< PreviousJanuary 2018 The Meath Coaster40Gormanston CollegeClann Photography CompetitionThere was a very high standard in the re-cent photography competition. Congratu-lations to all who participated. 1st place: Maebhe Fox, 2nd place: Olan Kirwin, 3rd place: Lucy Collins.the track. Ignas and Peter had the fastest brake reaction times. The day was thor-oughly enjoyed by all. Senior Gaelic FootballThe team are currently training for a quar-ter-final against Colaiste na hInse and are hoping to take it all the way. The team is coached by Mr Black and captained by Jack Mitchell. They are hoping to win our first senior title in four years.St. Vincent De Paul Food AppealT.Y. Students have been busy collecting non-perishable goods every morning and lunch-time for the past couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone who contributed so generously.Junior RugbyThis year the junior rugby team have made school history by reaching the cup quarter final, they are hopeful of success in the New Year.Croke ParkT.Y. students recently had a tour of Croke Park, where they saw the changing rooms and pitch and learned of the history asso-ciated with the naming of the stands. They then went on to Finglas and had a fun day at Awesome Walls, a climbing centre for all ages. They had an amazing day! Christmas DoorsThe festive feeling of Christmas approach-ing is evident in the school, Teachers with their students have decorated their doors! Competition is not only evident among students but teachers too!Winning ClannCongratulations to Clann Padraig who were the winning clann this term. It was a proud moment for their Caomhnoir Ms N. Barrett. They were treated to a day at the cinema to see the new Star Wars film on Friday, December 15th. T.Y. First DriveOn Tuesday, December 12th, all T.Y. Students went to Collon to experi-ence driving a car first-hand. The day comprised of a safety workshop, a brake reaction test, an en-gine component tutorial as well as driving time on January 2018 The Meath Coaster41Castle Hill Riding Club The members of Castlehill RC have been ditching their jodhpurs in favour of wearing their finery for some regional social events recently.27 club representatives attended the AIRC North Eastern Region Ball held in the D-Hotel, where members were nominated in almost every category for regional awards. ed and the winners were as follows:Best New Recruit: Marie Delaney MoorePrimary Rider of the Year: Caroline ProneTop Club Helper: Niamh MullenMost improved combination: Anita & RubyClub Spirit Award: Alison KeeganWorking Hunter Wonders: Stacy & PippaTop Groom: Claire DolanDressage Diva Award: Lindsey ilona BradyOnes to watch in 2018: Martina & OliverHorse of the Year: Master Touch (Mairead Dolan)Springs in their shoes award: Gary Mona-han & OlafClub Superstars: Ciara & BaileyPicture of the Year: Submitted by Caro-line Prone “Team Work”If you have your own horse, and are inter-ested in joining the club, please contact us by e-mail to castlehill@airc.ie to request a membership form. For more information, please “like” our page on FB or contact Olivia on (086) 383 1802. Mairead Dolan accepting her regional award at the NER BallGary Monahan accepting his club award from outgoing Chairperson Stacy ForsythCaroline Prone accepting her club award from outgoing Chairperson Stacy ForsythIt was Mairead Dolan’s horse “Master Touch” that was successful on the night, and he took home the trophy for “Regional Horse of the Year” for 2017. This duo have had an incredible year, and will no doubt go from strength to strength in 2018.Castlehill RC also held it’s AGM and awards night recently in the Lime Kiln, Julianstown. It was a wonderful get to-gether for the members of the club, and was a great opportunity to review the fan-tastic year that Castlehill had in 2017. The new committee for 2018 is made up of Chairperson: Lindsey ilona Brady, Secre-tary: Olivia Nolan, Treasurer: Ciara McK-eown, and PRO: Jean Callaghan. Best of luck to the girls on having another stellar year next year. Our members also took to their keyboards recently, and voted on our club awards. Well done to everyone who was nominat-January 2018 The Meath Coaster42Cilles Athletic ClubHappy new year and welcome to 2018, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We had a busy December at Cilles AC and are looking forward to even brighter and better things for the year ahead. Check out our Facebook page for full race re-ports and loads more photos of all the go-ings on in our wonderful club.Santa Run 2017Our third Santa run, held this year on the beach was a fantastic day, filled with fun and laughter from start to finish. The gi-ant Santa, the Santa gantry, Frosty the snow-man, everyone dressed in their Christmas finery made this a very special day. Our winners Holly Brennan and Aar-on Smith received a turkey each and everyone who compet-ed received their Santa medal and headed back to Reddans for hot soup and more celebrations. