This vital match was played on a Sunday morning at 11.30 a.m. in a resplendent Trim,into which pitch I was assisted by a man of honour and kindness C.J.Murtagh,a true gent.
Lest anybody should think that disabled persons get in free to such matches,as was recently tasked to me,even where the person has dedicated a lifetime to promotion of the GAA,this is not the case.
I paid in to watch the match as a spectator just the same as everybody else.
I was there to support my sons,my neighbours and my Club.
I had heard that Ratoath were a good team and they were undoubtedly favourites to beat us and win out.
I have mixed feelings about Rathoat.A great hurling man and former Eoghan Ruaidh stalwart was Chairman and was and is a good friend of the family.On the other hand I was knocked out a number of years ago while refereeing a camogie match by a punch from behind by a Rathoat supporter and when our Club was involved with the contentious transfer of Jordan Martyn to Dunderry a number of years ago a Ratoath Gael wrote to the Chronicle condemning the Dunderry Executive and wishing the Club bad luck on the sporting fields.
I was hoping we would win.
I have said before that it is extremely difficult for a small village to promote both codes,especially when the players get older and bruised bodies and the demands of extending families are a daily reality.This combined with emigration is a drain on the resolve of all rural Clubs.We do not have the much greater population of the more populous clubs to draw on .
Team.
Thomas Doherty
Day Stephens Evan Stephens Davy Mac Cormack
Conor Dempsey Conor O Shea Cillian Minogue
Liam Dempsey Conor Farrell
Jordan Martyn Ted Dowd Davy Gikkinson
John Moran Luke Martyn Alex Walshe
Referee was Martin Bartley.
Both teams had great support and former Dunderry great Brian Newman was in attendance on a visit home from America.
The score when I got settled was 1-4 to 0-2 against Dundrry.In short order we drew level and went three points up by half time in a good sporting game punctuated by a series of bizzare frees which left me,a student and practitioner of the game totally befuddled and totally enraged that the hopes and dreams of decent players should be so impugned.
There was not much skill wise or commitment wise between the teams and each and every ball was fiercely and fairly contested and we were denied what seemed to be a clear point by someone,I am not sure who.(umpire of referee)
We reached half time ahead by three points on the scorelines 1-10 to 1-7.I was fairly happy with the lead but fierce unhappy with the constant whistle blowing as evidenced by the high number of frees converted by the respective free takers and often you would not have a clue why the whistle was blown.
Backs,midfielders and forwards were giving their all and left to pure hurling we were marginally better.
We fielded for the second half as we started,no changes.
But the referee awarded a series of frees against us which were grotesque,unbelievable,bizzare and unprecedented and which totally stymied any progress we made.As far a I am concerned they were against us by a significant margin,Even when one of our lads was felled by the attention of two opponents and temporarily out of it,he was booked and a free awarded against him.
On another occasion when one of our lads was r tripped by the insertion of a Hurley between his legs a throw in rather than a free out was given
During my lifetime I have put thousands of players ,boys and girls ,through my hands and I adore the game of hurling.
Such was the level of despair at the handling of the game that I sincerely regretted ever getting youngsters involved and was on the cusp of leaving myself.
To tell the truth I don' know how our lads held their heads and how they didn/t walk off the pitch.
However they kept at it and inspired by a Dowd goal near full time to bring the deficit back to two points ,a point blank save by Doc and irony of ironies ,a goal by the guy (Martyn ) who was the subject of the transfer controversy all those years ago we held on to win by a single point on the scoreline 3-15 to 1-20.
To me everybody was a hero 1 to a 15 including the subs introduced Stephen Coogan and Garrett Dooley.
I don't know the referee nor anybody belonging to him and have never met h im in any capacity.And it is only exceptionally that I complain publicly about them.
I strongly feel that it would be a dereliction of fair comment not to draw attention to his performance in this game but this was not the first time he behaved as he did to us.
In a previous game in Athboy against Kilskyre he turned totally against us in the first half and only ameliorated after half time when some semblance of balance was restored.
Our scorers were :-Minogue 0-1,Jordan Martyn1-0,Moran0-2Ted 1-0,Lukie 1-1 1nd Gilkie 11 )7rees and 3 65,s)..
In other words 10 of our 15 points were from placed balls and at least another two were missed.
A broken hearted Rathoat also scored 10 points from placed balls and missed a few others also.
We have two weeks to get ourselves together..
Kilskyre have the hex on us,having bate us by a lat minute point in the under 21 hurling this year and also knocked us out of the football championship.
To many's surprise they beat Drumree last Sunday and will be overwhelming favourites to win.
Our boys have a mountain to climb but given a fair shake they have a chance.
IT was a historic day for my family and I was as proud as punch to have two sons playing on the Dunderry team and a grandson Padraic,Evan and Aoife's son ,fielding with the Dunderry under eights against their Ratoath counterparts as part of the half time entertainment.
But there is always something to sour the sweet ,about which more anon.
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