket sales for the Development draw are starting to look encouraging, and we would ask everyone to return the tickets they have sold immediately. The pitches still remain closed and the U-16’s will train again this week on Tuesday night at Dunleath Park from 7.00-8.30 PM on the all weather pitch. They play their first league game of the season next Sunday against Leitrim, the time and venue still hasn’t been confirmed. The seniors are now training on Mondays and Wednesdays and they are now looking forward to their first league fixture which will be on 15^th April away to Banbridge. Under-14 football training continues on Saturdays at 3.00PM with an additional indoor fitness session on Thursday evenings at 7.00 pm in the Clubrooms. Training for the Under-8s and Under-10s will commence on Saturday 12th March at 10.30 am and lasts an hour. The training for the Primary ones and twos will commence on Saturday 26th March at 10.30am. The Club would like to offer its condolences to the Grant family from Ballykinlar , and to U-16 player Steafan Byrne following the  death of  his grandmother Mrs Julia Grant. We would also like to offer our condolences to the wife and family of our esteemed member Jim Rice, who also passed away recently. Set dancing continues on Tuesday nights at 7.30. Anyone interested just turn up or ring Johnny on 07710369509. For party bookings ring Brian on 07745496213. This week’s lotto numbers were 14,18, 22, & 24. Five share £100 and next week’s jackpot is £3400. If you have any club information or announcements which you would like included in next week’s Club Notes, please send the details via email to rgu1@hotmail.co.uk Our web site is updated on a regular basis. For all the latest news go to www.rgudownpatrick.com]]>