Hurling - Loch Mor Dal gCais, Ballygalget & St Pauls

Our lives are shaped by many things, things such as family, friends, climate and your community.  Well Jude grew up in a Hurling community, in the townland of Ballygalget, County Down, and that meant only one thing ..... he grew up with a love for Hurling. 

Here are Jude & Ben in the front row with Loch Mor dal gCais senior team.





Jude's home team of Ballygalget was formed in 1939 and is one of the strongest Hurling communities in Ulster.  They have won many Down Senior Hurling Championships of which Jude was part of two (1997, 1998), and three Ulster Senior Championships of which Jude was part of one (1998).  Jude played his first Senior game for Ballygalget in 1992 and his last in 1999.







Here is the Ballygalget Intermediate Championship final team from 1996.  Jude (back row third from left) played midfield in this game and despite his personal tally of 1-1 Ballygalget lost this game to Ballycran. That's Jude's brother Martin in the centre of the front row (goalkeeper, in green).

Here is that 1998 Ulster Senior Hurling Championship winning squad with Jude standing in between his cousin Gabriel and his mate Barry Coulter in the back row.

Jude grew up with all these lads, went to primary school with them, played games with them, socialized with them and won and lost with them.  All are lifelong friends and all an honor to call teammates.






After moving house to the Glen Road in Belfast Jude transferred to St Paul's Club (Shaw's Road) in early 2000. Here he enjoyed 5 years of hurling with a very good St Paul's team.  In those 5 years St Paul's played in the Antrim Senior Hurling Championship and the Antrim League Divisions 1a and 1b.  This era happened to be the best that St Paul's ever achieved in hurling as they competed well with, and sometimes beat, some of the top teams in Antrim.  Jude is immensely proud of being part of this team.

The highlight of this St Paul's era was winning the Antrim League div 1b league title in 2001.  Here is Jude standing extreme left as St Paul's prepare to face Ballycastle in the Antrim Senior Championship at Casement Park in 2002.

Here is that St Paul's team that won the Antrim League Division 1b league title in 2001.  This was the highest league honour ever achieved by St Pauls. Jude is standing back row second from right.  Jude played his last game for St Paul's in September 2004 and basically retired from the game so he could focus on his studies at Queen's University (4 1/2 years).  After Queen's and then living in Boston, U.S.A. for another 4 1/2 years Jude's involvement in Hurling amounted to that of being a spectator, following the interests of both Ballygalget and St. Pauls. 




After returning home to live in Glenavy, County Antrim, it was a random meeting in Lilly Johnston's restaurant with old St Paul's team mate Tom Brown that got Jude thinking the time had come to get back into the game.  Tom asked if Jude would like to help coach the under 10's at a completely new club recently formed in the area called Loch Mor dal gCais.  This proved to be too exciting a challenge & too big a great community project to let slide, so thinking of Ben's future he went along. 

Jude just had too much knowledge of the game to not help out in some capacity and help out he did.  The first thing Jude enjoyed was the craic, that banter you can only have with being part of a team, a club, a community like this.  Loch Mor began to grow fast and Jude, Marguerite (fundraising) and Ben were happy to do their bit.  Here is Jude's under 10 team doing what they love doing most besides playing ..... messing about (spot Ben in the back there).







Pearcy and Jude with the under 10 team.  



















Playing is the main thing but don't let anyone fool you into thinking winning is not important.  These kids want to win.

Here Jude gives his inspiring team talk just prior to the big game. 

 

And win they did!

A bunch of winners having just won the cup for the Under 10 blitz tournament at Tir Na Og Ballymena.  That's Tom Brown (who asked Jude back into hurling) standing extreme right.

Being presented with the cup.  This was the first thing this team had won this year and the first thing Jude had been involved with winning in Hurling since that Antrim League Div 1b title back in 2001!












A well deserved lap of honour!
















Loch Mor dal gCais under 10's.  The future of the club.















Post-blitz winning celebratory BBQ!!  You gotta celebrate wins, and that applies to coaches as well as players.  Here are: Pearcy (Jude's mate and management partner in Under 10's), Tom, Geraldine (Tom's wife) and Marguerite.

So as Jude coached other members of Loch Mor chipped away with comments such as, 'hey, fancy coming along to the Senior training, 'would you like to play Senior? etc. 






Eventually .... he said, 'why not' and he was back playing just like that.  Back in ..... hook, line and sinker ....... and loving it.  He returned and played the last 4 games of the 2015 season.  That was Loch Mor's first season in the league (div 4) and they went through it without winning a game but the main thing was (for now) that there was a team representing the club and giving kids something to look up to.  This pic was taken on 17th April 2016 after the first game of the 2016 season.  With 5 minutes to go in this game Jude broke two bones in his right hand when making a block and was subsequently out for 3 months!



Loch Mor Dal gCais was formed in 2013 and by 2015 the club had teams in every age group from u6 all the way through to Senior.  It now has over 300 members and that is just a great effort by all involved.  The Senior team was made up of former players and a couple of under 18's and when Jude returned from his injury and got back playing in July the team had still not won a game.  But they were improving all the time and gradually they were getting closer and closer. 

Then on 24th July 2016 amid scenes of total joy at Boucher playing fields they eventually pulled off the magical moment of a first Senior victory.


















A score line of Loch Mor Dal gCais 2-14 Ballyvarley 0-6 went into the record books and for all involved it was a day to savour. 


















Ballyvarley were gracious in defeat and their manager came over to speak to the Loch Mor players (Jude is number 5) and kindly acknowledged that this was a big moment for the new club. 

Spot Ben there running around in his hurling gear.      

Ben and Jude celebrate the first victory.

The (first) winning team: Back row, L-R - Pearcy, Fra, Gerard Pickering Jnr, Conor O'Dwyer, Hugh, Michael Stewart, Mark Bell, Danny Bell, Paul Darragh, Dunners, Rory Shine, Conor Murray, Liam Burke, Jude (& Ben), David, Dannan, Paul 'Banjo' Bannan, Chris Shine, Neil and Gerard Pickering Snr.

Hurling is a great sport and Jude has played for three very different teams.  One a top level team, one a team which for a few short years mixed it with the top teams of Antrim and now one which is only starting out.  All three teams mean the world to Jude and the friendships formed in each will always be there.  That's the priceless part.
Ballygalget, St Pauls and Loch Mor Abu.