I'm in a Camino State of Mind

This day 5 weeks back we took off with the girls on a post Leaving and Junior Certificate trip.  We headed off to Spain and Santiago de Compostella to walk the Camino Finisterre from the Cathedral to the end of the world.  It was our first introduction to the Camino Concept.

That trip was just 1 week long, with 5 days of walking.  I became an addict.  I am now a self-confessed Caminista.  We are planning another trip before Christmas and looking forward to the day we can commit the time to walk the big one, the Camino Frances.  I'll write up a piece on our Camino experiences once I get my photos sorted.

A Camino is just a walk, a long walk.  You can do your Sunday long walk, but walking all day, day after day does something to your body and mind.  Something good.  In the beginning, it is tough, but then your body adjusts and that is where the mind and soul start to kick in and the endorphins begin to feed your pleasure zones.

4 weeks back in Wicklow and the urge to walk again became an itch.  I thought back to a year or so when I was planning a walk from Wicklow to Glendalough.  The late Pat Kavanagh put the thought in my mind and I began to explore maps and aerial photographs to find a doable route.  On Friday, I walked it.

Pat had the idea of a Camino St. Patrick, while I felt a Viking Raider Route would be more fitting.  Having done a Camino, I think the spiritual aspect is more important than the warrior side.  Though I have yet to clarify which Saint would work best.

For me, this early version of the route starts at the Abbey in Wicklow, heads out the gate and up the Marlton Road to the Ashtown Road and on to the Rocky Road before crossing the M11 to the Blackhill Road.  I chose these roads because they are either quiet or have a footpath.  In reality, I skipped most of the Marlton Road, because Caroline and I just walked out our front door and cut over to the upper end of the road.

Looking back at the sea and Wicklow.

Looking forward to the distant hills.

From the end of the Blackhill Road, we dropped down a wooded track, our first off road section, toward Glenealy.  We crossed the railway on the footbridge and came out beside the Pub in the village.  It was closed, so we had our lunch on a picnic table beside it.  This was about 2 hours into our walk.

Our first off-road trail.

From the pub, we crossed the main road and headed up into Carrick Wood at Ballymanus, past the local GAA pitch and the Christmas Tree Farm.  From here we headed generally west on beautiful forest trails.  From the edge of the wood a bit of thrashing through Ballydowling Wood, about 100m, took us to another easy trail.

Leaving Glenealy over a stile beside the church.

This trail emerged onto a quiet back road, where a short road walk took us into Ballinastraw forest and on to one of the loveliest pieces of woodland in Ireland, Clara Vale.  At about 20km into the walk, the beauty of Clara Vale recharges the batteries.  The babbling sounds of Croneybyrne Brook and bird song draw you down to the more placid waters of the Avonmore River.

For scale, that hairy critter is beside my size ten and a half shoe.

The Avonmore Way

From here we picked up the Avonmore Way, Wicklow's newest way-marked trail and headed north toward Glendalough.  Passing the beautiful Church and School at Clara we turned uphill along a path to Our Lady's Statue and on through wooded trails to a quiet high road.

The church at Clara.

After 7 and a half hours of walking, we crossed a gate into a field and pitched our tent behind the ditch amongst the flies and the evening midges.  A quickly cooked dinner, tea, dessert and Captain Morgans and Coke saw us retire to the tent at about 8:30 in the evening, to escape from the dreaded scourge of two of Ireland's carnivorous critters, the Midge and the Horse Fly.

Somewhere above Clara Laragh Waterpark, near where we camped.

For the past three weeks, I have had a fierce itchy spot on my right shin where a horse fly took a bite.  Last night I took another hit to the same spot.  Is there no god?

Despite our early retirement to bed, I slept.  Not a great sleep.  Bits of my body were moaning after the day's exertions and I could only be comfortable for a short while in any position.  However, like any professional sleeper, I soon managed to complete these positional adjustments without really waking up.

At various times during the night I heard the gentle pitter patter of a light rain shower on the tent, the screaming of a lonesome deer as he gave out about something and the occasional yapping dog in a distant farmyard.  I think about 5 cars passed the other side of our ditch during the night.  I did wonder about the deer and if he was in trouble, but he just seemed to be wandering about the field complaining.  Maybe we were in his favourite spot.

