At the beginning of June the crew here at Mayo Club 51 decided to hold a primary schools competition for our younger ’51er’s. One of our main aims is bring as much colour as we can on match day. Our collection of flags is constantly growing and we’re always on the look out for new ideas!
After much deliberation, heated discussion and many cups of tea and even an existential crisis, we’ve managed to pick a winner! We were delighted at the response to our call for entries. The creativity and quality on display made the task of whittling it down to the final few very difficult! We’re going to try and find a way to show off all of our favourite entries online so keep an eye out here. We’d like to thank those at Castlebar Cycle Store and T-Rex Clothing for sponsoring the great prizes but most importantly, we’d like to thank all the schools who took part and especially all the kids for their fantastic efforts!
Right, no more messing around! The winner of the Mayo Club ’51 Flag design competition and a brand new (green and red!) BMX is Chloe Courell of St. Angela’s National School, Castlebar. We loved the clarity and bold form of Chloe’s design and we think it’s going to look cracking flying on a flag at this Sunday’s Connacht final and hopefully much further into the summer!
Chloe Courell of St. Angela’s National School, Castlebar receiving her prize from Castlebar Cycle Store. Also pictured is main sponsor, Brian Cawley, of Castlebar Cycle Store.
We’d also like to take the opportunity to make one last call for you to join us tomorrow beside the media tower for both games. Look out for our new flag, you can’t miss us!
Connacht Final weekend is upon us, and the build-up has started in earnest, now that both teams have been named. Our fate is our hands now as we face into the not-unappealing challenge of making it a historic four-in-a-row in Connacht. The weekend anticipation is starting to build nicely at this point and no doubt the roads will be busy tonight with Mayo folks making the pilgrimage to the west – if you’re on the road or in the air, take it handy and be safe!
In the meantime, Club ’51 held their inaugural charity quiz last night, July 10th in Coady’s Bar, Castlebar. We had a fantastic turnout, and on behalf of the Club ’51 team, we want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who came out and supported our two fantastic charities. We had a huge 16 tables, totaling 64 people, who took part on the night. We are delighted to announce that we raised a grand total of €1072.30, meaning that Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Raynaud’s & Scleroderma Ireland will both benefit to the tune of €537 each.
Concentrating
Congrats to our lovely winners, the No Namers, who won the battle for top spot and left with a voucher and an exclusive Club ’51 trophy each.
Our worthy winners!
Irish people have consistently proven themselves to be incredibly generous when it comes to supporting good causes, and Mayo is certainly no exception – we couldn’t have made a success of the night without the support we received from local businesses and individuals (who in turn we’d urge you to support). In particular, we would like to acknowledge the following:
Cafe Rua, Castlebar, for their lovely hamper (we’re still drooling)
Flag Man Ireland for his donation of four flags and numerous car flags!
Just Baked, Castlebar for their voucher (you’re in for a treat).
The Royal Theatre, Castlebar for the show tickets
Coady’s Bar, for their crystal wine glasses, and indeed for hosting the quiz and looking after us so well on the night
M & C Castlebar for the crystal whiskey tumblers
Presents.ie, Swinford for their lovely candle-holder
The McTigue family from Cross
Robert Bashford, Bangor
Anne Cleary, Lusk, Co. Dublin
The Flynn family, Ardagh
Thanks also to John Gleeson, our esteemed quiz-master who did a superb job on the night and had everyone scratching their heads more than once. (Dingbats, anyone?!)
We also won tickets during the week to the Connacht Final on Sunday, which we offered as a raffle prize – these were very kindly donated back to us by the prizewinner, Declan O’Connor, for auction. The tickets went for a grand total of €80, bought by Joe Togher. (Incidentally, we’d also like to thank eircom GAA for throwing in an extra set of tickets for the Sligo game when they heard that the prize was going to charity. We even managed to give them away as a prize to a Sligo man!)
We’re hoping to bring the Club ’51 quiz night on the road over the coming months, so keep an eye out for us! In the meantime, thank you once again for your warm support and generosity and we hope you enjoyed the night as much as we did.
Now, to the important business of the weekend … bringing the JJ Nestor Cup home where it belongs for a fourth consecutive year. Don’t forget to bring your flags!
It’s the second weekend in July and we are preparing to make history. Honestly, at this time of year, as Mayo football fans, what more can we ask? We have two teams representing us on Sunday in the provincial deciders. Our seniors attempt to win their 4th title on the trot against the auld enemy while our minors defend their crown against Roscommon. We are also aiming to see our first back to back senior/minor Connacht Double since 1996/1997. History beckons! How sweet that would be indeed, but as we always say, that’s in the lads’ hands now. And best of luck to them.
