Ballymore Ladies GFC

Training
With the League looking like it will start in early March, the Ladies needed to get back quickly to their training. Unfortunately the weather has impacted on training with the first 2 Monday's cancelled due to the pitch being under the cover of snow. However Wednesday's training in the bandhall has more than made up for it as I think most of the team would agree! Thanks to all who have been involved in organising the circuit training. It has been entertaining and enjoyable and there is no doubt a very effective way of improving fitness. However we might invest in an accurate stop watch for next year as this years time keeper's have a very long minute! We will also have the whole team, management included, doing the boxer's skip by next year. It will not be quite as amusing then Simon and Joe!
Training continues on Mondays at the pitch and Wednesday in the Band Hall. Don’t forget to be on the pitch and ready to go at 7.30! We are always looking to recruit new players so if you are interested please come along.

Happy Birthday
Happy 50th Birthday to our club chairperson Jacinta O’Rourke from all the Ladies!

Awards Night 2009
The Awards Night to celebrate the Junior D Championship win and recognise the contribution of certain members during the 2008 season will go ahead in The Thatch on Saturday 7th March. Look out for posters for details!

People of The Year Awards
Ballymore Ladies were nominated for Ballymore’s 2009 People of The Year Awards which too place on Saturday 7th February. The Ladies would like to thank the person who nominated them and the Awards committee for the honour and the lovely evening.
We would also like to congratulate the other nominees and Tommy Dwyer on his well deserved win.

Welly Match
The Welly Match planned for 7th March has been postponed. It is hoped that this event will go ahead later in the year so keep an eye on the Bugle for dates.

Fundraising Events
Ballymore Ladies “Last Man Standing” Premiership Competition
Pick a winning team each week from the Premiership League weekend games to avoid being knocked out of the competition
Competition starts 21st Feb 09
Register with a member of the Ladies team and the last person remaining in the competition wins €500 and only €10 to enter
If anyone has any fundraising ideas or would like to keep updated on our fundraising events please email ballymoreladiesgaafunds@yahoo.co.uk.





Juvenile AGM
There was a good turn out from the Ladies at the Juveniles AGM. The fundraising committee have proposed a “jump for the juveniles” fundraiser which would hopefully see volunteers bungee jump to raise money for the upcoming feile. There will be a volunteer representing the Ladies GAA, a volunteer representing the Juveniles GAA, and hopefully they can get a volunteer to represent the Mens GAA. Names to be announced soon!!!
As part of the fundraising committee, Dawn Murray and Lesley Tutty have also joined the Juvenile’s committee as representatives of the Ladies GAA.


Lesley Tutty’s Progress with The Kildare Panel
The Kildare panel played St Pats College in Johnstownbridge on January 21st in very wet conditions. The game took the usual form of 4x20mins segments, with Lesley playing 30 minutes. Players were expected to train while they were off the pitch in order to keep warm in the teeming rain. (Kildare won)
The Panel was split in 2 for the games on Jan 24th. Due to recent weather conditions and many pitches being unplayable, these games were played on the astro turf pitch in Thomas Davis GAA club Tallaght. The first game was against her ‘native’ Wicklow at 5pm, where Kildare ran out the winners (8-5 to 2-12). Lesley played 70 out of the 80 mins in this game. The 2nd game saw Kildare take on Armagh at 6.30pm with Armagh getting the better of Kildare.
Sunday Jan 31st saw one team take on all Ireland champions Cork in the national league while the other team played Carlow in Tinryland. Cork beat Kildare well in the end. Lesley played against Carlow and they won 2-12 to 3 points.

Kildare Ladies County Draw
The Ladies are selling tickets on behalf of the County Board. The tickets are €10 each – this entitles you to a ‘Kildare Ladies 2009 member’ sticker and entry into a draw with cash prizes. Please contact any of the Ladies team if you are interested in purchasing a ticket.