Saturday morning saw us rise bright eyed and bushy tailed, though stiff of limb and joint.  Unfortunately, at 6:00am the Midges and Flies were either still about, having lain in wait for us, or we disturbed them opening our tent.  They proved a good motivation to get moving.  By 6:30 we were packed and gone, leaving only a small patch of flattened grass to show someone camped there.  You carry out what you carry in, leave no trace.

By 8:00am we were sitting at a picnic table outside the visitor centre in Glendalough brewing up our tea and eating our cereal, fruit and yoghurt for a pleasant breakfast, accompanied by a selection of begging birds.  We gave the birds some cereal because they were probably part of the reason why the flies kept away.

Can you spot the birdies?

The Avonmore Way doesn't actually go into either Laragh or Glendalough, those links haven't been completed yet, so we just followed our noses, finding a pleasant descent through the woods to the Derrybawn Wollen Mills and in the Green Road to St. Kevin's 6th Century monastery at Glendalough.

We had completed our pilgrim's way.  We had walked from one major settlement to St. Kevin's centre of worship and pilgrimage.  Over the coming months, I hope to meet with others and explore the best walking options from the Parish of East Glendalough to Glendalough.  In that exploration, we will gather together the history and features of the places passed through.  Hopefully, Wicklow will have a new Camino to join the growing web of fabulous trails through its landscape and its history.

Of course, this tale doesn't end here in Glendalough.  We were on foot and now some 30 odd KM from home.  Glendalough doesn't offer a direct public transport option back to Wicklow, so we retraced our footsteps back to Clara and onward along to the southern end of the Avonmore Way.  From the trail end, it was a short walk into Rathdrum village, a welcome coffee shop and a bus home to Wicklow Town.

I'm still in that Camino State of Mind.  I've let the genie out of the bottle again.

It's been a while since I posted a blog. This one is about hockey.

Just back from Three Rock Rovers ground, where I watched Wicklow Ladies 1sts get beaten by Muckross 5ths in the Division 11/12 Cup Final.  In the league, Wicklow beat Muckross 4-0 at home and 6-1 away.  In the League, Wicklow won 17 games, drew 1 and lost none.  Muckross won 10, drew 5 and lost 3.  Wicklow scored 123 goals and conceded 10 while Muckross scored 43 and conceded 19.  Granted, Muckross came third in the division and lost out on promotion by just a single goal.

I point out these statistics to highlight the enormity of the Muckross achievement.  Well done Ladies, you played better than you have all season and came to today's game well prepared.  If I played for Muckross like these girls did, I'd probably leave the club and move to another to try to play in a higher division.  Because you did not play like a typical Div 11 team.  Indeed, both teams probably could have held their own in the Div 7/8 Cup.

Muckross have a great season ahead of them next year, if they continue to play like today.  Though several of them would have put many a  Premiership Soccer Star to shame for their diving and acting. I was really surprised at how easy they toppled over, I suspect it was just acting though, because then there were no Wicklow players tackling them, they seemed to have no problems staying upright.

However, such acting would not have been noticed by the pair of Muppets in yellow shirts who never seemed to have the pace to keep up with the game.  One of them should go to specsavers, while the one who was wearing glasses should have worn his distance vision glasses instead of his reading glasses.

These two have inspired me to become an umpire.  I always thought you had to be able to see, to ref a match and I thought you should have a fair grasp of the rules too.  Now I know you just need a brass neck and a whistle.

Leinster Branch need to stand back and take a long hard look at themselves and the game they oversee.  These two teams were obviously too good to be refereed by such weak referees.  I've umpired the odd Junior match and to be honest, I think I would have done a better job today.  The LHA need to put pressure on the LHUA to provide a better standard of umpiring in such important games.

The other thing LHA needs to get a grip on is the bottom 4 Divisions of the Ladies Leagues. Divisions 9-12 are really Development Leagues.  There are huge variations in skill levels between teams within divisions and between divisions.  Strong First teams entering the League from developing clubs should not be forced to work their way up through each division in order to get to the seriously competitive divisions.

These developmental divisions should be for the development of younger players, the rehabilitation of injured players and should also provide the educational environment where players working their way back down to the Vets Leagues, can be encouraged to share their experience with their upcoming colleagues and opponents too.

