Irish National Championships Sept 2001

 Laketour Riding Stables, Tramore, Waterford
 
The weather was beautiful but there was a strange smell in the air....nerves...tack....adrenalin....excitement!!
 
Sunday morning....lots of hangovers...lots of breakfast sandwiches....lots of aspirin....give us a bottle of water will ya? The A division semi-finals were about to get under way. First section...Horetown Blue: Richie Nolan, Pete Shearer and Martin Kehoe against the men in Green from Limerick: Jacque Versaald, Richie Collins and Brian McMahon. Both teams were there on a mission and no one was giving an inch.
 
Second section: Horetown Black: Aidan McDonagh, Seamus McDonagh and David Young against Clonmel represented by Marc Davern, Michael Finnegan and Hamish Michael. Shots flying, when disaster strikes.....Aidan's mare, "Jess", goes lame. He needs a replacement horse...what horse is he riding back onto the pitch....no it can't be...the infamous "Jig". Thanks to Dympna O' Brien the men in black were back.
 
After two hotly contested semis the Final was to be between Limerick and Horetown Black. Everyone was on the ready....Mick had his stopwatch...JohnJoe was ready to cheer...Ann Y had the camera at the ready.. all they needed was the whistle. The first chukka was closely contested....more water please but when they returned for the second chukka the Horetown men showed what they were made of. David blocked Jacque in every direction, Seamus rode off everybody in sight and Aidan ensured that if the ball was in his racquet the next place it landed was between the goalposts. After a super exhibition of polocrosse by both teams, it was Horetown who were National Champions for the third year in a row.
 
No more water please......gimme a can of beer!! The cup at this stage is a little bit battered and worse for the wear but it has seen more pubs than an American tourist. Here's to 2002 and some more terrific polocrosse.
 
A spectator!