Thank You
Thanks to EBS Citywest for refilling the medical bag for 2009 and thanks to Brendan Coady (Kilkenny) for the donation of new water bottles. All support is greatly appreciated.
And thanks to Lesley Tutty for providing us with all the info for this month’s Bugle!

Deirdre & Sharon
Ballymore Ladies GFC PROs
Ballymore Eustace Proud Handball Record – Part 9

The Winder Brothers

The Winder brothers – Paddy, Robin, Cecil and Pius - have collected a total of nineteen All-Ireland medals - Pius has won ten, Cecil six, the late Robin two and the late Paddy one. To add to this impressive record Pius' son Trevor has won six. The family has thus accumulated a grand total of 25 All-Ireland medals, which is a truly remarkable achievement for one family!

Robin Winder was the first of four Winder brothers to win an All-Ireland medal when he won a minor hard doubles medal in 1958. Nine years later, Robin teamed up with Greg Lawler to win the junior hard doubles title. Robin was a sound, reliable doubles player who had a great straight "kill".

Paddy Winder won an All­ Ireland medal in 1959 when in partnership with Tony Daly they won the junior hard doubles title in a great match against the Cleere Brothers of Tipperary. Paddy contested senior hard doubles finals in 1960, 1961, 1963 and 1967. Despite playing well he was unsuccessful in each of the four finals. He was a fine two-handed player with a powerful service.

Ceci1 Winder was the third member of his family to win All-Ireland honours and was adept at the three forms of handball. Cecil showed great determination in all his matches and usually he pulled out a little bit extra to win. During his career he had many fine games one, which springs readily to mind, was a five game match against
"Handball Great" Joey Maher of Louth in senior hard singles. While he had another great game in the local senior soft singles trials against Tom O'Rourke when Cecil lost narrowly to Tom. As already indicated Cecil won 6 All-Ireland medals 4 of which were at senior level where he won 1 singles and 3 doubles medals. Cecil's achievements place him in the top echelon of our many champions and these successes were supplemented by wins in the Convention Cup and many open tournament successes.

Pius Winder was the fourth Winder brother to achieve All-Ireland success. Pius was our first player to win All-Ireland medals in two forms of handball when he won the senior hard doubles title in 1981 and he improved on that in 1982 when he became our first player to win All-Ireland medals in all three forms of handball including that year's 40 by 20 Inter-Club Open Team championship. All together Pius won ten All-Ireland medals six of which were at senior level. Pius was the first Kildare player to win two senior titles in the same year and in addition he is the only Kildare player to win three senior All-Ireland hard doubles medals in a row.

Pius was a fine stylish two-handed player who showed great dedication to training. His finest performance was perhaps his game against the Ryan brothers of Tipperary in the senior hard doubles All-Ireland final of 1981. He played brilliantly throughout the match to win his first All-Ireland senior medal. He had another great game in the 1983 All­ Ireland senior hard singles semi-final against one of "Hardball's Greats" Peter McGee (Mayo), in which Pius conceding home venue was narrowly beaten. On the adminis­trative side Pius organised a number of hand­ball and racquetball tournaments and served on the Committee for a number of years and in addition he held the key of the lights and collected the money.

Pius' son, Trevor Winder, came to prominence in 1988 when he became our first player to win an All-Ireland under 13 soft singles title. Two years later he became our first player to win an All-Ireland under 15 soft singles title. Minor hard singles honours came his way in 1992 – this, in the late Paddy Monaghan's opinion, was Trevor's most outstanding performance. In 1995, while he was still only 20 years of age, he became a senior when he partnered Anthony Campbell to success in junior hard doubles. His greatest achievement came in 1996 when he became our first player to win All-Ireland under 21 soft singles and doubles medals in the same year and, for good measure, he was our first player to win the under 21 soft singles title.

An earlier generation of the Winder family, namely "the Liner" and his brother Paddy, had been to the forefront in the early days of Ballymore Eustace's handball story and were highly thought of by old time handball fans.

© Matt Purcell (January 2009).