< Previous© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 50 T he members of Castlehill RC have been off to a flying start in 2020, pre- paring for the Equipet NER Winter SJ League. The league kicks off at the end of January, with the first leg being hosted by Drynam RC at Broadmeadows Equestrian Centre. This league is always extremely well supported by riding club members in the North East Region, and always proves extremely popular. There are 5 legs in to- tal being run in venues across the region, with points allocated for placings and at- tendance at each show. Best of luck to everyone competing! In preparation, our members have been training with HSI level 2 coach, and in- ternational course builder, Tom Holden. Castlehill horses and riders were put through their paces, working on rhythm and straightness over a course of fences recently at Broadmeadows EC. Huge thanks to Tom for sharing his knowledge and expertise. We also held a social evening for new and returning members at the Lime Kiln, Julianstown, recently. It was a fantastic night, which was very well supported, and judging by the camraderie shown, is the start of a fantastic year for the club. For more information, please “like” our page on Facebook, or contact Olivia on (086) 383 1802. § Summer Bridge T he open Summer bridge held in Laytown/ Bettystown golf club was organized by Margaret Smith of Riverside home and gift and Evelyn Higgins and raised €2000. The proceeds were presented to Laytown/ Bettystown senior citizens, Drogheda Arch club and East Meath Meals on Wheels.” § Ann Bellew (Lady Captain) Margaret Smith, Elizabeth Nash and Maura Lillis (Laytown/Bettystown senior citizens). Gerry Wickham (Captain) Eveleen Higgins. Ann Bellew, Margaret Smith, Oonagh Dillon and Olive Mc Donnell (Drogheda Arch Club), Gerry Wickham and Eveleen Higgins Ann Bellew, Margaret Smith, Marie Savage ( East Meath Meals on wheels), Gerry Wickham and Eveleen Higgins Castlehill Riding Club© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 51 A huge thank you to Morris Ventilation for all their support throughout the past number of years including the recent sponsorship of a full home playing kit for our u15’s. Our academy is set to return in February, please check our Facebook page for more Laytown United SFC www.laytownunitedsfc.com / www.facebook.com/LaytownUnitedSFC information. New players welcome, par- ticularly boys and girls born in 2013. Registration Night February 4 th at 7.30pm in Reddans, it is extremely important at a parent of each player is present on the night as Registra- tion is now due for all players. © February 2020 The Meath Coaster 52 www.instagram.com/eastmeathunited www.twitter.com/EastMeathUnitedwww.facebook.com/eastmeathunitedfc East Meath United Class of 2020… I ntroducing our new Committee for the next stage of the East Meath United journey… • Padraig Roache Chairperson • John Heffernan Vice-Chairperson • Richard Moore Vice-Chairperson • Aidan Tallon Head of Coaching • Neil Blakely Secretary • Kieran Moloney Treasurer • Traci Whelan Child Welfare Officer • Richard Moore Head of Fundraising & Development • Gareth Mooney Fixtures & Facilities Secretary • Paul Bacon PRO A comment from the Chairperson, by Padraig Roache I am deeply honoured to be elected as chairman of East Meath United F.C. We as a committee are excited for the year ahead where we will strive to move the club forward another small step. We grate- ful for all the ongoing support from people all around the club, from the kids, parents, managers and our local neighbours. How time flies…Celebrating 20 years! To celebrate our 20 th Anniversary, in De- cember we launched our East Meath United sticker album. Like the Charlie and the Chocolate Fac- tory Crew back in the day, clutching their very own personalised albums our young members went into sticker sourcing and swapping frenzy before Christmas. Just when parents and guardians thought they had completed their Christmas shop- ping, our proud band of badge wearers dragged them to several sticker selling outlets hunting for their own golden tick- ets. Subsequent ‘swaps days’ were a huge success over the holidays. At the time of writing we understand that some of our young members are still try- ing to fill certain spaces left in their al- bums. Fear not, we do have a few packs left… contact the club managers to sort that little problem out. A big thanks and ‘hat tip’ to all those who gave up many hours facilitating this fan- tastic and memory making initiative! 