Bruff first XV V Shannon, Tuesday 25th August

 1st XV  Comments Off on Bruff first XV V Shannon, Tuesday 25th August
Aug 212009
 

Shannon RFC are coming out to Kilballyowen for a practice pre-season game this coming tuesday evening kickoff at around 7:30pm. I’m not too sure what format this will take whether it’s three twenty minute sessions or a full game or what way it will go. First game versus opposition for the season, why not come along a shout them

Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, What a Blitz…..Bruff Tag Rugby

 Bull 'N' Booze, Photosets  Comments Off on Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, What a Blitz…..Bruff Tag Rugby
Aug 172009
 

There is no doubt we feel that saturday was the very best blitz ever.

Firstly we would like everyone that was there to contact us directly with comments, Honest Comments by email to : pr@bruffrfc.com What did we do wrong, what we can improve, what we should change, what went perfect, what went alright and what was poor. We need your honest opinions and I guarantee that I will respond personally to each and every one whether good or bad.

From our point of view, we had everything that we could have asked for and more, following the unbeliavable opening party in Clancy’s on Friday night:

Rochdale Swarm at Clancy's for the opening Party

Rochdale Swarm at Clancy's for the opening Party

The torrential rain stopped at quarter past ten in the morning (AGAIN!!!!, who was on their knees? ) and it seemed to go almost perfectly from there on (from where I was for the duration).
Just a quick few words before I head out the door to the post-blitz committee meeting tonight:

38 teams in 4 Divisions, (A,B,C,D) 8 Pools  on 8 pitches. Seventy nine pool games completed, twenty eight teams made Semis & then we had the group and section finals. Thanks to the trojan work put in during the day by the crew in the office and on the pitches, we had everything done and dusted in time on time well ten mintues off 🙂 . Just goes to show what a non-profit, non-commercial group of volunteers can accomplish.

First off, A special thanks to Gráinne for the absolutely great work done over the last four to five months.

Thanks to you, the players, the Teams that  travelled from Exeter in devon, Rochdale near Sale, London and from Fermoy, Tralee, Clonmel, Ennis, Galway, Cork, Kildare and all over Limerick.
Thanks to the absolutely fabulous Ruth Scott and Paddy Mc Kenna and the 2FM Roadcaster, sponsored by Kelloggs Get Active. (you can play back the show on www.2fm.ie). You guys were absolutely fabulous and really added to the atmosphere on the day.
We had the traditional Bucking Bronco Bull that carried Ruth Scott, Jon Kenny and the “other Bull” John Hayes on its back during the day:

Jon Kenny wrestling steers

Jon Kenny wrestling steers

We had the gorgeous pear babes for the Bulmers Pear “Embrace the Pear” in the bar on Saturday evening  dishing it out as fast as they could cope with the queue (They told us that they had never seen such a  thirsty Horde 🙂 ).

Veteran Bull N Booze Live Band Intrigue absolutely rocked the joint, Alec and the lads were just on FIRE, and they asked me to say thanks to all of you there on the night for making it such a fabulous gig. Saturday night for me cemented their reputation as one of the absolutely best live bands in the Mid-West region and vindicated my faith in them. Thanks guys:

Intrigue

Intrigue

We had approximately 70 tents dotted around on the pitches, lunches, burgers, dinners, teas, cakes, sambos, ice cream, chips and sunday morning breakfast.

The Magners League, 6 Nations and Triple Crown Trophies were on show all day courtesy of the IRFU and MAR, thanks again guys for all of your assistance leading up to the day.

We saw the presentation of the first ever Honorary life membership of Bruff RFC to Munster, Ireland and Lions player, Bruff’s own John Hayes and his good lady Fiona (passed at this years AGM):

John Hayes with the 6 Nations, Magners League and Triple Crown Trophies.

John Hayes with the 6 Nations, Magners League and Triple Crown Trophies.

Next up I have to pay a very sincere thank you to all of our referees on the day. They put in tremendous work and did so without a word of complaint, I can only hope that you enjoyed yourselves as much as we enjoyed having you. I didn’t get a chance to meet all of you before ye left but again a sincere thanks to you all and I will be in touch personally.

