|
Kilternan 1998THURSDAY 27th AUGUST 1998Hugh Rafferty and yours truly set of from Downview Avenue at 5:15 PM. The weather was pretty good and the forecast for the weekend was very promising. It's the August bank holiday. We make good progress and make it to Dublin by 7:30 PM and then on to Fortwilliam via the Point Toll Bridge. Gerry and Iggy meet us in the hallway and soon we are all sitting down with a jorum of our respective favourite sup. We're dining out of course and off we head to the Milhouse Bar, Stillorgan. It's a bit late but we get fixed up in Dicey Riley's bar. One of the waitresses was called Kay. The food was excellent although the space was rather cramped. We return to the apartment and resume our interest in things alcoholic. Gerry flakes out at his appointed time but not before getting me organised with my usual lounge floor bedroom. The craic was good and suddenly it was the early hours. Mr Rafferty retired at a half decent time and then in some curious way the three of us were intent on testing the structural capabilities of his bed. The actual details of the exercise remain hazy but the bed survived and I'm reliably informed that the next object to be tested was the lounge door. It seems that this door refused to open but I can't remember. I'm pleased to record that bed and door were all intact in the morning and indeed everyone was in fine spirits despite the lack of sleep for Hugh, Iggy and myself. FRIDAY 28th AUGUST 1998Breakfast was on time and we all enjoyed the early morning craic. Things were so intent last night hat we forgot about the round robin draw. This we made up for with an ad hoc card drawing. Today it was Gerry and myself v Hugh and Iggy. The weather was brilliant and everything was brilliant when we arrived at Kilternan. The course was more than usually crowded. Dundela Golf Society (in block format) were out ahead of us and turned out to be reasonably good at moving on. The bad news was that they had commandeered the golf buggies. Incidentally the hire cost had gone up from £12.00 to £20.00 thanks to Kilternan's new golf professional. We learnt later from Jimmy Kinsella that it was possible to "negotiate" a fee of £14.00. The weather was perfect, the course was at "its best" but the golf was less than perfect especially G & A's. The outcome was soon predictable and handshakes was the basis of 8&7. Things improved when we won the bye but my partner's negotiating skills were a bit off and as a result the bye bye went against us. In the bar Kilternan, pints of Guinness and Stag with a Guinness top went down extra well. We renewed relationships with Jimmy Kinsella and George. Four very tired golfers returned to Fortwilliam and hot showers and G. Mulvenna's hot coffee and Black Bush were urgently required to put us on our feet. The Leopardstown Inn was our hostelry for the night and the huge McAllisten mirror was in its usual reassuring position. The food was good and justified two bottles of wine. Gerry's car, parked immediately outside the bar entrance, was still intact and remained unclamped. We had a marvellous evening back at Fortwilliam. SATURDAY 29th AUGUST 1998Today was marvellous once again, Sun block is the order of the day. The match was A&I v G&H. It was nip and tuck all the way around until the 16th when G&H went 1 up. The 17th was hotly contested and looked certain to be a half. However, Mr Mulvenna produced a blockbuster when he rminded A&I that he had a shot at the hole. Talk about a laugh. Even Mr Rafferty was surprised to get an early handshake from his partner. A&I also shook hands with Mr M but expressed a preference for his throat. Once again the old round robin format forbade Iggy to take physical action. We learned in the bar that Offaly had surprisingly defeated Clare, the Champions, in the All Ireland hurling semi replay at Thurles. 0. 16 to 0.13. The earlier encounter had ended prematurely - the ref blowing up with two minutes to spare. The TOTA restaurant in Blackrock Village was our dining out choice. The food was brilliant. Three of us went for Gerry's choice of pizza and prawns and garlic toast. Lovely grub. Far too much, especially as we had stuffed mushroom and minestrone and then four large desserts to finish. We had intended to watch the hurling replay on TV but sadly it wasn't on any channel. Gerry retired to bed surprisingly in the middle of the Princess Diana TV conspiracy documentary. The rest of the company agreed that an early night was the thing to pursue. However Mr Rafferty engaged Iggy in an investigation into the Catholic Church and one thing led to another and the fight was on. Luckily we had - by the skin of our teeth - managed to get Mass at Sandycove church - we arrived in, courtesy of the DART, just as the priest had his fingers in the finger bowl so we were assured of a lie in in the morning. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it seemed like a good idea at the time to discuss important issues when the opportunity presented itself and so in the event time was ignored and, to coin a phrase in cricketing parlance, daylight stopped play. For the record it was a 7 AM job and hopefully the last. SUNDAY 30TH AUGUST 1998We were at Kilternan for 1:15 and enjoying yet another marvellous day especially in a year when summer seemed to have passed us by so cruelly. The pairing was A&H v G&I. The two big hitters were in front all the way. I made a major contribution to the day and the weekend by suggesting that the bye bye be abandoned at the 15th. This was happily accepted and the extra drinking time utilised to the full. In addition Hugh was able to slip off a little ahead of schedule in order to miss any Croke Park crowds and Slane Castle difficulties. In the event we learnt later that he was indeed held up by nearly an hour. The remaining Cabelleros returned to Fortwilliam for the usual cleaning up exercise. We dined out, again, at Dicey Riley's. The food was great with a nice bottle of Chilean red. On returning to base we all agreed that we all needed - badly - an early night. So for the first time in living memory of the Kilternan or Rosepenna weekends we were all heading to bed before 11:15 PM. MONDAY 31ST AUGUST 1998The Monday morning weather made it clear just how lucky we had been from Thursday to Sunday. It was very murky and overcast. However, we were reasonably cheerful as we did our usual cleaning up exercise. All good things come to an end and we set off for Belfast about 11:30 AM. It had been a wonderful weekend. Everyone had one win in the round robin but our youngest member had 3 so went off with the triple crown leaving the O'Connell wooden spoon still in the drawer, We look forward to next Thursday to Bill Clinton's arrival in Belfast, for Omagh and Armagh and then 18 holes over Ballybunion with Dick Spring. |