* Have you ever watched the film starring Jim Carrey where he plays the character whose personality is changed when he dons a green mask and is turned into a manic super hero? Well I don’t know if I can use the term manic super hero’s to describe our Senior Ladies Footballers who won the Down ladies Senior Football Title at the weekend at the expense of our rivals Bryansford. We will call them deserved Senior Ladies Football County Champions for 2013. It has been 10 years since the ladies won the title so the picture of them at the final whistle and the obvious delight and relief on their faces said it all. Referring to Jim Carrey’s green mask – that relates to the wide grins on their faces – Sarah McArdle holding her nephew Zach, Lisa Morgan’s smile filling the full of the window screen of her car outside the club on Saturday evening, the exuberance and delight of the younger members of the panel personified by the ever smiling Aisleen Burns, Niall McArdle’s who is undoubtedly the Jim Carrey character! (Somebody stop him!) and finally a proud father and daughter Michael and Cara Cunningham holding the cup. These are examples that sums up family and what it means to a club, our club, to win a championship. You can forgive me for not going through the game score by score. What can be said that when they fell well behind early in the game they did not panic. Bryansford got off to a great start. The Town came roaring back to take the lead before half time. With the Town leading by eleven points it was Bryansford’s turn to come back into the game. Our lead was cut to four points. Again they did not panic to pull away again to win the game by eight points. Some of this team won championship medals at an early age ten years ago so naturally there is no harm in thinking that there would be more around the corner. Sometimes that corner is a long one. All championship successes must be savoured as they do not necessarily come along too often. Congratulations to the management team of Jim Burns, Niall McArdle and all the girls who have done a mountain of work to get to this point. Your success is well and truly deserved. The Town can now look forward to a meeting in the Ulster Championship with the Antrim Champions.Thank you To Paul McArdle from Magiggs Entertainment for his sponsorship of training tops for the ladies.
* Castlewellan under 8 and under 10 hurling teams travelled to Kilclief for the latest blitz and where they each played four games. Both teams performed strongly in all games with Portaferry, Liatroim, Carryduff and Warrenpoint in opposition at under 10 level and Bredagh, Portaferry, Kilclief and Carryduff in opposition at under 8. Special mention to under 8 player Darragh Stewart whom has returned to play for Castlewellan- welcome back Darragh. The coaches were delighted with the attitude and effort of all the boys with great skill on display. Training for both panels is Wednesday at 6.30 Bann Road.
* The bingo will take place this Sunday 25 August in the club at 3.00pm.
* With the weather permitting the will be A Family Fun Day will take place in the club next Sunday 25 August starting at 10.00am in the morning with a big breakfast. From 12.00pm to 1.00pm there will be a Family Treasure Hunt (£1 per child or £2 per family). From 1pm – 3pm Activities for all ages on St. Malachy’s Park – including football penalty shoot out, hurling penalty shoot out, ducks in water, knock the coconut, lucky lotto and much more. From 3.00pm – 4.00pm there will be “It’s a Knock Out” Fancy Dress Competition with 8 teams competing. Finally from 4.30pm – 5.30pm there will be Social Street Seven’s Football. At 9.00pm the day will culminate in prize giving and entertainment in Social Club. Everyone in the community are welcome to come along to enjoy what should be a great day’s fun.
* The Senior footballers advanced to the quarter final stage of the Down Senior Championship by virtue of their five point win over The Liatriom Fontenoys on Saturday evening and by the fact Clonduff also beat Annaclone. This leaves Clonduff and The Town on four points each in the group. The Town will now play Clonduff in the final game to see who will go into the quarter finals as group winners. As predicted last week the game with Liatriom was tight, tense and physical affair with no quarter asked for or given. It was a typical local championship derby where league position typically doesn’t matter. There will be no relaxing with our next league game coming up away to Rostrevor.
* Good luck to our Seconds footballers who will play Annaclone this weekend in the Premiere reserve Championship semi – final. Please come along and support the lads in what will be a tight and difficult game against Annaclone.
* The Attack Fitness Circuits will continue in The Club this Thursday evening at 7.00pm. There will also be classes in St Malachy’s Park on Saturday mornings at 9.00am.
* The weekly Castlewellan AC weekly runs continue every Tuesday and Thursday leaving the Club at 7.00pm.
* The first Castlewellan GAC Club Draw will take place on Saturday 31 August. Tickets cost £60 and are available to purchase now and paid over three monthly instalments of £20 with thousands of pounds worth of prizes to be won. Tickets are available by contacting any Committee Member.
* please see the website www.castlewellangac.com for all your notes and photographs from the weekend including the senior ladies championship.
* The numbers in this week’s lotto were 05, 06, 11 & 23. There were no jackpot and 4 x £20 winners this week; B McCavery, Peter McKibben, Marian O’Hare and Paul McCabe Next week’s jackpot is £4500.