TRINITY NEWS
Tuesday 18th of September 2012
23
Sport
GAA John Tighe
It is a great time to be part of Gaelic games in Trinity, especially now that Trinity GAA is the biggest club in the entire college, according to an article in the Irish Times published towards the end of the last academic year. Last year was a fantastic year for men’s football, with the senior team winning both the Division 2 title and the Trench Cup. Our freshers’ team competed heroically in their competitions last year, while our intermediate team threw-in in Division 3 of the league. This year we will be playing in the dizzying heights of Division 1, which is where this club belongs. We will also have the chance to compete in the Sigerson Cup, the standard-bearing competition for this level. Of course, it is not only the sporting aspect of the club that has to be emphasised but also the social aspect, with a trip to Fermanagh last year providing the kind of craic we hope to repeat this year. A GAA pub crawl was held on the Monday of Freshers’ Week, but if you missed that there will be plenty more opportunities to get to know the fellas at training or when we go out on (regular) sessions. We will be having our first
training of the season at 1pm outside the Pav. It will be for seniors, but if anyone wants to come down and get involved they are more than welcome. Talk to anyone down there and they will be able to sort you out. The team will also be at the GAA stand in Front Square for the entirety of Freshers’ Week. You should be able to get all the rest of the relevant information there if needs be. If you can’t make it to either the training session or the stand during Freshers’ Week, then get in contact with either the chairperson, Mickey Boyle, at 086 1573634, or the manager, Ryan Casey, at 086 0654651. The ladies’ GAA club now has two teams, with increasing interest from female students. The Senior A team lost out in Championship final last year, while the Senior B team won Division 4. If you would like to become a member contact club chairperson Mairead McParland at mcparlam@tcd.ie.
Ladies Boat Kate Rowan
Find more information about all of the sports clubs mentioned here and many more through the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) on their website at www.ducac. tcdlife.ie/.
DU Rifle Reuben Smith DU Rifle is dedicated to the sport of target shooting. We are one of the largest and most successful sports clubs in college, taking home many prizes each year in both junior and senior categories. We cater for both novices and experienced shooters. Whether you shoot casually or start to enter competitions is entirely up to you! We welcome you either way! Our jubilee is approaching and we will be holding some events to celebrate, make sure to check out www.durcjubilee.com. The DU Rifle club is one of the college’s most successful, having never failed to take home a prize from every club competition entered in the past two years and winning international events such as the Celtic League. We have our own range
on campus, behind the Civil engineering building by the rugby pitch. The range is open Monday to Friday from 6.00pm. Air Rifle takes place on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mondays are dedicated to squad training. The club enters teams of all levels into a variety of leagues, local and inter-university, postal and shoulder-to-shoulder. There are usually matches every three weeks against other clubs, and we hold many internal fun and competitive shoots. We have also had past and current members competing in World Cups, ISSF International Matches, Commonwealth Games and University Championships. In the winter season the club shoots 0.22 prone indoors at
25 yards and Air Rifle at 10m , while in Hilary and Trinity Term there are outdoor 50m .22 prone and Three Position events. We also shoot 0.22 Sporter Rifle throughout the year. The membership fee for the club is only 4 for new members, and includes use of all equipment (and some free ammunition to get you started). To join you must be a current student or staff member of TCD, or be an alumnus and a member of ducac. If you have any questions, feel free to drop down the range during opening hours or email rifle@tcd.ie.
Men’s Hockey Freddy Hill
Trinity College’s city centre campus is full of atmospheric hidden gems but you will find another Trinity treasure beyond the hallowed College Green gates. Nestled away in a corner of the War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, you will discover the Trinity Boat House. The Boat House is home to separate rowing clubs for male and female students. Within this remarkable building that harbours such a masculine history, you will now hear lots of girlish laughter and see quite a splash of pink – the colours of the Dublin University Ladies Boat Club are pink, black and white. The Ladies Boat Club is much younger than the male counterpart, having been founded in 1976, and continues to be a growing and progressive club where students studying a wide variety of subjects from medicine to engineering to social work to film studies come together to row, clad in pink and black under the encouragement of the current captain, Hazel O’Neill (JS medicine), and the coach, Andrew Coleman. Part of what drew my attention towards ladies’ rowing was the success of Great Britain’s female rowing contingent during the London Olympic Games.
