THE CURTAIN was brought down on the HSE Community Games national finals on Sunday, August 22, at Athlone I.T. Over the three weekends, children from all over the county participated with distinction in most of the activities.

To say they brought honour to family, area and county would be an understatement; they did more than that, and it showed in their results. From the three weekends, the amount of medals brought home was exceptional and I reckon that 2010 was probably our best to date.

So let's salute the youngsters, congratulate them and hope they continue to excel in whatever they do in the future. Over the weekend of August 20-22 the children participated in the athletic events, and as well as that there were two rounders teams in action and a tag rugby team.

TRACK EVENTS

Wexford's only gold medal on the track was won by Ryan Murray from the Bree-Davidstown Area in the 100m Under-12 final in fine style. Other medal winners included Corrine Kenny from the Gorey Area who ran a very good 200m Under-10 to take the silver medal. Shortly afterwards her sister, Nadine, was on the starting line for the 800m Under-14 and finished in bronze medal position.

John Kehoe (Bree-Davidstown) competed in the boys' 200m Under-10 final and took a silver medal. Sophie McCabe and Katie Whelan (Bree-Davidstown) both won bronze medals, Sophie in the 600m Under-12 and Katie in the 60m Under-8 final. Jennifer Cummins from Horeswood took a bronze medal in the Under-10 hurdles.

Cathal Cummins from the Bannow-Ballymitty Area took the fourth place medallion in the 60m Under-8 final, and Colin Nolan from Enniscorthy was fourth in the 100m Under-16.

Others who performed well but finished outside of medals were Matthew Browne, Niamh Rochford, Sophie Codd, Aoife Rochford, Amy Flanagan (Bree-Davidstown); Jason Murphy, Breda Cummins (Horeswood); Joe Mooney, Stephen Gorman (Adamstown); Darragh Rossiter, Aaron Maddock, Ella O'Connor (Piercestown-Murrintown); Josh O'Connor (Glynn-Barntown); David O'Connor (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown); Claire O'Gorman (Taghmon) and Jane Shovlin (Castlebridge-Crossabeg) who had to withdraw from their respective races on medical grounds.

FIELD EVENTS

Here we had our best results for a few years. On Saturday we had our first medal, with Annie Stafford from the Bree-Davidstown Area taking the gold medal in the Under-14 long jump final. Not to be outdone, young Luke Sinnott from the Taghmon Area followed suit by winning the gold medal in the Under-12 long puck.

A silver medal was won by Christopher Culleton from the Piercestown-Murrintown Area in the Under-16 high jump, with Peter O'Shea from the Castlebridge-Crossabeg Area taking the fourth place medallion in the Under-12 ball throw and Jennifer Bohanna from the Clongeen Area also taking a fourth place medallion in the Under-16 javelin.

Steven Lawlor from Kilmore finished in a respectable fifth place in the Under-14 shot putt. Competing also but finishing outside of the medals were Tara Farrell (Enniscorthy), Mairéad Moran (Bannow-Ballymitty), Saoirse Burke (Kilmore), Mikey Cullen (Castlebridge-Crossabeg) and Aoife Fanning (Enniscorthy).

MARATHON

Wexford sent up a boys' team and just one girl to compete in this event. The boys' team was made up of Conor Devereux and Bill Eviston from the Castlebridge-Crossabeg Area, James Kells from Enniscorthy and Adam Horan from the Bree-Davidstown Area. Conor was first home for Wexford in tenth place, followed by James in 14th place, Adam in 16th and Bill in 20th, leaving them worthy winners of the bronze medals.

Dervla McCabe from the Bree-Davidstown Area was the sole contestant in the girls' event with no back-up, but she ran her own race but finished outside of the medal placings.

RELAYS

Nine relay teams were in action. Eight of these came through from their heats to the semi-finals, with six of them progressing to the finals where they finished up with six gold and 16 silver medals.

