Wednesday, May 10, 2017

KBC season ends

Kilcullen Badminton Club's season came to an end on Tuesday 9 May, writes outgoing Club PRO Enda O'Neill, with the AGM held in the usual haunt, Kilcullen's Community Centre.

In a great turn-out we have some newly elected committee members to announce and they are as follows — Club Chairperson: Vincent Coller; Club Treasurer: Olivier Valroy; Club Secretary: Jennifier Monaghan; Match Secretary: Martin Dunne; and Club PRO: Tara O’Neill. The outgoing committee would like to wish our new Club Committee all the best in the coming season.

Our Summer Club, which starts on Thursday night 11 May, will also be run by a sub committee consisting of Clive Cole, Mari Gallagher and John Mullen. All are welcome to come down and play a bit of badminton and the club would encourage all skill levels are welcome. Our summer club nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9pm till late.

Our Selection Committee was also elected last night and their function is to select the teams for next season. The committee consists of Martin Dunne, Ben Phelan, Jennifer Monaghan, Enda O’Neill and Ray Dalton and as the saying goes, Good luck with that!

It has been a very successful season for the club with KBC winning 10 competitions, in the Dublin District League our Division 2 and Division 4 Ladies did the double by winning both the League and Cup in their division. Our South West League teams also had a mighty year with KBC proud to win the Grade 2 Mix, Grade 2 Mens, Grade 3 Mens and Grade 4 Ladies League titles, while in the South West Knockout Cup our Grade 4 Mix and Grade 3 Mix B teams were victorious with KBC proudly represented by two teams in the Grade 3 Cup Final. This is a reflection on how talented our players are, along with the hard work last years Selection Committee put in.

The Clubs night out is the last hurrah for this season and on the 09 June we will all let the hair down and announce the various club awards that are given annually at the end of the season. This year our resident Chefs Olivier and Maeve are hosting in their beautiful resturaunt “Les Olives”.

Finally as outgoing PRO I would like to thank a few people for all their help and support over the last year, as usual, Brian Byrne thank you for proof reading and displaying my articles all year. The Kilcullen Diary has been a great servant to our club and without your support we would not have been able to get the word out about events and results.

To Killian, our Sports Editor in The Bridge, again thank you for the support all year and for helping us target the community, yet another asset we would be lost without.

PJ and the Kilcullen Community Centre staff for all their help throughout the year, keeping the facility in tip top shape, as usual the showers were always warm which is always great after a match and the standard of the complex was favourably commented on by players from other clubs on numerous occasions.

Joe O’Connor is also another person due a mention, for the last number of years as the success in the club grew we depended on Joe for engraving and supplying trophies and awards. Even though at times, poor Joe was given the minimal time in which to complete the job, his work was always to the highest standard and done without any fuss. Joe of course is as local to the town as the river Liffey and can be contacted for any engraving jobs on 087 2174350 and if that fails he is probably having a coffee in “An Tearmann” so you’ll get him there!

Finally before I hand over the reins I’d like to thank Tara O’Neill for stepping up and taking over the mantle from me. I’ve really enjoyed my time as PRO and would like to thank the committee, members and the team captains for their support. Tara is a long standing member of our club and is the type of person who is naturally gifted at whatever task she gets involved in. I know Tara is going to do a great job and I look forward to sitting back, relaxing and reading whatever she writes.

Pictures are the Grade 4 SW Cup Champions (top, taking a selfie), our Grade 3 Champions (above) and our Division 4 Ladies DDL Cup and League Champions (below).