with Brian Quigley, February 2014
Soccer
The 2014 League of Ireland season kicks off on Sunday March 2 with the inaugural President’s Cup match between last season’s Airtricity League Premier Division champions (St Patricks Athletic) and FAI Ford Cup winners (Sligo Rovers).
Bray Wanderers start their league campaign on March 7 away to Limerick in Thomond Park, with their home league debut a week later on March 14 against Sligo Rovers at the Carlisle Grounds.
Before that Alan Mathews’ men take on Longford Town in a home pre-season friendly on February 4 and are away to Bohemians on February 15 in the next round of the Leinster Senior Cup. The big story of the off-season has been Alan Mathews and Barry O’Connor coming in as Bray’s new management team following the news that Pat Devlin wouldn’t be at the Carlisle for 2014.
This really does represent the end of an era as Pat has been a great servant to the club over the years and has brought huge success to the county. The FAI Cup wins in 1990 and 1999, all the promotions, high-profile friendlies, European football. Heady days indeed.
Alan and Barry, both former Wanderers players under Pat, have plenty of managerial experience though (Alan won the FAI Cup twice himself as manager of Longford Town) and we wish them every success and will be right behind them.
It would seem that a disagreement over the club’s new business model was behind Pat’s and the club parting company – whilst unfortunate that this happened all have had to move on and the focus now is on getting behind the team for the coming season. Financing a football club is no easy task and in the current economic climate that task has become harder and harder. The ideal situation would be for the fans of a club like Bray Wanderers to be large enough in number and financial resource to become the owners and run the club. Look at Shamrock Rovers (owned by a couple of thousand fans) and on a bigger scale Barcelona (owned by a couple of hundred thousand fans) – you can’t argue with the way these clubs are being run or their perennial success. Other clubs like AFC Wimbledon, FC United of Manchester and Portsmouth also spring to mind as examples of this way of running a football club. I’m really looking forward to the new season and think that we have an excellent chance of extending our unbroken 10- year membership of the Premier Division by a few more years.
The Wicklow Voice have been keeping tabs on Wanderers’ Under 19’s through the winter and they continued their climb up the table in the Elite Division of the Under 19 League of Ireland in January with a superb 2-1 win at home to Sligo Rovers U19 on January 11 and a hard- fought 0-0 draw at the same venue a week later against Salthill Devon U19.
Rugby
Greystones RFC brought their fine form from 2013 into 2014 with a superb 7-0 win away to Navan RFC on January 11 that keeps them in 2nd place in the Ulster Bank All-Ireland Rugby League Division 2B. Paul Lennon’s men, who have Reggie Corrigan as head coach, are playing some exciting rugby at present in their quest for promotion and are well worth a trip to Dr Hickey Park to watch.
Spring is always a great rugby time of the year, with the Six Nations starting up. The Beauchamps Leinster Schools Junior and Senior Cups are also in full swing.
St Gerards and Presentation College Bray from the county are both due into action early in February in the Junior Cup, whilst in the second tier of the Senior Cup (the Vinnie Murray Cup) Presentation College Bray and East Glendalough both exited the competition in January. St Gerards were still flying the flag for the county in this competition though having fought through to the semi-final at the time of writing against CBS Wexford. One more victory will see them qualify for the Senior Cup proper.
Cricket
At around the same time as the Australian Open tennis was making the headlines for the heat wave it was being played in, Ireland’s ladies cricket team were in action in the heat of Qatar as part of a tri-nation.
Twenty20 tournament involving Ireland, Pakistan and South Africa. They beat the mighty Pakistan on January 19 which was a monumental result given the status of Pakistan in cricket. Bray twins Isobel and Cecelia Joyce played key roles for Ireland in the victory. Cecelia was 30 not out and Isobel hit 28, the sisters putting up a 44-run partnership.
Isobel Joyce was voted player of the match. Cecelia unfortunately injured her hand in the following day’s match.
We wish her a speedy recovery and hope that she is fit to play in the Women’s 2014 World Twenty20 Championships in Bangladesh in March / April.
The Joyce twins’ brother Ed meanwhile has been included in the Ireland men’s cricket squad that will tour the West Indies this spring ahead of the Men’s 2014 World Twenty20 Championships, also being held in Bangladesh in March / April.
Athletics
A large number of runners from the county will be heading to Cork on March 9 for the Ballycotton 10-mile road race (more than 20 athletes from Bray Runners alone will be making the trip). We wish them the best of luck in this most prestigious of road races.
Congratulations to Richard Owens who was named Senior Athlete of the Year for 2013 at the recent Athletics Wicklow Star Awards. Richard had a very successful season culminating in a magnificent performance in the Wicklow Senior Cross Country Championship in December.
