The Polo Grounds

Colum Thompson contemplates how the much-improved Polo Grounds help ease the pressure on Páirc Mhuire.

 

A home game against Eoghan Rua Coleraine in the North Antrim Junior League could never be described as a glamorous fixture and the game on Tuesday the 3 ^rd of June wasn’t one for the purists but the match itself represented another piece of progress by Ruairi Og Cushendall. It was the first game in many year’s, decades even, to be played on The Polo Grounds. Shortly after St. Aloysius closed a few years ago Ruairi Og became the new tenants of the school pitch and since then a mountain of work has gone on to bring the pitch up to standard. Most notably and very necessary was the erection of state of the art keep nets at either end along with pitch widening and drainage works. A massive amount of credit must go to people like Fergus Mc Naughton, Archie Mc Keegan, Paddy Mc Ateer, Mally Darragh, Paddy Duncan, Charlie Mc Auley, Alex Emerson, John 'Smokey' Mc Killop, Seamus Mc Cambridge, Patsy Black and others (if I’ve left your name out, it wasn’t intentional) who put in hundreds of hours of work. Despite conforming to GAA minimum size requirements The Polo Grounds will hardly see senior championship action, but that was never the aim of the redevelopment work, however it now can accommodate junior hurling, camogie and underage matches and teams of all ages for training. This in turn helps to ease congestion on our main pitch and keeps it in tip top condition. For those interested we lost the match 2-10 to 2-6 but I had a proud feeling taking part in a game on one side of The Coast Road while our senior camogs were getting the better of Dunloy on the other. Our clubs ultimate goal remains the same, we want to regain The Antrim Senior Championship and we want an All Ireland Club Title but all teams have a place in the club and now all teams will have a place to play. No more fixture clashes, no more having to play what should have been a home game at an away venue and better access to good facilities for every team. Step by step… progress