Irish Team Win UK National B Division Finals - Sept 1999

 Just putting the Team together was an achievement in Itself. Firstly there was a round up of Players and Horses which started on Thursday Evening. The Anchor Man David Young organised the Horses and set off to Dublin on Thursday Night for a Friday Morning Ferry (leaving the Horses in stables up there before the Journey to England). The next section started when I crawled out of bed at 3:30am after just crawling into it an hour before that. First on my list was Martin who just could not bring himself to get out of his bed ( I had to ring him from my mobile at his front door). Next was Aidan who having had quiet a few beers just hours before, had prepared himself in a strange manner as he had left the front door open and he had gone to bed a couple of hours earlier in a seat by the door to make sure he would be ready to go and we would not forget him as we drove past. As I expected he was not ready and for the next 15 minutes we were dragging tack, boots, spurs and the like from the boot of his car. Finally, we were on the road to Dublin when we saw a light in the sky which was either an Alien Craft or a spy from the English camp who was checking to see if we could actually get on the road at that time of the morning. Next members were Michael & Tony (Super-sub - Tony was only asked to go on Thursday night!) who both arrived under their own steam later, on Friday evening as they had work commitments.
 
As a result of parking the car in the wrong compound at the ferry terminal, we noticed a lot of trucks & cars driving onto the Ferry while we could not figure out how to get out of the compound. Luckily we knew someone and the Freight Manager from Irish Ferries jumped into our car and escorted us to the Ferry.
 
On arrival in Cheshire, we thought that we may be a little out of our depth as far as Polocrosse is concerned but felt that we could at least hold up the bar - which turned out to be easy as there was none - Richie to the rescue and an off-licence was quickly located (the Team were worried for a while). First game Saturday morning was against Celyn, and we ultimately got beaten by a goal - the Irish were not happy campers. However it was a great game which was played at a fast pace. Then came West Country that evening, this game for us was one of the toughest we ever played because we just had to win. A few choice words among players on the field, a few elbows and a lot of horsepower on both sides ended with an Irish win – "just", we won by a goal. This for us was our best game of the tournament which was a thrilling encounter for both teams. At that point nobody knew who was through, we thought we were ok, but it turned out that all teams had the same amount of wins & goal difference. It came down to goals scored and we were out of it by a goal.
 
It didn't matter to us at that point as we had just played a team that made us play out of our skin, and we had beaten them. We would have went home right then happy to have been there.
 
So on resigning ourselves to a heavy night on the town after gaining some respect back for ourselves, Aidan, Martin and I duly started to party in the marquee while spotting many great sights which are not listed on the Cheshire Tourist Guide. The band were brilliant and we carried on partying and sampling some local brew, home brew and any other kind of brew we could get our hands on, as we thought we were only in the playoffs for 5th & 6th at 2:30 in the afternoon.
 
Bearing this in mind, you can imagine the fazed and blank look that was on my face when Geoff ?? told us at 08:45 that we were on in 15 minutes against Arden as West Country had pulled out due to horses going lame. At that point the only thing I could say was??, come to think of it, I couldn't say anything as a result of an enormous hangover. "Tea" was the first thing on my agenda and the next was to stall the organisers as long as possible so that our other Section could gets to the grounds as they were staying in a hotel 5-6 miles away. In the end we took to the field at 09:30 with our other section still mounting their horses. Top marks to the Second section of David, Michael & Tony (Super-Sub), they were brilliant and we were abysmal - it wasn't very hard to figure out just who had been in the marquee that night. This game again came down to the wire and in the end we won by a goal. There were no easy games to be found!!
 
A few drunken hours before that we had been telling Celyn (Our Celtic Relations) that we expected to be cheering them on from the sidelines in the final, what a turnaround, we couldn't believe it, we were in the UK Final against Pennine (The Favourites).
 
The final itself was as tense a game as any of us had played with both teams and both sections giving it their all. In the end we won, but top marks to Pennine who made us work all the way for it. Then came an extraordinary moment when we realised we had actually won something, and what to do next, we didn't know as we had only come over for the craic. It was great to receive the B-Grade trophy and we are truly honoured to receive it in the presence of such fine players and horses. Apologies to Pat Chappell for the shower of Champagne that she received, but someone had to break from the formal approach. The journey home started at 10pm that night with Martin Kehoe and myself escorting the truck on to the Motorway, and then doing a u-turn and making our way back to the Pub where some of the now drunken players had set up shop in. A few Cokes and goodbyes and we too were then on our way to the ferry. We arrived back in the yard in Horetown at 2pm the next day, tired, sore and delighted for being at what was truly a great competition - Win Draw or Loose.
 
We'll be back with the trophy for the finals in 2000, and may slip in the odd tournament or two in the UK prior to that.
 
Regards & thanks for a great time to all at UKPA from Aidan Mc Donagh, Martin Kehoe, Tony O'Donnell, Michael Finnegan, David Young & myself, Richie Nolan (Team Captain)
 
"THE IRISH 99"