< Previous© April 2018 The Meath Coaster60East Coast CavaliersEast Coast Cavaliers is a juvenile basketball club comprised of boys and girls ranging from ages 8-16 From the local area of Bettystown and Laytown, with our home court in Co-láiste na hInse. Started in 2015 the club has grown to have nearly 150 members. At ECC we strive to motivate each player to achieve their individual level of suc-cess while creating excitement in the community about Basketball. Apart from technical skills our coaching environment promotes both teamwork and individual confidence, sportmanship, self-esteem and leadership.The 2017/8 season is our first year in the league and we have 3 league teams. Our U12 boys and girls teams and U14 boys have done us proud. Our first year is a year of learning and we have been delighted with the support shown by the North East Area Board and the clubs from across the region.Most of our training sessions are very full but we have room for a few more players in the boys academy (ages 8 and 9) and the boys U14 group (born 2004/5). No experience necessary, if you want to try basketball then come along and have a go.Training times at Coláiste na hInseTimeGroupMonday 6-7pmBoys Academy 7-8pmBoys U12 8-9pmBoys U14Tuesday 6-7pmGirls Academy (aged 8 and 9) 7-8pmGirls U12 8-9pmBoys age 14+All enquiries please to eastcoastcava-liers@gmail.com §© April 2018 The Meath Coaster61Drogheda Chess ClubIt’s not often that chess matches are af-fected by bad weather, but the latest round of fixtures for the Drogheda Chess Club were thwarted by the “Beast from the East”. However, this was more to do with poor travelling conditions rather than snow covered chess boards. In the one rearranged match so far, the 3rd team achieved a creditable 2 ½ - 2 ½ draw against a strong Elm Mount ‘A’ team. Congratulations to the youngest club member; 14 year old Dayna Ferguson, who was joint winner of the Majors sec-tion in the recent Bunratty Chess festival. Meanwhile, the club is beginning its own preparations for the annual Drogheda Chess Congress to be held at St Mary’s Parish Primary School, Bryanstown on the Bank holiday weekend 2nd – 4th June. See club website https://droghedachess-club.wordpress.com for details and entry forms.The club meet every Tuesday evening at 8.15pm in Reddans Bar, Bettystown. New members are welcome. For further up-to-date information please visit the club web-site. §Saturday April 7th and Sunday April 8th from 10am to 3pmTry SandyachtingThe Irish Power Kite Association (IPK-SA ) with the support of Meath County Council are holding a regional Sandy-achting and Kiting event on Bettystown Beach.Beginners and Try it Out sessions are available on Saturday April 7th from 10am.© April 2018 The Meath Coaster62DONACARNEY CELTIC F.C.Our U12 White’s bowed out of the SFAI National Cup on St. Patrick’s Day after a trilling Quarter Final battle with St. Kevin's Boys. The lads left it all on the field as they played out an extremely evenly matched game that would eventually be decided from the penalty spot after normal time and extra time produced a 0-0 draw.Even after five high quality penal-ties from both sides the two teams were still caught in a deadlock at 4-4. With the game now sent into sudden death penalties, it was St. Kevin's Boys who clinched the win and now move on to the SFAI National Cup Semi-Finals.The Club are extremely proud of this bunch of lads and their coach-es Sean Brennan and John Hough as never before has a DCFC Team ever progressed so far in this nationwide contest. They should all be very proud. With over 350 teams from all around Ireland starting this con-test, progressing through to the final 8 is no easy accomplishment.We want to wish the lads and coaches the best of luck for their next challenge in the upcoming SFAI North Leinster Regional Cup U12 National Cup© April 2018 The Meath Coaster63Castle Hill Riding Club The recent bad weather put a damp-ener on many of the shows being run in the area. The Castlehill RC members were in strong positions heading into the final of the Equipet NER Winter League, which was due to be hosted at Castle Leslie, but the snowfall meant the date had to be postponed by a week, to a new venue at Cloncaw EC. This change meant many members were unable to complete the league, but well done to those that at-tended the other legs: Olivia Nolan, Anita McNamara Doyle, Gary Monahan, Ma-rie Moore, Caitrona Kavanagh, Niamh Murphy and Justyna Przymuszala.At Killossery Lodge Stud recently, Anita McNamara Doyle and her lovely conne-mara pony Ruby Cartier had a very suc-cessful day, placing 2nd in the 70cm Work-ing Hunter Class, and 4th in the connemara Niamh Murphy and Hopeshowing class. Well done! This duo are off to a flying start for 2018.Lindsey ilona Brady and her horse Trig-ger Joe were also competing recently in the Dressage Ireland show at Killossery Lodge Stud. The duo had an incredible day, winning both the long arena prelim dressage classes. The pair also placed 4th in the Novice class. They have now quali-fied for the Dressage Ireland Winter Fi-nals in Cavan EC in April. Best of luck! For more information, please “like” our page on FB or contact Olivia on (086) 383 1802 §Olivia Nolan, Marie Moore and Anita McNamara© April 2018 The Meath Coaster64Stamullen FC Club NewsAll the un-seasonal weather we have had the past few weeks have seriously ham-pered our teams and their