2020 ‘We go again’… With the Christmas break well and truly over the 2 nd half of the season is now upon us. Many of our teams were back in train- ing before January even began and we also have the Academy back up and run- ning with 50+ attending in the first week. See adjacent flyer for further details As ever, our volunteering group of coach- es never stand still and there was a push to educate themselves during the festive break with several coaches, old and new, attending coaching workshops to help compliment their various qualifications on the FAI coaching pathway. Good luck to one and all and here’s to an- other enjoyable campaign. Stop press… our ‘Monthly Coaches Cor- ner’ will return next month…© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 53© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 54 Club news H appy new year to all our players, parents, coaches and supporters. It’s been an exciting year for Stamullen FC al- ready and we are all looking forward to be back in match action after the Christmas break. Under 15 boys NEWS Niall and Darren’s under 15’s got off to a terrific start in 2020 winning the Swords Manor Tournament beating Donaghmede 5-1 in the final. A great performance throughout the team with Ben grabbing a hat trick and Conal win- ning player of the tournament. Thanks to Swords Manor for inviting us and Earthkind for sponsoring the trophy. Coaches Training Our coaches were treated to some top class training from Sean Moore - who is u17 league of Ireland head coach, Repub- lic of Ireland CP head coach and lots more merits under his belt and Conor Woods U17 assistant coach among many other great accolades. Our coaches were put C2 General Stamullen F.C.© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 55 through their paces and learned lots of tips and strategies and everyone went home very happy and armed with lots of new knowledge and skills. Thanks so much to Sean, Conor, the u15 boys and everyone else who helped make this event such a success. We are already looking forward to the next session. Players wanted!!! Our under 12 girls are looking for players to join their amazing team. Training is on thursdays and matches are on Sunday’s. Please see below for more details Our over 35s are looking to recruit new players, so please contact the club on the details below if you would like to join the over 35’s team. Club Contact Details: Email - stamullenfc@gmail.com Facebook - www.facebook.com/stamullenfc Club Secretary Marcus Kelly – 0851477825 Website – www.stamullenfc.com § © February 2020 The Meath Coaster 56 EST. 1950 Cockhill Road, Stamullen, Co. Meath T: 086 1731739 E: pro.stpatricksmeath@gmail.com Facebook Stpatricksgaastamullen/ Naomh Padraig GAA Ladies AGM T he Ladies team had their AGM on Monday the 20 th of January and the committee are as follows… Chairman TBC Vice Chairman Martin Byrne Secretary Emma Geraghty Registration Fiona O’Byrne Committee Members Lisa Byrne, Ciara Curran, Naoimi Thomson, Ger O’Byrne Players Representative Katie Dowling After a very successful event last year the ladies have a presentation night or- ganised for the club on the 31 st of January in the Glenside Hotel which promises to be worth going to. A very big thankyou to Martin Byrne and Katie Dowling for putting so much work into organising the night. Juvenile AGM The Juvenile AGM was held on Thursday the 23 rd of January and the committee are as follows… Chairman Stephen Brennan Hurling Chairman Charles Hutcheson Secretary Ger Moran The committee are looking to fill the vice chairman, assistant secretary and young whistlers co-ordinator roles and if you are interested please contact Ger Moran at the club for details. 2020 is a big year for the juvenile section with the Hurling Feile coming to the club in June and further de- tails will follow. We have a new fundraising committee in place consisting of Siobhan Tuckey, Tania Crowe, Annette Jackson, Naoimi Thom- son, Sera Kenny and Rosa Vickers and the team have great plans for 2020. If you are interested as a business in advertis- ing on the sidelines of our pitch etc please contact Siobhan on 086 6698900 for more information pro.stpatricksmeath@gmail. com We would like to welcome Catherine Ryan on to the committee as our new Registrar and Deirble NicConghamhna as our Irish Officer. It’s great to have you both as part of our team. Membership fees for the club are now due. The lotto is run every week and is a big part of keeping the club running so we would really encourage as many as pos- sible join in every week. Tickets can be bought at reception in the club, Whytes, Centra etc or any committee member would be more than happy to help. § St. Patrick's G.F.C Stamullen Thursday 13th February From 4:30pm to 8:00pm Become a blood donor 1850 – 73 11 37 or 041 – 685 9994 John Healy, Area Organiser at our or www.giveblood.ie© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 57 O ur neighbouring athletics club DDAC provided us the setting for an epic finish to the year. Seventy-five Cilles members young and not so young turned up for the last race of the season in the Lourdes Stadium for the Drogheda and District Christmas 5K on December 15 th . Hannah Cooper ran a fabulously fast time earning