~What a great pleasure it was to welcome our friends from Borth and Ynyslas to Woodenbridge recently. This was the 25th occasion on which the Celtic Cup has been contested and three of our visitors had been on each of the 13 official Borth and Ynyslas trips to Woodenbridge – Idris Evans, Mike Price and Iwan Davies.

~From Woodenbridge - Bob Moran, Henry Crummy, Cathal Louth, Father Gerry O’Brien, Norman Doyle and John Jim & Michael Kavanagh were among those involved who participated in the early years. 29 men travelled to see us, five of these on their first trip. Our local Welsh man Mike Roberts completed the line up.

~Golf was arranged at Blainroe on a windy Thursday afternoon and it was a tired group who quietly ate dinner that night. Friday morning saw a visit to the Roberts-Bermingham residence for pick-me-ups before a friendly four ball at Woodenbridge in the afternoon. Friday night in the club-house saw a wonderful interaction between 9 members of a Dublin based, Welsh/Irish male voice choir and our friends from Borth, with magnificent singing in both English and Welsh of some of the classic Welsh hymns and anthems mixed in with some local fare with a sprinkling of Irish thrown in.

~Saturday saw a narrow victory for Woodenbridge, and the Celtic Cup was presented by Captain Dylan Raw-Rees to our own Captain Tony Richardson at the post match dinner. Both captains entertained greatly in their speeches in the face of serious heckling. President of Borth and Ynyslas, John Bakewell spoke of his delight at returning once again to Woodenbridge and M A Healy reminisced about events in the past and paid tribute eloquently to many stalwarts of both clubs, sadly no longer with us. There was much evidence to be seen of the strength of the relationship between our clubs – both the warmth of individual friendships and the overall interest in being involved on both sides of the Irish Sea.

At the conclusion of the dinner Captain Elect Yori Jones extended an invitation to Vice Captain Gavin Moran to lead us to Borth and Ynyslas next year. Bob Hughes Jones tells me he is working on the arrangements already, and we are all looking forward to it immensely.

Ian Bothwell