Donegal Golf Club Notes

Golfers of the year Gerry Forde and Prue Hamilton

Over the Halloween weekend Bobby O’Shea moved from the humble realms of grossland to capture the No 1 spot with 42pts. Pat Britton made a welcome return to the winners enclosure with 41pts and, on Monday, Edward Canney shot a super 40pts.
Halloween Weekend 2006 Club Competition Sun 29th Oct 1. Bobby O’Shea (5) 42pts; 2. Pat Britton (12) 41pts; 3. George Moody (13) 40pts Gross: John Gartland (6) 30pts.
Monday 30th Oct: 1. Edward Canney (12) 40pts; 2. Alfie Mannion (15) 37pts
On Saturday the club ran a fundraising 3-ball scramble for the Irish Cancer Society and top spot, with a super score, went to the team of Eddie McGarrigle, Lawerence Doherty and Margaret Gillespie, shooting 49 for 15 holes.
At the EGM on Friday night,75 members turned up to vote on a proposal to adopt a new constitution. The new proposal, which contained many fundamental changes to the running of the club, was defeated. However the committee, who spent many hours working on it, came away none the wiser as most of those attending didn’t voice their objections.   
Club competitons from now until further notice will be played from the orange markers.

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Donegal Town Basketball Club

Past Masters A&B: BACK:Cathal Campbell, Conor Reid, Miroslav, David Sweeney, Niall Muldoon, Kevin Sinclair, Alec Reid, Rory Muldoon Front: Stephen Carty, John Meehan, Conor O’Conor, Paddy Muldoon, Ronan Muldoon, Manus Brennan, Peadar Thomas, John McIntyre, missing from photo are Oliver Plunkett and Corney Carr

The Bank Holliday weekend saw Donegal Town Basketball Club celebrate its 21st birthday with a great couple of days basketball in the Abbey Vocational Gym - and a great dinner Dance in Doms Pier One - all proudly sponsored by Herron KIA, Donegal Town.
The main event was a past masters tournament, with two Donegal Town teams, Kilcar and Ardara/Ballyshannon providing some of their former greats. This competition had it all, great games; great scores with these former rivals turning back the clock and, most of all, enjoying it themselves.
Kilcar turned out to be the winners here with their fitness levels way above the rest and of course Michael Molloy showing once again what a fine player he is, hardly missing a shot the whole weekend. He had great support in Mark McShane, John Doogan and Gary McDevitt.
Ardara were led by current Donegal Town Chairman John Kennedy who was involved in at least 11 games over the weekend and led his team to 3rd place. But probably bringing in his sister Charlene proved the master stroke in winning a play-off against a tired Donegal Town B team.
Donegal Town’s squad started out with big numbers, hardly any room on the bench, but by the end of the day a couple of chairs would have done. With all sorts of potions and declarations of age, one player citing the loss of a walking stick, the numbers decreased and it was left to Rory Muldoon, Cookie Meehan, Conor O’ Conor ,John McIntyre and David Sweeney to pull the Donegal boys through to the final. Glimpses of skill from yesteryear were seen throughout the day, with Paddy Muldoon taking control in a few games, Stephen Carty also showed well. But it was old timers Peadar Thomas and Manus Brennan who had the crowd thinking ‘downstairs for dancing and upstairs for lying down’.
Four Masters ran the Town Ladies close with some great performances from Gemma Gillespie, Orla McInaw who dominated the boards, Michelle Sweeney, Niamh Britton, Patrice Rooney, Louise Jordan, Yvonne Bushal and MVP Kathryn Martin.
The last game on sat evening proved to be one of the best. The past team led by Declan Sheridan, the Rooney’s, Charlie McAllister, Dave Hand and MVP Justin Mitchell, who flew in from the States for the event, really put it up to the present squad. A tough battle under the boards for possession was shaded by the Past’s big men and they had enough threat in Mitchell, Sheridan and Rooney to just win by 3 points. Well done to all for such a great game.
Sunday Morning saw our underage teams take to the court sporting new strips bought recently to play Kilcar. Our U14 boys proved too strong for Kilcar with captain Caolan O’Donnell MVP, closely followed by Rory McGee, Patrick Brady, Darren McConnor and Dillon Muldoon. The girls went down by 3 points and only really got going in the last quarter leaving it too late for the win - missed lay-ups and close in shots being their downfall. Captain Tamsin Lyons showed well, with Andrea Griffin, Ciara O’Donnell, Rosa Devanney all having good games.
The U17’s Coached by Paddy Muldoon, had an easy win over Ballyshannon. Mark McHugh, Jordan Carty, Ryan Muldoon and Mark O Donnell being the pick of the bunch.
The next game was a classic as a Donegal Town Select played past masters All Star Team. This one went to the buzzer and the All Stars won by a basket. Molloy, Kennedy, Big Bernard and Cookie were the main men for the All Stars.
The Past v Present ladies game was far from a classic but was probably the most entertaining of the weekend. The Past shaded it by a basket but rumour has it the table officials have still not found the score sheet which went missing straight after the game. The Past team fielded players from the original team 21 years ago and, if you were good enough, you could pick them out of the 7 they regularly had on the court. There were too many great performances to mention them all but MVP went to Saunda Muldoon ,closely followed by Arlene O Neill, Fiona Sweeney, Elaine Muldoon, Mary Jo Stewart and Orla Mc Hardy.
And so to the last game. Four Masters V the Town. This game had it all, great scores, great rebounds, fast breaks - and even a controversial sending off. It finished 59–58 to Four Masters but don’t tell anyone. Donegal even drafted former players Charlie Mc Allister, Justin Mitchell, the Rooney’s and current National League star Michael Molloy Jnr to combat the threat posed by this fairly average Gaelic football team. With Don Monaghan injured in the first minute things didn’t look good for the Masters. Slow to find their range, they just stayed a little behind their more illustrious rivals, Arron Slevin, Paddy Gillespie and Garth Britton keeping them in the game. Slowly Masters started to turn the screw with MVP Dave Hand, Big Paul ‘Papa’ Durcan, and Barry Monaghan starting to dominate the boards. The Town had no answer to Britton on the break and Barry Monahan’s outside shooting, yes, that’s right, Barry’s outside shooting.
The Town tried it all, even getting me sent off with 2 minutes on the clock - but still trailing this thrown together Masters outfit. The Masters held on to win in what can only be described as one of the biggest shocks of the weekend.
Great fun was had by all involved and much thanks go to all the teams that got involved over the weekend. As a club that promotes family involvement one particular family has to be mentioned - the Muldoons. They provided 9 players for different teams with 4 on the past Masters, Rory, Ronan, Niall and Paddy - with Saunda, Elaine and Naula on the Past Ladies. Ryan was captain of the U17’s and Dillon played on the U14’s. One of the great highlights of the weekend had to be the Abbey Hip-Hop Dancers led by Aisleigh Chugtai & Julianne Murphy. Thanks to them for their great effort, also to Nigel Weir and all his referees.
The Dinner Dance in Doms was a great night. Thanks goes to the committee for a great job, to our sponsor HERRON KIA, and to all who helped out. So if you got involved and enjoyed it why not keep it up. It’s a great game for young and old and we could always use more help. We have numerous underage teams now and help is always needed and have ambitious plans for a tour to America in the near future.
Lets hope the next 21 years are as much fun!!. Kevin Sinclair PRO.