league games but we are looking for-ward to getting going properly this weekend for the sea-son. Our new under 8’s teams and under 7’s team are really excited to have their first ever league games this weekend. Good luck players and coaches.Team roundup - this issue we are focusing on our amazing girls teams. We have three girls teams playing for us - under 11’s, under 12’s and our under 14’s girls. Under 14 girls The U14 Stamullen FC girls team, coached and managed by Alan Brennan and Marie O’Sullivan, have been together several years now. This team is quite a way through their season and they’re cur-rently top of their league table. However, it’s still all to play for and so this dedi-cated bunch of girls train twice per week. They’re really looking forward to taking their training back onto grass from next week and hopefully finishing the season out with a league title under their belts! The dedication and fighting spirit that is shown by this team is impressive and as we look forward to the year ahead we’d love the opportunity to welcome new players to join this successful and fun team. Please contact Alan on 089-4769726 or Marie on 087-9737300.Under 12 GirlsStamullen FC Under 12 Girls team is man-aged by Ali Brennan and Joe O’Sullivan. This team and man-agers are coming to the end of their third Our wonderful under 14 girls and fabulous coaches Our super under 12’s and wonderful coaches© April 2018 The Meath Coaster65season together and have gone from strength to strength. Most of the girls were hardly able to kick a ball when they first started and they now sit second in their league. The girls show a great team spirit and ca-maraderie and, win or lose, they always play to their best abil-ity. We also have an awards night at the end of the season and the occasional so-cial event. We are always looking for new players and if any girls born in 2006 are interested in joining a great bunch of girls they can contact Alison on 087 612 5466 or Joe on 087 231 1255.Under 11 girls Stamullen under 11 girls is made up of 5 top-class Irish dancers, 4 amazing gym-nast, 3 brilliant singers, 2 excellent GAA players but most importantly 14 tremen-dous soccer players. We started our team a little over a year ago with 5 players, word quickly spread and siblings, friends and neighbors all wanted to be apart of this new inspiring team. We train Thursday nights and every girl is there eager and ready to learn. We play games on a Sunday morning. We win some and lose some but no matter what we always have fun. There’s cheering, laughter, screaming and shouting, even sometimes tears but isn’t that what makes a great team, everyone enjoying themselves. We’re a small team with a big heart and would love to Welcome new players to join us. 14 players - 3 coaches - 1 Great Team.Sean 0851138822 Academy news Our academy returns this month which we are all very excited about. Academy in on Saturday mornings from 10-11am on the pitches outside Gormanston college. It’s for ages 4 upwards. New players are al-ways welcome so if you have a budding little soccer player please come join in.New Players wanted! Under 7’s, Under 8’s and under 12’sWe are looking for new boys born in 2006 to come join our brilliant under 12’s boys team.We are also looking for players for our new under 8’s teams - players born in 2010 and we are looking for players born in 2011 for our new under 7’s team.If you would like to sign up or need any more information please contact the club on the details below. Club Contact Details: -Email - stamullenfc@gmail.com Facebook - www.facebook.com/stamullenfcClub Secretary - Marcus Kelly – 0851477825Website – www.stamullenfc.com § Our amazing under 11’s with one of our fab coaches Sean© April 2018 The Meath Coaster66The new season is now well and tru-ly underway and all our players and coaches alike are delighted to be back on the pitch playing games, we are all also de-lighted that we have had a 100% success rate in getting all our players registered through our online system, myclubfinance.com, we appreciate it wasn’t a stress free process for everybody to do but we are very grateful to all our members for pre-serving and complying with our request, it will prove invaluable to us as a club to have access to this vital in-forma-tion.We would once again like to extend our immense gratitude to Councillor Tom Kelly. In preparation for the new season Tom very generously donated TWO sets of, badly needed, goals for our small sided games. As a small club we desperately de-pend on the generosity and support of oth-ers to enable us to function and Tom never fails to step up to support us, along with the equipment he has donated to us, he is also invaluable when it comes to helping us keep Seafield in tip top condition and he is always on hand to help in any way he can, so a huge Thank you Tom from all at Laytown United.Our Academy is set to return in April, Registration takes place in Reddan's of Bettystown on Saturday 31st March from 11.30am -12.30pm. Cost is €55 and in-cludes a 4 piece kit, available on the day, the kit contains: wind breaker jacket, socks, shorts and a boot bag (jersey is an optional extra). All children aged 4-7 are welcome but they must be registered with the club prior to starting. The academy will run on Saturday mornings from 11am – 12pm in Seafield. Laytown United SFCwww.laytownunitedsfc.com / www.facebook.com/LaytownUnitedSFC© April 