Youghal GAA Swallow The Score
By Christy Parker | Photo: Michael Hussey (YoughalOnline.com)
Youghal GAA had to engage the Public Address services of local radio broadcaster and technician Noel Cronin after a family of swallows set up home on their property at Copperally. The club hosted two important East Cork Championship Games on Saturday and Monday respectively but were unable to use their scoreboard because the feathered fans had built a nest on it.
Groundsman Tony O’Connell points at the nesting swallows
The scoreboard is effectively a little shed with a frontal metal hatch. The birds built the nest on an inside ledge attached to the hatch and it will hurl to the floor if the hatch is raised. Gently relocating it might lead to the young occupants being abandoned.
Groundsman Tony O’Connell discovered the family of three chicks and two adults when he came to prepare the pitch for the upcoming games. “The parents started flying around like crazy when I found them,” he says and though he claims it didn’t knock a feather out of him, the innocent intruder wasn’t too happy to be up before the beaks. “I backed out fairly fast,” he adds.
Neither was club chairman Seanie Ring happy to find himself also out on a ledge. “It’s a bizarre situation but it seems we’ll have to hire a scoreboard,” he eggsclaimed last Friday. “We don’t want to harm them.”
Renting a substitute scoreboard doesn’t come ‘cheep’ and the club feared they would have to tap into their nest egg to the tune of €200 per night to pay a Lisgoold supplier. The club were about to er, swallow their pain when someone chirped up that Noel Cronin be flown in. So it was that eagle-eyed Noel kept track of the score and crowed out the details every 15 minutes to the watching flocks of supporters.
Meanwhile Tony figures Youghal’s star wingers are almost set to fly the nest. Point taken, but what if they aren’t just fluttering to deceive?…
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
* All comments are moderated before publishing.No comments yet.
Leave a comment