Yuletide festivities

Yuletide festivities

19 December 2018

IT’S going to be a busy festive season for Ballynahinch sports fans.

Not only are Ballynahinch Olympic involved in two major football finals inside 24 hours, but the town’s hockey club are also through to a Yuletide showpiece decider.

The Olympic seconds team face Celtic Bhoys in the Bobby Dalzell Cup final at Drumaness on Boxing Day.

Twenty four hours later the Olympic firsts take on Crumlin Star in the Border Cup final at Seaview.

The Ballynahinch club will be hoping to emulate Drumaness Mills who won both finals in 1980.

Athletics is catered for with the Castlewellan Parkrun taking place this Saturday before Newcastle AC’s highly popular Christmas Cracker race in Castlewellan on Saturday, December 29.

Just for good measure, Down’s senior Gaelic footballers open their McKenna Cup campaign away to Cavan on Sunday, December 30, and Tollymore United’s youth teams are involved in two Lisburn Youth League cup finals.

Both games will be played at the Lisburn Leisure Centre pitches and it is sure to be a great day of football for everyone involved with the club. The U-12 side are first up, playing at 9am kick against Enzo FC and the U-14s play at 11.30am against Doyle YC.

New Down manager Paddy Tally is expected to blood several new faces in the McKenna Cup and it is reported that while he has lost Downpatrick’s Anthony Doherty, who has moved to Australia with work and Glenn’s Shay Millar, Kilcoo’s Paul Devlin and Jerome Johnston have returned to the squad.

Ballynahinch Olympic’s second string get the serious hectic schedule underway on Boxing Day when they take on hot favourites Celtic Bhoys in the Dalzell decider.

Being underdogs will not faze Olympic in the slightest. They beat Celtic Bhoys in last year’s semi-final, only to fall to Ballyvea in the final.

This time round, Olympic edged out neighbours Ballynahinch Young Men in their semi-final at Bignian Park after a penalty shoot-out and they have every intention of causing a giant-killing act when they renew acquaintances with Celtic.

Regardless of who wins, a new name will be going on coveted trophy.

Twenty-four hours later Liam Sloan’s Olympic first team face a massive game when they tangle with Crumlin Star, who are bidding to retain the trophy after beating Downpatrick FC 4-1 in last year’s decider at Seaview.

Star have only been beaten once in all competitions this season, losing out on penalties to Sirocco in the Steel and Sons Cup semi-final last week — a game they were expected to win with ease.

Sloan will have taken great encouragement from Sirocco’s win and will send his players out with the message that they can defy the odds and lift the Border Cup for the first time.

In strikers Chris McNamara, Nathan Jones and Niall Murray he has the men for the job and Crumlin Star will do well to keep this trio from exerting their influence on the game.

Ballynahinch Olympic then hand over the baton to the town’s hockey team who take on a fancied Antrim Side in the Linden Cup final at Deramore on New Year’s Day.

Ballynahinch have excelled in the last 12 months and will not fear a strong Antrim side who beat CI Men 4-1 in their semi-final while ‘Hinch were 4-1 winners against Ballymena.

Antrim, who play in a division above Ballynahinch, have already beaten the locals 5-1 in an earlier group game and rightly go into the showdown as favourites, but that will suit coach Mark Brown just fine.

Goalkeeper Aaron Donnell is sure to face a busy day, but he can rely on the experience of skipper Andrew Mulholland, Leslie Harrison, Ashley Brown, William Edgar, Stuart Hunter, Matthew Martin, Alex Millar and Andrew McIlwaine for support.

Meanwhile, the Christmas Cracker race, which has attracted a maximum 750 entries, is one of the highlights of the athletics year.

Won last season by the host club’s Ian Bailey and Seamus Lynch, the annual race is a fun-filled, yet deadly serious seasonal outing that always attracts a huge crowd of supporters and athletes alike.

There is more than just bragging rights at stake as the local best athletes the sport has to offer pit their wits and endurance against some of the top runners in the country.

If all that isn’t enough, don’t forget that this year’s Steel and Sons Cup final at Seaview on Christmas morning is an all Amateur League affair with Premier Section hopefuls East Belfast facing close neighbours Sirocco Works, who play in Division 1A in one of the most eagerly-awaited finals in recent years.