RGU Notes

St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Clubrooms. From 4- 6.30 pm there will be live session music in the lounge while the All-Ireland Club hurling and football finals will be shown in the bar. Free stew will be available for everyone! Later, CELAIR will be on stage from 9pm to close of play.  CELAIR is one of the best Irish instrumental groups in the country and we recommend that you arrive early to secure a seat. Tickets will be a keenly priced £4 and you can pay at the door. Everyone is welcome to come along. Some Club membership fees are still outstanding. To facilitate payment, and the completion of membership forms, the Club will be holding two membership/registration nights on Monday 21st and Monday 28th March between 7pm and 9pm. All members should avail of this opportunity to renew their membership for the 2011 season. [caption id="attachment_21469" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="The Under-16 RGU team in their new kit."][/caption] Ticket sales for the Development draw are still steady, and we would ask everyone to return the tickets they have sold immediately. HERITAGE QUIZ – 11 MARCH 2010 Culture was very much at the fore in the RGU clubrooms last Friday when eleven teams from six local schools met for a ‘Know Your Heritage’ quiz. Key stage 2 competitors strove to see just who would claim the prize for 2011. With questions on Irish history, literature, music, sport and geography it was a real battle of wits. St Patrick’s PS, Legamaddy won by just one point in the end while St Patrick’s PS, Downpatrick, were runners- up. Close on their heels came St Brigid’s PS, who attained third place. This was a hugely entertaining competition, thoroughly enjoyed by all those who took part and spectated. The RGU would like to thank all participants and school staff for taking part so enthusiastically. Ulster U-17 Doubles’ Final Kingscourt Co Cavan was packed to capacity for Sundays Ulster juvenile handball finals, and while it was niece to soak up the atmosphere, all eyes where on the days last fixture. Nial Quinn and Sam Burns from RGU faced of against Armagh in the U-17 doubles final. The Armagh pair got of to a good start and lead 9-3, before the RGU lads hit back to level it at 9 each. The rest of game 1 was nip and tuck until the Armagh pair pulled of some great shots to close the game at 21-15. In game 2 the RGU lads found it very difficult to get into a game that was being heavly dominated by Armagh, which they eventually went on to win 21-7. Hard luck goes to Nial and Sam but they can hold their heads high as it was a great achievement to reach an Ulster final. [caption id="attachment_21470" align="alignright" width="400" caption="St Patrick's Primary School, Legamaddy were the quiz winners."][/caption] On the schools handball front Saturday 19th sees St Paul’s and Rossa clubs in Belfast host the Cumann na mBunscoil Ulster finals. Best wishes go to the following players Aoife Barnes(Convent of Mercy Downpatrick) Racheal McKeown(Bunscoil Downpatrick) Tim Prenter (Legamaddy) and Phillip Doran and Nial Laverty (St Patricks Saul) I am happy to report that both pitches are now open, and the juvenile pitch hosted the club’s first real football action of the season on Sunday when the U-16 boys played hosts to Leitrim in their opening match of the East Down A League. This was a great team performance which resulted in a winning score of 4-10 to 1-6 in favour of the Hoops. Scorers were C McGrady 2-4, O McEvoy 1-0, J Deeny 1-2, F Starkey 0-2,  C McCarron 0-1 and T Collins 0-1. The lads will train on Tuesday night at 7.00PM under the floodlights at PTR, and they will play St Pauls on Sunday at 4PM in Holywood. The Senior Reserves weren’t so lucky on Sunday when they went down by a single point at St. John’s. Next week they are away again to Annaclone. The Seniors are now training on Monday’s and Wednesday’s and they are now looking forward to their first league fixture which will be on 15th April away to Banbridge. The u-12 boys are now training on Saturday afternoons at PTR  3pm -4.30pm. Under-14 football training continues on Saturdays at 3.00PM with an additional indoor fitness session on Thursday evenings at 7.00 pm in the Clubrooms. Training for the Under-8s and Under-10s commenced on Saturday 12th March. Whilst there was a reasonable turnout for the U-10s, the attendance for the U-8 wasn’t as good. Hopefully all our children from P3 and up will be available next Saturday morning at 10.30 AM when they can expect a warm welcome. The training for the Primary ones and twos will commence on Saturday 26th March at 10.30. The Senior Ladies are training at 5PM on Sundays, while the Girls U-16s are due to start back next Sunday at 11:00AM. All new members welcome to attend. Set dancing continues on Tuesday nights at 7.30pm. Anyone interested just turn up or ring Johnny on 07710369509. For party bookings ring Brian on 07745496213. This week’s lotto numbers were 14,19, 22, & 25. Two  share £100 and next week’s jackpot is £3500. If you have any club information or announcements which you would like to have  included in next week’s Club Notes, please send the details via email to rgu1@hotmail.co.uk Our web site is updated on a regular basis. For all the latest news go to www.rgudownpatrick.com]]>