While the Barclays Premier League is just getting back into its groove, all eyes now turn to Leinster hockey and, in particular, Dublin University Hockey Club (DUHC) in their ongoing quest for world-domination. Our usual Sky Sports correspondent, liaison and dear friend, Richard Keys, no longer maintains his position and, as such, our press coverage has dropped considerably as a result. We look forward to Richard joining us in Cork this year as a valued member, tactician and strategist for our team for the intervarsities competition as we look to regain the Mauritius Cup (or the Plate, should it come to that). However, what must be said is that, despite this reduced media presence, our incoming power people – the triumvirate composed of club captain Andrew Tyrrell, first team captain Niall Noonan and club coach Billy Evans – have been busy at a recruitment drive this summer and already big name signings including Connor Stevens
Team GB’s much-anticipated first gold was won on the waters of Eton Dorney by Heather Stanning and Helen Glover in the women’s coxless pairs. Stanning and Glover received much media attention, not just because they were the host nation’s first golden girls, but also as Glover had only taken up the sport four years previously after spells as a successful junior cross-country runner and hockey player. Glover and Stanning were successful products of the current British talent identification process that has proved so potent during this past summer’s Olympiad, but I was curious to see how those new to the sport in Trinity, especially women, would fare. Ireland does not have the same resources to be poured into a sophisticated talent identification system but one of the universal beauties of rowing – whether you are going for Olympic gold or just merely want to keep fit, make new friends and have some fun while you are at it – is that you can arrive (and most do) as complete beginners to rowing in university. From the enthusiastic group of members that were assembled in Islandbridge on a blustery Thursday evening before the start of term, the unanimous opinion was that everyone was
and Steven Ludgate have been welcomed into the fold. Stevens arrived in from Monkstown, was a member of their second XI who did the treble back in 2011 and is a frequent member of their 1st XI, as well as Leinster under-18s. He made his debut for Trinity during Colours 2012 and has signed on fully to join the growing St Andrews contingent within the club. Ludgate is a recent acquisition from Clontarf, having been an integral member of their squad, which won promotion to Division 1 as well as the Neville Davin Cup, and looks like a great prospect. Currently studying medicine, he brings great experience at a provincial level. Another member of DUHC to look out for is last season’s first team captain Cian Speers. The former St Andrews College player is a two-time Trinity College sports scholar and former Ireland under-18s captain and looks forward to his final year as part of our club. While last year was very much a transition as esteemed alumni
in the same boat (forgive the pun!) as beginners. As Coleman, a former captain of their male counterparts, explained, “You could be an Olympic level marathon runner or sprinter but once you get in the rowing machines, it makes no difference; it is a great leveller, all the new members are in the exact same place and have to start from the very beginning.” O’Neill explained that for her this way of starting to learn a new skill within a group helps to forge great friendships that span beyond just the confines of the rowing club. Another plus is that as well as diversity amongst the fields of study of members, there is also a mix of undergraduate, postgraduate and Erasmus students, so the rowers are expanding their social experience as well as becoming proficient at a sport. There are also various social events held throughout the academic year in conjunction with their male counterparts from DUBC. Many members join in their first year in Trinity but many more join in subsequent years; as one rower joked, “I went mad in first year and then decided I needed to get fit in my second!” In the past year, the club has
moved onto newer pastures, DUHC found themselves with a younger side than is usually at its disposal. After a disappointing start, with players trying to get used to their domestic and international teammates and the differing styles of play, the club rallied well and ended up a close third within Division Two. We are now in the fortunate position where summer turnover has been minimal for a college side and there is great cohesion within a unit that finished the season with aplomb, and looks set to hit the ground running from September this year. It gives me great pleasure that hockey rooms, an integral part of the club, are returning to Botany Bay this year, where it all began for me as a wide-eyed fresher some three years ago. To indulge in an anecdote for a brief moment, this return is reminiscent of the very beginnings of DUHC where the first meeting of its predecessor, the Irish Hurling Union, was held in House 17 of Botany Bay in 1879. This club went on
been relatively successful in terms of competition, winning the novice Colours against old foe UCD last term. Also, domestically the Club won two national championships in July in the novice and intermediate eights. As much as the competitive element is key, as in all sports, the enjoyment and fun factor seemed very apparent amongst DULBC members, with much hilarity elicited from the descriptions of their kit. One rower laughed, “When I first joined and I saw the Lycra you have to wear rowing, I thought you will never see me in that, and now it is like I live in Lycra!” As well as overcoming Lycraphobias, another benefit of rowing that was agreed upon by all was that, rather than the training taking away from precious study time, it “helps you balance your time and actually do better at your college work because you are much more fit and awake.” If the winning combination of the challenge of a new sport, meeting new people and increased alertness towards study (forgive another pun) floats your boat, the DULBC will be hosting an open day next Saturday.
to become DUHC and counted among its esteemed membership a certain Edward Carson (later the Right Honourable the Lord Carson, PC). The important link here being that the current hockey rooms are busy emulating those of years gone by, creating the potential leaders of our country! Carson's legacy was briefly celebrated last year in our previous home, House 38, with a waving Queen Elizabeth II as a tribute to our fine past; her whereabouts are since unknown and it is unlikely she shall regain her position of power in the window this year! DUHC, established in 1892, has a very proud tradition within Trinity and have four teams, of differing quality and competitiveness. We would welcome any and all interested to approach our stand (beside Dublin University Ladies’ Hockey Club) in Front Square this week and encourage you to come out to our trainings in Grange Road, Rathfarnham, on Monday and Wednesday evenings.