This article is from page 35 of the 2007-12-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
THEY’RE bending it like Beckham in O’Briensbridge!
The ladies of the Celtic Ladies soc- cer club held their foundation night in Darby’s Pub in O’Briensbridge last week.
The club was the brain child of Becky Bowers, Naimh_ Byrnes, Karen Murtagh and Statia Byrnes, who started recruiting in August of this year.
At the first AGM, John Slattery was elected chairman and team manager, Becky Bowers is secretary and Niamh Byrnes is the treasurer. Jack Byrnes and Luke Turner are the trainers with Pat Crotty also helping out.
To kick start finances, the ladies and friends tackled a few fund rais- ing ventures. “We wish to thank all who have worked with us on this so far – we’ve got great support,” said Jack. The club currently has thirty eight ladies on the panel and they have been training diligently since September.
“The improvements in_ fitness and skill levels have been huge and everyone is really enjoying it,’ said FToe
The ladies held a club seven-a- side recently, the final of which was played on December 5.
The competition was such a suc- cess that it’s now planned to hold it every play year.
The awards to the winners were
presented by Jim Mooney from the Limerick Ladies and School Girl Sroyenveavlaraes
Every lady present was also pre- sented with a foundation medal to celebrate the occasion.
The winning captain, Nuala MckK- eogh gratefully accepted the win- ners trophy from Jim and made her acceptance speech in Irish.
The winning team was Collette Flemming, Norma Hartnett, Shirley Conway, Caroline Fortune, Sarah Doyle, Emma Hickey, Statia Byrnes.
The player of the tournament award went to veteran centre forward Statia Byrnes who accepted the trophy.
“The club is now official with this date as its foundation date,’ said ire
“We wish to thank all those people who donated spot prizes for the event, the Bridge Celtic soccer club for do- nating the trophies and Jim Mooney for taking the time to present the tro- phies. We also wish to thank Heatons of the Crescent Shopping Centre for donating a set of gear.”
The ladies are now getting to grips with the workings of the league in Limerick and they are looking for- ward to playing in the league next season. “The future craic looks good. We’ve had a great start and we’ll certainly be back next season. The players are already talking about it. Watch this space,” said Jack.