Tuesday, 23 April 2013 14:37

Written by John Melvin

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Castlebar Town league darts finalFLYNN’S emporium on Rush Street, Castlebar, will host the Castelbar town darts division one final this Friday night and patrons are advised to come early for what should be a cracker between two great rivals, Bosh and Rocky’s.

In rock and roll terms, this is the Rolling Stones taking on The Who as these aging rockers have been playing darts against each other since their mammies gave them the first set of darts while they ere just sitting up in the pram having their first pint of Guinness.

The decision to take the dart finals back to where they came from - ie the pub - was a brave one and it has worked out extremely well with the division two and three finals playing to bumper crowds and a terrific atmosphere in Tony Flynn’s pub and given the amount Tony and his team have put into promoting darts in the town he fully deserves to be hosting the final.

According to my darts man, Dwyane Flynn, the venue will ensure that all patrons will be able to view this final in comfort and they expect the first darts to be thrown around 10 p.m. and no doubt there will be a few late darts fired when the title is decided.

Rocky’s ruled the roost with six on the bounce some years back but a few of the old guns are gone a bit rusty and the new kids on the block are Bosh, who are hoping to make it three-in-a-row.

John Joe Ormsby is a wily old player, while Tony O’Neill, Brendan McDonagh, the evergreen Paul 180 Daly and young John Moran are the top guns for Rocky’s.

Tuesday, 16 April 2013 12:41

Written by John Melvin

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Catherine Maloney from Knock and Nicole Feeney from Dublin who were on opposing sides on Sunday in Croke Park but the Byrne's Babes were back at work together on Monday at Thunder Road Restaurant, Main Street, Castlebar having survived their first outing with the Babes.MANY of us who made the long trek back from Dublin - via Bekan - were a little bleary-eyed on Monday morning having watched Australia (Adam Scott) and Argentina (Angel Cabrera) fight it out for the million dollar plus pot at the US Masters.

The pay cheque is nice but to these guys it is getting to wear the famous green jacket donned by so many of the legends from the sport that really matters.

Despite the exhortations from my better half to follow the little white ball, I have been a spectacular failure, due in part to my preoccupation with the rather larger ball, but, as they say, it is a work in progress.

I still enjoy watching golf as much as any sport and this was riveting edge-of-the-seat stuff as we were treated to a sudden death play-off, and it may yet provide the spark in me to take on the game which is supposed to ruin a good walk. 

What was interesting about The Masters was that even the greats can screw up, with some easy putts being missed, some holes taking their toll on many of the world’s greatest, the leaderboard changing almost hole by hole, and ultimately, one man conquering the famous Augusta course.

The Byrne’s Babes followed Augusta from afar as their tour continued east, following up their winning performance down south in Cork but, a bit like the Mayo team who crashed in Croke Park, that trip seems to have taken its toll and a few late replacements had to be drafted in.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012 13:55

Written by John Melvin

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gaelic-football-a

Of course, had the guest of honour, Sam Maguire, turned up it would have been a different story, and credit to Henry McGlade, MC for the evening, for trying his best to turn a wake into a party. But this was an evening when words were not necessary, emotions communicated by a glance which showed the pain being experienced in the soul.

The feeling of disappointment ran deep and coursed through the veins of the players and the supporters who have been down this road so many times before.

But we danced and had a few jars and tried to talk and reassure ourselves that worse things could befall us other than losing an All-Ireland. It could be worse. It might have been Cork or Kerry we lost to. Now that does not bearing thinking about. What else could we do? Get on with it. That is life.

It is a tribute to their endurance and faith that they keep coming back for more.

However, if there is one thing we know about in Mayo it is actually parties and wakes and we often combine both and with equal gusto.

It was never going to be easy for a team to make the grand entrance and full credit to the 1,000 or so guests who gave the team and management their support on a night when they needed it most.

The one good thing about the evening was the shortness of the speeches, while it was good also to see that no excuse for the defeat were being proffered by way of blame.

The best team won, end of story.

I suspect there was no need to pile on the agony on a team and supporters who were already suffering and in some distress after the trauma of what unfolded hours earlier in Croke Park.