As for us, the plan remains the same. We’ll have a couple of new recruits in the form of flags with us at the match, after announcing our first and second-placed designs in our schools flag design competition. We’ve got a couple of cracking designs that we can’t wait to unveil. But we also need people to wave said flags, so please come and join us beside the media tower at the McHale Road side of the ground. Absolutely everyone is welcome and the craic is always good so come along and introduce yourselves. And bring your own flags – there’s going to be a huge crowd there so let’s make it a colourful one (a green and red one!).
We’ll be there from 11am or so setting up for our minors and we would urge absolutely everybody to come cheer on YOUR All-Ireland Champions as they take on the Rossies! They put in a hell of a shift in Tuam and the least they deserve is a good, loud support from the Mayo faithful on Sunday.
When Galway disposed of a poor Sligo outfit the weekend before last, it was Sky Sports first time showing a Gaelic football match. I was closely following the reaction on the twitter machine as the game went on. The British audience seemed nonplussed by the game, whereas the previous week they were enthralled with the hurling.
I always thought this could be the way at the outset, but I’m sure the football will improve and excite our new audiences across the water before the summer is out. Galway won the game with ease in the end and as a result of this victory; they have earned the right to face Mayo in Elverys McHale Park on Sunday 13th July where both sides will do battle for the Nestor Cup.
A Connacht Final against Galway, it does not get any bigger than that folks! The fact that Mayo are going for their 4th in a row will also be motivation for our opposition. Whenever these two teams meet in championship, more often than not there is only a kick of the ball in it. Mayo blew Galway into smidirini last year and Galway will be looking for revenge.
The Galway midfield were made to look good by Sligo, who continued to kick the ball long and straight down the middle even though it was coming back with interest. I am certain James Horan will have watched this and will instruct Robbie to take evasive action if necessary. Having said that, I feel our midfield will have enough to win that particular battle. Aidan O’Shea should be aiming to get back to last years high standards where he was touted as Footballer Of The Year going into the final, with his brother again being the unsung hero grafting away in midfield.
Our backs were magnificent against Roscommon. I lost count of the number or times we turned over possession. Tom Cunniffe and Caff were masterful. Boyler was his usual combative self. Donal Vaughan didn’t bring the shooting boots but worked hard and I’m sure Lee Keegan (for me best wing back in the game at the minute) will be back to himself the next day after a very, very rare off day.
Up front will be interesting. I wonder will James stick with the team that started or will he reward those who made such an impact against Roscommon? I’m assuming Andy is fit to play, having come on for Ballaghadereen recently and by all accounts had a great game. What I would like to see is space up front – our lads undoubtedly have the stuff to do it, it just feels at times our attacking plays can actually end up restricting the space for us to attack. Once upon a time I was a right corner forward. I had one particular teammate who told me before games that his main aim when he got the ball was to feed me, that as soon as he got on the ball I was to be moving for a pass from him. I was small enough but I thrived on knowing if I made a run then 9 times out of 10 the centre forward was looking for me. Whoever plays CHF and in the corner forward position should be sitting down hatching plans to terrorise Galway. Clarity of role and effective communication is essential.
As for us folk on the terraces and in the stands, it was noticeable the support given to the team by the Mayo supporters against Roscommon when they were three down with ten minutes to go. I’m sure the team appreciated that and more of the same will be needed on the day. We need to be the 16th man to help our boys drive on to a wonderful 4th Connacht title in a row. See you on the 13th and as always with Club ’51 the message is a simple one. BRING A FLAG AND BRING YOUR VOICE! Mayo forever!!
… will take place in Coady’s of Castlebar on the evening of Thursday 10th July. So get swotting!
More info to follow shortly, including details of the charities we’ll be supporting, and some of the prizes we’ll have on offer, but in the meantime add the date to your diaries folks, it’s bound to be a good one.
Those of you on Facebook and Twitter over the past few days will have seen us sharing various videos from the olden days of Mayo GAA, but just in case you’ve missed them, head on over to our video gallery to see (for the first time online) highlights of Mayo’s Connacht Championship of 1989, the famed Tyrone game of the same year, and the 2006 All-Ireland U21 final victory against Cork. Our most recent addition is the Galway-Mayo Connacht Final of ’99 in Tuam Stadium. Some of us are still drying out after that one.
Thanks to Ronan McHale for putting in the graft and converting these from VHS for us – a time-consuming process but one I’m sure you’ll agree was worth it. Check out our video gallery here for a wander down memory lane and keep an eye out for more videos coming soon.
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