This lengthy lacuna in terms of on-field activity, which, thankfully, is about to end shortly, has at least provided me with the opportunity to do some more spadework on the site’s Results Archive. As you’ll see, the records now stretch back a full twenty years, with the result of every league and championship match we’ve played between the years of 1988 to 2007 (inclusive) now listed. For every championship game we’ve played within this period, the full starting line-up, subs introduced and scorers are also listed. The same details also included for the vast majority (though not all) of the league games we played, though the result of every NFL game we’ve played over the past 20 years is there.
I’m wholly reliant on The Irish Times digital archive for this exercise, so this means that I’m at their mercy in terms of the details included. For some league games, there’s a full match report (every league game in the case of the Dubs – some things never change) but for others it’s just the result and scorers. Sports coverage in the bad old days wasn’t anything as extensive as it is now and, it being The Irish Times, the Gaelic coverage had to find a place to squeeze in beside all that coverage of rugger, soccer, rugger, golf, rugger, racing, rugger and the rest.
I think that I’ll eventually have to pitch up at the offices of the Western and, if they’ll allow me, camp there for a few days (weeks?) to rifle through their back issues in order to fill in all the blanks. For now, though, I think I’ll just keep on plodding backwards through the years, listing whatever details are available and see how far that gets me.
Willie Joe
I’m sure you’ll be interested to know that the first Club Mayo draws are taking place tomorrow night in Lucan Golf Club.
Full details are online at http://www.clubmayo.ie.
Thanks
Oh yeah and members can collect their fleeces on the night as well!
Thanks for that, CM, best of luck with the do. Seeing as the weather has cooled down again, you could have a run on those fleeces! I’m off down the west for the weekend so unfortunately can’t make it myself tomorrow night.
We’ll have it personally delivered to you so – hopefully next week
No rush, I’m well stocked up with woolly jumpers!
Fair play to you on the archive Willie Joe. It’s a labour of love, and a strangely moving experience to look back at old teams from this remove. A friend and I spent a night in Tommy Cooke’s old bar in Ballina looking at old programmes once. Very evocative. The memories fairly flood back.
Well done on the Sligo game retrospectives as well. They don’t always stick in the memory. Be careful about putting up 1975 in case you break a TD’s heart. Bail ó Dhia ar an obair.
Thanks, Spailpin – I guess it is a labour of love alright and now that I’ve started it, it’s like an itch I’ll just have to keep scratching till I’ve gone back as far as the available records. My reason for starting it was simply that I was frustrated that something like this didn’t exist – having spent several months tracking down 20 years of results, I can see why this was the case!
I’m working on ’75 but as these are essentially childhood memories, I’ll be going easy on the politicians. I think they’ve all had enough of a kicking for one day in any event.
All the best
WJ