Thanks to the sports n social sub committee for coming up with some fittingly mature activities for the club last night. Karol unleashed his inner headmaster and whistled us into team lines while Gemma resurrected her junior cert A in hula hoop to demonstrate what we “should” be doing.
Demo and instruction out of the way we all took into it. Getting into the sack proved surprisingly difficult for some (“it’s been a while” was the most frequently heard excuse), while the various interpretations of “balancing” the ball on the hurley meant the yellow and red foul cards ran out just seconds into the competition.
Relieved of the pressure to follow rules, some people really came into their own. In the 3 legged race Phil Daly, Aoife Lavin and others proved that skipping the odd training session to watch a few episodes of ‘Strictly..’ really pays dividends. (Having never seen Strictly things didn’t go so well in my pairing and I’m now on the hook for Gerard Neenan’s ankle surgery.)
New skills were again required for the “water pass” game. Gareth Murran did not have these skills and as an expression of frustration his jug of water ended up flying through the air. Gemma (ditching her brief foray into responsible adulthood ) then grabbed the other jug and proceeded chase him around the place. So far so good.
The grand finale was the tug of war and the end of all dignity. Despite earlier protestions by some and the very real dangers of ‘carpet’ burn on the grass, when the time came, no one held back. Myles and Padraig managed to be unofficially on every team, the faces of Carmel, Val, Anne Sweeney, Rosie and Bronwyn were showing again the kind of committment that got them through their races in Achill on 3-hours-sleep and-a-solphadine-shake a few weeks ago, AnnMarie Clyne lost a shoe, Grainne Lynch found another skill to throw into the multi sport events she’s at these days, Maria Jones (#nevergiveup #hontipp) almost went flying through the air at one point with sheer determination not to let go, Martin Doyle and Brian Byrne accidentally pulled down some trees. But the prize for most wholehearted tugger surely goes to Paul Duffy who, in a rush of blood to the head, jumped in the line forgetting he was holding his first born in one arm. (That’s the sportsworld spirit right there. Wait’ll your wife gets you home!).
Anna Carrigan had a clipboard for the unenviable task of keeping the “scores” but in the end there was “so much cheating” no prizes could be awarded.
An amazing spread of salads and barbeque awaited us afterwards. Trevor got the burgers defrosted just in time (thanks Judith), Neil Purdy was unrecognizable in a cloud of smoke (eating or cooking?), there were some amazing cakes that just “appeared” and Chairman Michael whipped up some fab granola treats that he swears were healthy (ish).
Afterwards the adults went to Bradys, That report will be on facebook circa 5am.
Thanks to everyone who organised, cooked, prepared behind the scenes and took part in the playing and the eating. Ye are braver than an AIB ad.
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