What a run by young Ryan Murray in the final of the Under-12 boys' relay. The Clare runner had a good 20 metres or so on him in the final run in, but Ryan pressed the accelerator and quickly ate up the track to pass him and take the gold medals home to the Bree-Davidstown Area. The other members of the team were Barry Nolan, Enda Minogue, Dean Doyle, Brandon Sinnott and Anthony Butler. The team had qualified in first place in the heat and the semi-finals and were not going to be denied their gold medals.

The Under-14 girls from the Horeswood Area who qualified in first place in the heat and the semi-final also had a great run in the final but went home with some well-deserved silver medals. Here the team consisted of Hazel Murphy, Sophie Bedker, Niamh Murphy, Shannon Dawkins, Maria Cummins and Megan Byrne.

The Under-16 girls' team from Bree-Davidstown came through their heat and their semi-finals to finish in second place in the final and take the silver medals. Their team consisted of Catherina Carroll, Amy Flanagan, Rachel Condon, Kate Murphy, Dervla McCabe and Hannah Sullivan.

Enniscorthy's Under-16 boys' team of Colin Nolan, James Kells, Davin O'Connor and Ciarán Joyce had a good run in their relay, finishing second in the semi-final and taking home the silver medals from the final. Team member James Kells had earlier in the day taken part in the marathon where he helped his county to take bronze medals.

The most unfortunate of all were the girls' Under12 team from Bree-Davidstown. They had come through the heat and semi-final in first place and were surely destined for the medal podium. However, the baton was dropped between the second and third runner. But fair play to the girls involved, they picked it up and ran on to finish in fifth place.

The boys' Under-14 team from the PiercestownMurrintown Area qualified in first place in their semifinal but found the going tough in the final and finished in seventh place. The Under-10 mixed relay from Bree-Davidstown with John Kehoe, David Rochford, Matthew Browne, Katie-Mai McCabe, Ava Dempsey and Róisín Treacy made it to the semi-finals, as did the Under-13 mixed relay team from the Castlebridge-Crossabeg Area who had Ronan Devereux, Damien Reck, Evan Kinlough, Rianna Cullen, Aoife O'Keeffe and Katie-Anne Neville on their panel.

The Under-15 relay team from the Enniscorthy Area who were hampered by injuries competed but lost out in the heats. Their members consisted of Craig Dwyer, Mark O'Connor, Hannah Mahon, Aoife Fanning and Laura Kinsella.

UNDER-15 GIRLS' ROUNDERS

The Under-15 girls from Piercestown-Murrintown scored an outstanding national success when they defeated Mayo by 26 runs to 16 in the final. This was a fabulous performance, with all the girls playing superbly throughout the weekend.

Girl of the game and captain, Elsa McDermott, led by example and scored a super home run in the second innings, bringing three runners home and establishing a lead which the Wexford girls never lost. Aoife McAuliffe was equally deadly with the bat, scoring two runs and getting four others home.

Bowler Lisa Firman was in great form for all five innings, while the fielding of the Wexford girls was a joy to watch. Not a single ball was dropped and the large crowd of parents and supporters marvelled at catches from catcher Aisling Cronin, shortstop Shauna Hogan who caught a sizzler, Rachel Kehoe at second who caught the ball and then tagged the base to get two out.

The long stops were equally good. Hannah Frankis and Katie Lawlor each caught long balls at vital times in the fourth innings while Aoife Rossiter got four superb catches at longstop in a perfect display. Ellen Barrett caught the winning ball at second base to secure the national title for Wexford.

In their semi-final, Piercestown-Murrintown defeated Monaghan by 51 to 1 in what was one of their best-ever displays of batting. Aoife Daly was batting excellently and thought she had scored a great home run, only to be called out for missing third base. Such bad luck. Shauna Hogan scored six runs, including her first home run, and hit nine others home, while Katie O'Connor also scored six and got ten others in. Girl of the game Hannah Frankis also scored six runs and fielded really well on second base throughout.