For the record, Saturday was a prime example of  how our club can run an event perfectly or as close to perfectly as makes no difference. A very special thank you to all of our volunteers from Mary Paul and her crew in the bar to The Cahills, Mike Lillian and co for the kitchen and all of our pitch co-ordinators and our own guys who filled in to give the refferees a break as and when needed.

Rochdale present Gráinne with a jersey.

The Swarm present Gráinne with a jersey.

Declan Hehir has all of the team photos taken on the day available for sale, I’ll get a link or a Slideshow of them up as soon as I can.

For the moment here is a link to a very small slideshow just as a teaser, I’ll get some more up over the next couple of days.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Entries for Tag Blitz closing thursday.

 Bull 'N' Booze  Comments Off on Entries for Tag Blitz closing thursday.
Aug 122009
 

As we have had many people asking to place teams, we have to close entries by Lunchtime Tomorrow to allow the setting up of League tables etc. for Saturday.

This means that anyone that has not confirmed and paid by Lunchtime tomorrow (Thursday) will not be entered into the competition.

We’re sorry to have to do this but we have no option to facilitate those teams waiting who are willing to confirm and pay the entry in full.

Closing for entries is 12:00 pm sharp on Thursday 13th of August.

Full house in Bruff for Coiscéim Eile Charity Night

 Photosets, Social  Comments Off on Full house in Bruff for Coiscéim Eile Charity Night
Aug 112009
 

Full house in Bruff RFC.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PHOTO SLIDESHOW.


Last Friday night saw a completely packed house in Kilballyowen for the Bruff RFC charity night in aid of the Coiscéim Eile Lokomat Appeal.
The evening kicked off with an hour of music from the brilliant Cáirde Ceoil, who have an album being released in the very near future. There wasn’t a space left in the house before the kickoff with people trooping in from about 7:30pm onwards to ensure that they got a good seat, although fear of the following act may have caused an initial rush to the seats farthest from the aisles.
After the interval, Comedian Jon Kenny took to the stage and what followed was an hour and a half of absolutely brilliant mayhem, with sketches covering everything from Puberty and growing up in Hospital to Rugby with even Munster, Lansdowne and D4 Leinster supporters on the receiving end. Without sounding biased, this was probably the best gig that I have ever seen Jon perform. He had the audience in the palm of his hand from start to finish, rolling in the aisles one minute and you could hear a pin drop the next, more than ably backed up with his guitar and Ivor Ottley on strings for the musical sections. To put it simply, he was on fire, an absolutely fabulous night.
After another interval, we continued with the Auction of Sports memorabilia, with signed Munster, Ireland and Lions jerseys , Thomond Park Prints, Limerick Football Team Jersey and Ruby Walsh’s Britches from the Galway Races all going under the hammer, brilliantly conducted by the Master of Ceremonies for the night, former Auctioneer and Chairman of Limerick Co. Co. Matt O’ Callaghan. Following a raffle draw conducted by Joan Ryan of Coiscéim Eile for the remainder of the prizes kindly donated by our many, many thoughtful sponsors, the night finally drew to a close finishing off with a disco courtesy of Club DJ Eugene O’ Sullivan into the small hours.
A great success, the night proved a few things to us. Firstly that local sporting organisations and the general local community are still very willing to support noble causes when they need it most and secondly that here at Bruff RFC, we are more than capable of running and holding any kind of event from a fantastic night like this to Christening parties, First communion parties, Weekend long events like the Irish Caravan and Camping Club Rally last May Bank Holiday, all day events like this coming weekend’s Tag Rugby blitz or a 21st Birthday Party.

Closing the curtain on Friday night, all of us at Bruff RFC would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped this night become the fantastic success that it was, our many sponsors, entertainers, ticket sellers and finally to all of you, the general public that bought tickets, donated and turned up on the night. If anyone would still like to contribute to the fund, the paypal link for donations will remain on the website.