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the day. A big thanks to our wonderful Cilles AC family who put a huge amount of work into putting the day together. Thanks to Reddans for being our postrace hosts, thanks to all the con-tributors from the club who very gener-ously made up the hampers for the raffle. Thanks to Lannon Footcare and reflexol-ogy, Callaghans Butchers and Foodco and Vicks clips for race and spot prizes. All funds raised will go towards in-stalling an AED in the sports fields at Seafield in Laytown.January 2018 The Meath Coaster43Dec in SummarySaturday 3rd saw a good turnout at day 2 of the Meath League from Cilles AC. Our juvenile runners gave their all, especially Aaron Smith who claimed 3rd in the u17 after a 9 month absence due to injury, well done Aaron. The 9th saw Brona Cromwell head out in some seriously cold weather to take on the Clonacilty Waterfront half marathon. The third and final day of the Meath league occurred on the 10th, Holly Brennan came 1st in the u17s, in the boys u17 we had James and Aaron Smith take first and second, with Kenneth Doyle not far behind in 4th, well done everyone.Bigi linn ag rith Drogheda Chess Club / Schools ChessThe 2017/18 secondary and primary schools chess organised by Drogheda Chess Club is underway, with Gaelscoil an Bhradain Feasa off to a good start with a 4-1 victory over St Peter’s NS in the pri-mary schools chess league Meanwhile, Drogheda Chess club ended 2017 with two teams very well placed in the Leinster league. The 1st team top the Ennis Shield (Div 3), while the 2nd team are 4th in the O’Hanlon Cup (Div 4), just one point behind league leaders Elm Mount. The 3rd team are 10th in the BEA Cup North (Div 5), but with games in hand on all other teams they are hopeful of closing the gap with the league leaders. 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 at https://droghedachessclub.wordpress.comBridge Club VacanciesLaytown and Bettystown Bridge Club have a few vacancies for new mem-bers.If you have bridge experience, and would like to join a friendly club, pleaseContact the Hon. Sec. We play Mondays and Thursdays commencing 7.15 p.m. January 2018 The Meath Coaster44Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club-2017 has been a very successful year for young Laytown and Bettystown Golfer Alex Maguire. It was capped off this week when he was presented with his certificate honouring him with the Leinster Golf Un-der 16 Order of Merit Award 2017 which was presented to him at the annual gen-eral meeting of the Leinster Golf Branch in Castleknock Hotel in Dublin.Every golf club from all over Leinster send their representatives to this meeting were in attendance.Alex was given this award as recogni-tion of his hard work and his consisten-cy of play across all age brackets Under 16’s, Under 18’s and Men’s competitions throughout 2017.A list of his achievements this year were read out at the ceremony.Alex finished 3rd in the Leinster Under 18’s Open in Headfort GC where he nar-rowly missed out by a single shot to miss the play off after 72 holes of tough golf but won the Under 17 category and win-ning the Tom Bishop Trophy.He then went on to finish 2nd in the Leinster under 16’s in Ashbourne missing out again by one shot.Alex then progressed onto finish a very respectable 3rd place in the Leinster Under 16’s Open in Beaverstown Golf Club.With these achievements under his belt he was picked by Leinster golf to repre-sent Leinster in the Interprovincial Under 16 squad in Blarney where he ticked all the boxes in his first showing with a win, a loss and a draw. As a member of the Leinster Elite coaching Alex has worked hard on his golf and in two years has cut his handicap from 10 to Scratch. Alex was then offered the opportunity to play in the East of Ireland Championship Leinster Order of Merit Winner - Alex Maguire (L&B) with his father SeanAlex Maguire of Laytown and Bettystown second from left receiving his Leinster Under 16 Order of Merit AwardChairman of Leinster Golf Mr John Ferriter awarding Laytown and Bettystown Golfer Alex Maguire with his Under 16 Order of MeritJanuary 2018 The Meath Coaster45in Baltray, Co. Louth Golf Club where he held his head high playing against the best of the best of Irish amateur golfers.He is also a member of the winning Laytown and Bettystown squad that won the inaugural Fred Daly Plate which Leinster Golf started this year to encour-age match play golf in under age catego-ries.Not happy with this Alex had two wins in the Portmarnock Links Winter series where he had two win’s in the Nett cate-gory up against the young and old profes-sionals from all around the country with the likes of Damien McGrane and Kevin Le Blanc in the field.A lot has been achieved this year and with his continued work over the winter this 5th Year student from Colaiste Na Hinse in Bettystown has a bright future ahead of him in 2018 §Alex Maguire with his Mam Brenda pictured at the Annual Leinster Golf Award Ceremony at Castleknock Hotel this weekWe all know that Swallows migrate, but what about Blackbirds. Black-birds are found all the way from northern Scandinavia to North Africa. Winter isn’t really a problem for birds liv-ing in southern latitudes so those living in North Africa will stay put. Blackbirds in Scandinavia face a different problem. Winter races out of the Arctic at this time of year and food becomes impossible to find so the birds migrate south to milder climate where food is readily available. So yes, they do migrate! Flocks of Scandinavian birds may arrive in Scotland and find food and milder con-ditions there. However, harsh weather in Scotland may drive the hungry birds further south and some of them may arrive in your garden in Ireland to feed under a bird table or on the many autumn fruits and berries that are still plentiful. These winter visitors from