The Clooney Quin Under 10 Camogie team headed off early on the Sunday morning, 10th September 2017, on an epic journey organised by team management. Coupled with the Clooney Quin Under 12 Camogie team the first stop on their trip was to play challenge matches in Laois at the base of the Slieve Bloom mountains against Camross.
Camross, the kingpins of Laois hurling gave a very warm welcome on a cool, misty morning to the Clooney girls and when the game was played the Clooney Under 10’s showed their hosts what they were made of, with a fantastic display of skill up and down the pitch. After the match the Camross club provided the Clooney girls and trainers with a fabulous assortment of treats and drinks to sustain them for the rest of the journey to Croke Park for the All Ireland Senior Camogie Final between Kilkenny and Cork.
The excitement was building as the bus neared Headquarters and all the girls were all relishing the visit and for some it was the first time to visit the home of Gaelic Games. The girls took their seats in the lower Hogan stand to be close to the action and just before the game started some of the Clooney girls charmed the camera and made it on to the Croke Park stadium big screen much to everyone’s amusement.
The Final could have been better fare however an exciting climax to the game with a winning point in the closing minutes ensured that the Cork supporters in the Clooney camp left the stadium contented knowing that that they had backed the winning team.
And the final part of the journey now followed with the Clooney bus making its way back to the Banner down the M7 via the Obama Plaza. After the refuelling stop with both management and the girl’s appetite now contented the team bus made their way to Clooney.
Many thanks to the people who helped in facilitating this outing, to Eamon from Malachy’s for his assistance with the car wash and cake sale, to the parents, families and friends who supported and helped out at the car wash and cake sale and to management of the team who supervised the girls so professionally in Croke Park.
And it is with great hope that the experience of the day, especially their visit to Croke Park, will encourage the girls to keep playing the sport and maybe someday in the near future one of our next visits to Croke Park will be to shout on some of these Clooney girls.