Divisions 9-12 should have the flexibility to fast track a Developing Club's first eleven or even a second eleven through to their proper level.  Perhaps something like a challenge cup for for Division winners and runners up who could compete for two promotion places to Division 8.  Or that there could be a place reserved in Div 8 for the best performing 1st team from the Developing Divisions

I suggest that fast tracking be reserved for a club's First or Second Team, which at this stage would be Developing Clubs.  Larger Clubs can simply promote their better players up through their teams to their rightful level of competence.  Additionally, larger clubs have the influence and clout to influence committee decisions and have exceptions made in their favour.

Speaking of Larger Clubs, I have been to many games where the team Wicklow have faced in a critical game against a second, third or fourth team from a Large Club only to find that the team is considerably different to the team faced in less critical games.  For example, larger clubs have been known to field a different 11 for League and Cup games.  In many cases, this is legal, or marginally legal, but it gives the larger club an unfair advantage when playing against the first team of a developing club.

This loading approach may be fine for games between larger clubs, where both clubs can call on players from higher divisions to boost a team and so play on a level playing field in a game within a game.  But it really is a form of  blatant cheating when bigger clubs do it to smaller clubs.  The rules really need to be tightened in this area.  Otherwise, the LHA runs the risk of becoming a club itself, where newcomers are excluded, bullied or otherwise kept down.

Developing Clubs need to be supported through proper regulation of the game.  The game in Wicklow has grown dramatically in recent years as has the game in many of Dublin's outlying dormitory towns.  These clubs need to be able to compete on level terms with the established Dublin clubs, but as long as a lax attitude to players playing down to boost lower teams is allowed, the big clubs will continue to dominate the game and draw talent away from emerging clubs.

I am not suggesting that Muckross have been in any way unsporting in the matter of playing players from other divisions.  Muckross is a strong and vibrant club and can probably acquit itself at any level.  I was a bit taken aback and somewhat jealous, when I found out about the professionalism a club of this size can bring to the game.

Video analysis allowed their coach to break down Wicklow's playing style and tactics.  It allowed them to develop and play specific disruptive strategies to effectively stop Wicklow from taking control of the game.  Wicklow's ladies played better in all areas of the field with the exception of perhaps the Muckross D.

Watching from the sidelines I realised that Muckross were extremely defensive in their game, breaking down every Wicklow attack.  It was also noticeable that Wicklow threatened the Muckross Keeper about 3 times for every attack from the Muckross girls.  Muckross sometimes had 9 or 10 players behind the ball.

This is where the inept refereeing altered the balance of the game.  While Wicklow had more short corners, they should have had 2 or 3 times more and often in quick succession, where infringements were made in clearing the ball.  Too often the free went incorrectly in favour of the defending team.

This Muckross team now have the honour of beating Wicklow twice.  UCD beat Wicklow last year in the 11/12 Cup when Wicklow won Division 12.  In three seasons, Wicklow Ladies Firsts have lost 3 games, 1 League game to Muckross and 2 Cup Finals to Big Clubs, can any other club claim such a record?

There is something special about this team.  Promotion to Division 10 seems a bit pathetic for the team that has no other rival in the entire Irish Hockey scene in terms of games won and goals scored. It is high time that this team was rewarded with promotion to their rightful level.  Several months back I worked out on paper that they should be playing in Division 8 if they are to face a consistent challenge each Saturday and experience defeat more regularly.

Let me make 3 suggestions to Leinster Branch:

1. Promote Wicklow Ladies First Team to Division 8.  There is no reason why it can't be done, unless politics is an acceptable reason.  At the same time develop a protocol to allow other strong teams from smaller clubs follow suit.  I would also suggest that if the team is subsequently relegated in the following season, they should return to the same division from which they were promoted originally.
2. Introduce Photo ID for both the Ladies and Men's games and online registration of players and team sheets, so that the Referees (with reading glasses if needed) can validate the teams they referee.
3. Open up Divisions 9, 10, 11 & 12 to proper development.  Allow for 8 v 8 in Division 12 where a team cannot field a full team.  Allow league games to be played on any day of the week within the bottom 4 divisions with the agreement both teams, LHA does not need to be informed in advance once a score is provided by midnight on the Sunday.  The players are big girls and can think for themselves.  The Men's Committee should consider a similar developmental arrangement for Divs 7 & 8.  Their lower divisions should be smaller to ensure a Division 8.

Finally; congratulations to Muckross and commiserations to Wicklow.  It has been a privilege and a pleasure to watch you train and play over these last 3 seasons.  Whether ye go up 1 or 3 divisions, you won't have the hassle of a Muckross in the leagues anyway.