2018 The Meath Coaster67A big thank you to Mongey Plunkett Mo-tors who have very kindly sponsored our u12’s with a new home playing kit, we re-ally appreciate your generosity. Tennis Heroes Cathal and Hugh ButlerLaytown/Bettystown lawn Tennis Club Junior players Cathal (16) and Hugh (14) Butler have had some serious success over the last number of months.Hugh (14) came away with the spoils at the recent National Indoor Championships at Christmas. Hugh made it 2 consecutive National titles in a short number of weeks after also winning the National Match-play Championships in early December. As a result Hugh is Ranked 1 in Ireland. Hugh has represented Ireland in Cologne at the European Winter Cup and Holland in 2018. Hugh is also due to play in Sweeden and Iceland in the coming months.Cathal (16) has also had a great 2017 win-ning the National Under 16’s Doubles Ti-tle at Fitzwilliam Irish Open. After win-ning a number of grade 1 tournaments in Doubles last year he finished the year Ranked Number 1 Nationally in Doubles and 7 in Singles. Cathal also earned his first World Ranking points in a ITF Inter-national Tournament. 2018 couldn’t have got off any better with Cathal Winning the Under 18’s Singles National Junior Spring Championships. This is Cathal’s biggest win in singles to date and is following it up with trips to In-ternational events in Holland and Africa.Best of luck guys in the year ahead. §© April 2018 The Meath Coaster68East Meath UnitedFootball for All, The Tast-er Day - A Great Success, by Erin SmithWe held a taster day on the 10th of March for in-terested children and their parents to get a feel for the format and informa-tion on the programme going forward. The rain held off, the sun shone and a group of 15 children, of varying ages and abilities, attended. Our 2 experienced coaches, Stephen and Mick, put together various training drills and mini team tasks for the diverse group. They finished with a quick, friendly match, in which some major talents and competitive streaks were uncovered! Head coach Ste-phen said; “Throughout the session, there was lots of footballing ability on dis-play in a safe, supportive and fun environment. The football for all coaching team are looking forward to our offi-cial launch on 7th April.... almost as EAST MEATH UNITED FC 2018 Spring Draw Big Prize Opportunity!How much will you pay?You can pay between 1 cent and €15 for your ticketYou only know when you open the Envelope. Tickets on sale from the Red Card Cafe and Club members. Draw takes place in Ministown on May 13th 20181st Prize - €1,0002nd Prize - €5003rd Prize - €25010 Prizes of €100 © April 2018 The Meath Coaster69much as the players who seemed to enjoy the experience thoroughly”. Overall the day was a great success with all the attendees signing up for the full programme.The weekly programme will launch on 7th April and will run on Saturdays from 3-4pm on the all weather pitch in Minn-istownFor information about the programme email football4all@eastmeathunited.ieWhat is the Football for All pro-gramme?Football for All is for primary school age children who have an interest in soccer and would like to develop their skills and have fun in a supportive and non-compet-itive environment. The programme is well suited to children who have a disability or additional needs, but it is open to any primary school age child who would like to play football, but not on a mainstream team. Children must be at least 5 years of age or currently en-rolled in primary school to be eligible to join the programme. Coaches Corner, by Dave GafreyIt’s been a frustrating start to the new sea-son between the adverse weather and holi-day weekends, but for those teams lucky enough to get going it was positive stuff all round. Brilliant for our u8’s to get go-ing in their 5-a-side format with most kids getting a taste of organised games for the first time. Particular mention to our u13 & u16 Prem sides plus u12B who all top their respective divisions following the first couple of weeks. A huge thanks goes to Francesco and Mick who’ve done tre-mendous work to get our new u10’s off the ground. Soccer in th com-munity discus-sions are on go-ing between East Meath United, Laytown United & Donacarney Celtic and the FAI with re-gard to a plan to keep teenagers involved/returning to playing football in the local area. We’ve found common ground on a host of issues but our work is strongly fo-cused on providing something really posi-tive for the teens in our community, and we hope to announce an exciting event very soon, watch this space. EMU are very proud to continue to host the US college scholarship program co-ordinated by Mark Costigan every Sun evening in minnistown. Mark is a highly respected coach from the area who’s best known for his work with the Drogheda league ETP and together with the FAI tar-gets this course at teens of school leaving age who might have ambitions of a career in soccer through the US colleges path-way. It’s only fitting that we pay our respects to teenager Max Mason and the tragic pass-ing that stunned our community, a former member of EMU, this young lad was a great friend of many of our current play-ers, and this accident has really put a lot of things into perspective for all of us. As a mark of respect, all East Meath United games on Sunday 25th March were post-poned. May Max Rest In Peace. §Next >