her the prime podium posi- tion for being the first girl U16 home. Her time also assisted in setting up the U16 girls’ team (with Sarah Melia and Rebec- ca Doyle) for a second-place finish! Alan Mulligan ran a quick time of 20:18 nailing him a sparkly new pb which was a thoroughly well-earned Christmas present. Congratu- lations to all our runners es- pecially the first timers who’s succeeded in meeting their 5k goal during this atmospheric festive race. The New Year woke to an ac- tive start as our new Couch to 5k group started on a fiercely cold 7 th January. This new group sure have tough dispositions as evidenced when they began their train- ing in such freezing conditions! They will have no problem running the 5k distance. They are enjoying the training and taking in some glorious sunrises along the way! They are in great hands with their amaz- ing coaches Bridget, Olivia, and Donal. Some of our young athletes took part in the North Leinster Schools Cross Coun- try competition on Thursday 24 th January. Whilst they were not running in club colours, they flew the Cilles flag high for the club in a show of grit and determination! Athletes included Emma O Sullivan, Shannon Cleary, Sarah Grace Reilly, Alex Harrington, Aar- on Smith, James Smith, Holly Brennan, Evelyn Mullen, El- lie Hanley Rice and Noelle Coyle! Well done all! § Cilles Athletic Club www.cillesac.ie www.facebook.com/CillesAC© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 58 Naomh Colmcille C.L.G. www.cilles.com A New Year has dawned and the games and activities start in earnest this month. We look forward to recording another year for you here at the Coaster. Good luck to all our teams in the season ahead ! Car Draw A Great Success A sincere thanks to everyone who sup- ported our JACK DORAN MOTORS KIA STONIC draw and helped make it a great success. A massive well done to everyone who helped in any way no mat- ter how small – we are indebted to you all. Finally a big well done to all our winners ! Well done Stuart O'Brien - winner of the KIA STONIC grand prize for our recent grand fundraiser. Stuart is receiving his keys from Mark Doran of Jack Doran motors. Enjoy Stuart Our thanks to Jack Doran Motors who were sponsors of our recent Car Draw. Pictured at the grand draw were Rob and Mark Doran Receiving her €1,000 prize for the recent car draw at Southgate was Rachel Devlin. Well done Rachel !© February 2020 The Meath Coaster 59 On the night our prize winners were 1 st Prize: KIA STONIC - Stuart O’Brien 2 nd Prize: €5,000 – Tom Macken 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th Prize - Rachel Devlin, Anne Regan and Peter Gilbourne Tesco Bettystown (Saturdays) and the Shane Black Property Advisers Academy on Sundays. The lotto can be played online at www.cilles.com or in the clubhouse our local shops and hostelries. All funds raised go towards our day to day running costs. As a New Year starts why not sign up for the annual lotto membership and play your part in supporting the club? Mark Murphy collected Peter's €1,000 grand draw cheque on his behalf. Thanks everyone who supported our 2020 coaching conference We are indebted to our sponsor, JACK DORAN MOTORS. The team at JACK DORAN MOTORS have been long term supporters of the club and community and we ask all our members to support all our sponsors New Year Admin ! It’s a new year and membership is now due. We have changed our online pay- ment portal to CLUBZAP and all mem- bers with email addresses should have re- ceived a communication from CLUBZAP. Any memberships paid via the Clubforce portal have been transferred and your de- tails have been updated Club Lotto – We Need Your Support Our club lotto is the lifeblood of the club and funds our day to day running costs. For just €2 a week or €100 a year you can have the chance to take part in what is sure- ly the most won lotto in the country with 3 winners already in 2019. Lotto tickets are available from our three main outlets – Southgate Shopping Centre (Fridays), Coaching Conference 2020 Our 2 nd Annual Coaching conference proved to be a huge success. GPO Conor Brennan left no stone unturned to as- semble one of the finest compliment of coaches in the land. We had guests from Cavan, Down, Armagh, Meath, Dublin and Carlow with us to learn from the very best and help develop links between the clubs. The morning opened with the pas- sionate Tony Scullion, a man who was the heartbeat of the 1993 Derry team and for whom his club, Ballinascreen is every- thing. He took us through his journey and those who have touched his life and ;left everyone in no doubt about the role we can play. Our technical sessions were de- livered by two of the best in the business, our former manager Colm Nally and the infectious and passionate Steven Poacher and both left everyone with a tip or two to take home. Finally the morning finished Next >