Claremont Cup set to welcome over a thousand future stars

After months of preparation and planning the stage is set for the start of Parkvilla’s annual soccer tournament - the Claremont Cup. Well, almost anyway. Just the final finishing touches have to be applied; the last-minute details worked out.

The tournament takes place this weekend, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd August with almost 100 teams participating. In all the annual tournament will involve in the region of 1,000 youngsters from, u-7 to u-11, who will play hundreds of games. It’s a festival of football if there ever was one.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the tournament is that all the games are played on one full-sized pitch at Claremont Stadium, the home of Parkvilla. The pitch, which is carefully and lovingly maintained and nourished by groundsman and ex-chairman Gerry Kennedy, will be divided into four smaller-sized playing arenas.

One of the main logistical jobs involved making up the goody bags.

One night recently a team of volunteers got together and spent a few hours making up a treat for each of the players who will take part in the Claremont Cup.

“We actually made a 1,000 goody bags with those bags containing a drink, bag of crisps, bar of chocolate and bag of jellies,” explained the tournament’s chief organizer Paddy Smyth who is also involved in coaching the club’s u-11 and u-13 teams.

“People came up to help out and started making the goody bags, then we had to sort out the medals and trophies, a lot goes on behind the scenes to have everything ready.

“We have to arrange the referees to be there all weekend, to make sure the co-ordinators are there, to have health and safety measure in place, to make sure the sound system is in place for the day, that the tuck shop is well stocked, you have to tick a lot of boxes. The human traffic over the weekend is also massive and that has to be organised.

“Despite all the challenges you want to make sure the experience for all involved is positive. I’m sure they all teams want to win but the main thing is that everyone has fun and goes home happy. That’s the idea of the goody bags, all the players get one, win, lose or draw.”

While the tournament is an important fundraiser for the club another chief reason why it was first staged almost a decade ago was to give young players the experience of taking on teams they normally wouldn’t play. Teams from Meath, Dublin and elsewhere. This year, for instance, players from as far away as Galway are taking part.

Paddy Smyth paid tribute to the work of the volunteers involved in making sure everything runs smoothly, from those who made up the goody bags to those charged with the task of ensuring traffic is kept flowing in and out of the ground’s carpark.

The one possible element that could scupper all the plans is the weather. Some years ago Smyth recalls how the tournament “was a washout, the pitches waterlogged.” There is little, he admits, that can do about that although a plan for that too has to be put in place also.

These days the Parkvilla first team are doing well in the NEFL Premier Division – and went agonisingly close to winning the title last year. That, Smyth asserts, can partly be attributed to the work taking place, again by many volunteers, in guiding and educating young players at the club – and the experienced picked up in tournaments like the Claremont Cup.

“The strength of the current senior team is a testament to the work of the all the coaches over the years and the efforts they have put in to the development of young players at the club.

“All the players on the first team are home grown players and that’s a great boost for the young lads coming up, they can see there’s a pathway for them,” he adds. “They have grown up playing with Parkvilla. They know the philosophy, the principles involved in playing for Parkvilla, they learn to stick together.”

That kind of cohesion and willingness of people to work towards achieving certain goals and objectives, is one of the reasons why the Claremont Cup – with those famous lucky bags - is now firmly established on the local sporting landscape, and is likely to stay there for the forseeable future.