The panel consisted of Aisling Cronin, Hannah Frankis, Aoife McAuliffe, Katie Lawlor, Rachel Kehoe, Katie O'Connor, Shauna Hogan, Ellen Barrett, Aoife Rossiter, Lisa Firman, Elsa McDermott and Aoife Daly.

UNDER-13 BOYS' ROUNDERS

Piercestown-Murrintown represented Wexford in the boys' Under-13 rounders. They defeated Limerick in the play-off to win the bronze medals on a 4-2 scoreline. This was a great match, 'one of the best of the weekend', according to the officials. Captain Nicky Greene bowled superbly and he combined again and again with catcher Philip McDermott and first base minder Barry O'Connor to get the Donegal boys out.

The low scoreline indicates fielding of the highest quality throughout. Rory O'Connor fielded brilliantly at shortstop and was very unlucky to have a home run disallowed for missing first base. Páraic Rossiter had a great game, getting two out at second, scoring one run and hitting Darragh Kenny and Rory O'Connor home for the match-winning scores.

Earlier the Wexford boys lost the semi-final 17-11 to a very strong Donegal team who had one of the finest bowlers seen for a long time. Conor Firman, Darragh Kenny, Conor Coleman, Ben Maddock and Barry Cronin batted very well, while young Adam Cantwell scored a run and got an out on second in his national debut.

Their panel of players consisted of Philip McDermott, Barry O'Connor, Nicky Greene, Darragh Rossiter, Rory O'Connor, Conor Firman, Conor Coleman, Darragh Kenny, Páraic Rossiter, Adam Cantwell, Barry Cronin, Ben Maddock. Coach for both teams was Eamonn Barrett.

UNDER-14 MIXED TAG RUGBY

A team from the Glynn-Barntown Area represented the county. They were up against Donagh from Monaghan in the semi-final. Ten seconds into the game, Brionn Coffey had Glynn-Barntown ahead.

It was score for score until Kim Brazzill made a brilliant intercept and break to lay off for Neil Beaver to score. Conor Fenlon added another as did Matthew Joyce and Wexford led 7-5 at half-time.

Glynn-Barntown continued to rotate the team so everyone was fresh going into the final quarter. Matt Doyle and Róisín Kavanagh were outstanding in defence and they ran out easy winners on a 14-11 scoreline, though the score did not reflect this. Kevin Mahoney scored a hat-trick.

In the final they were up against Drumcliffe from Sligo. This was a very tense, tight affair with both defences on top. A good inter-change between Matthew Joyce, Brionn Coffey and Conor Fenlon got Wexford off the mark. Stephen Lyne then went on another solo weaving run to score again.

Glynn-Barntown were in front by two again, but Drumcliffe came forward and after good play pulled level before a brilliant pick-up intercept by Daire MacCormack who beat two lads and laid it off to Stephen Lyne to score.

This is when Glynn-Barntown started to really believe they would win and they just had the edge at half-time, leading 5-4.

In the second-half, Brionn Coffey, Matthew Joyce and Conor Fenlon were at it again and engineered some intricate passing moves to rattle Drumcliffe. Róisín Hayden and Aisling Fagan played like women possessed, never missing a tag.

In the final minute Glynn-Barntown were one ahead and Drumcliffe were on the five-metre line, but the Wexford team forced the error and swept down the field to score. It was all over and GlynnBarntown won out on a 10-8 scoreline. They were never behind in any of their matches throughout from county right through to the national finals.

Team coach Kieran MacCormack wishes to say a special 'thank you' to the backroom staff of Anne Fagan, John Fagan and Martin Fenlon. The panel consisted of Matthew Joyce (capt.), Brionn Coffey, Conor Fenlon, Daire MacCormack, Stephen Lyne, Kevin Mahoney, Matt Doyle, Neil Beaver, Aisling Fagan, Kim Brazzill, Róisín Kavanagh and Róisín Hayden.

A special mention also for Meabh Honahan who dropped out due to injury.