the north are known to migrate at night so they slip into Ireland largely unnoticed under the cover of darkness. Irish Blackbirds stay put unless the weath-er get really bad here and then they will head further south. Feed all birds in win-ter so you can listen to their beauti-ful singing come spring and sum-mer. Don’t forget wa-ter! §Adult males are all black with a yellow beak, but juveniles and females are a sooty brown. A Winter VisitorBlackbirds (Lon dubh) January 2018 The Meath Coaster46Firstly we would like to wish all our members a very happy and prosper-ous New Year we are all very excited to see what 2018 has in store for us , with news that the leagues are due to start back earlier than expected pre-season training will be kicking off much sooner than we thought and over the next few weeks we will be meeting with the parents from each team to bring you all up to speed on plans and procedures for the new season, it is extremely important that everyone attends these meetings, as your child will also be registered for their team on the night too, venue and times etc will come from your coach in due course. Our under 8’s, 9’s and some of our 10’s will be the first back in action as they take part in the annual FAI run Futsal tourna-ment. This initiative is a fantastic way to keep the youngsters playing throughout the winter months and the kids really en-joy playing and learning the new skills re-quired for this slightly alternative format of the game. Games start on Saturday 13th January 2018 best of luck to all involved. We would like to extend our immense gratitude to Councillor Tom Kelly who has supported us once again, this time Tom has very generously donated two new sets of goals for our small sided games these will prove invaluable to us throughout the new season and beyond.Laytown United F.C.January 2018 The Meath Coaster47We are extremely proud to be supporting Laytown Tidy Towns, we have recently sponsored one of their wooden planters (see page 16), this group of volunteers work tirelessly to preserve and maintain our neighbourhood so from all at Laytown Utd, thank you for all you do and keep up the great work!Our under 14 section is expanding and we are hoping to have enough players for two teams next season one of which will remain in the Premier, last season they fin-ished 4th in the Premier league and reached the quarter finals of the SFAI Cup so next year we hope to build on this even further. We held trials in December and we will hold a trial match on Sunday 7th January 2018 for more information please contact Darren 086 1675077.The End of Year Presentation and Christ-mas Party was a huge success and ex-tremely well attended, a big thank you to Reddan’s of Bettystown for looking af-ter us and making us feel very welcome. After their success last season our under 12a’s finally got their hands on the league trophy on the Presentation day. §January 2018 The Meath Coaster48End of Year AwardsDecember 9th was officially our final club event of 2017 and what an afternoon it was. The awards, hosted at the Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club, received a mas-sive turn out from our members and Santa Claus was extremely busy handing out gifts to our younger members.’This year’s event saw 52 awards given out across all our age groups along with the formal presentations of NDSL U12 Pre-miership Title the NDSL U12 DB Schen-ker Cup along with NDSL league Runner-Up medals for a third U12 team in what was some year for the age group.Along with a very busy Santa Claus, the event ran a Christmas raffle resulting in many members returning home with some festive cheer.Gary Kelly Cancer Support CentreDuring the afternoon awards, there were many highlights for lots of families, ex-citement and smiles will last in the mem-ories of proud families for many a year. There was another moment however that the club can be equally proud of, and this was the handing over of a cheque for the truly deserving Gary Kelly Cancer Sup-port Centre raised by club members dur-ing the annual Managers Charity Match. The amount raised was €2,100 and was greatly received by Anne Tracey from the Centre. The Support Centre is situated in Georges Street, Drogheda. It is a support centre for people living with cancer, their families and those who care for them. It offers holistic and complementary thera-pies, education and psychological support which is nowadays regarded as part of the standard support for people with cancer. The centre is open to people on the island of Ireland. All therapies and supports are free of charge.Coaches Corner, By Dave GaffreyWith the New 2018 season fast approach-ing preparations are in place for teams at all ages from u8 right up to u17. However we couldn't leave 2017 behind without recognising the fine achievements of our players over the past year. A huge congrats to all our award winners at our annual fun day and Xmas party. Well done also to all our lads who continue to train and play at the NDSL Academy at a number of ages from u10 to u14. Our Nippers Academy returns in January with this years gradu-ates moving on to u8's and new members being accepted for coming season. Finally I would like to say a personal thanks you to all the volunteers in their coaching group. We are really blessed to have such dedicated and hard working group. Happy New Year! §East Meath UnitedJanuary 2018 The Meath Coaster49Next >