Best Sportsman in your county ... ever!

OMAR wrote:well as my county of accident has been covered I'll cover my native county

for starters we are occupying the No.1 shirt of our nations soccer team for the fourth decade on the trot.
One of whom has given us one of the greatest memories in Irish sport

Aside from that there is Brian McEniff county and international manager and one time soccer stalwarth even if under a Pseuydonom.

But the award for the counties greatest sportsman easily goes to Rameltons own - Dave Gallaher Captain of the Original All Blacks.

TEAM SPORT TEAM SPORT - READ THE FOOOKING THREAD LADS!!! DUMB FOOKS!! SEAN O BRIEN - SHANE HORGAN - RUGBY - TEAM SPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
C'mon wise up-if I was to give ye every great Dublin soccer, rugby, GAA (hurling and football) player we'd be here forever ....

Jim Baker - what a crown green bowler!!

Packie Bonners defining moment was a one on one Save and cetainly one of the top three moments in Irish sport
but Okay - your rules - POINT NOTED

Stephen Roche - Would not have won anything without domestiques - Excluded
Eamon Coughlan - Would not have set a lot of his records without a pacemaker - Excluded
Paul McGinley - Only famous for Ryder Cup - Team Event
Harrington - won a major from a lucky bounce off a wall from a club his caddy gave him him - Excluded

I'll stretch to Ronnie Delaney (before team tactics) and Carruth but be careful you are on thin ice

My sweet lord ......

Mind you it looks like Donegal are struggling to put forward a candidate in an indivual endeavour. But then the Donegal lads prefer the team type sessions ....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:My sweet lord ......

Mind you it looks like Donegal are struggling to put forward a candidate in an indivual endeavour. But then the Donegal lads prefer the team type sessions ....

Its a fair observation there are none that spring to mind
Being serious - Finn Valley is one of the strongest Athletic clubs in Ireland and Donegal would punch about its weight at a national level but it has not had a breakthrough at international level.

The one area that is very hard to rationalise is golf - Donegal along with Antrim(portrush) and Down(royal County Down) has some of the most natural terrain for Golf links in the world - You don;t have to design a golf course just fill in the rabbit holes and cut the grass short - We have courses like Murvagh, ballyliffen and Rosapenna - but no famous golfer - I can't figure out why our six county brethern can produce the Raffertys, Clarkes, McDowells and Mcilroys and we can't but then again neither can Sligo (rosses Point) or Clare (lahinch) or Kerry (ballybunion) all of which also have natural golf links - We have always had a few decent cyclists and we certainly have the terrain - If you can cycle round Bloddy Foreland on a windy day - Alpe D'huez is a piss up.

Also there are certain sports like Snooker or Boxing and even soccer where most of the worlds best came out of inner-city situations - almost a fight for survival story

Aside from that GT has no Corkonians who often lay claim to being the best sports county per head - Roy/Dennis/Sonia etc.

OMAR wrote:[I can't figure out why our six county brethern can produce the Raffertys, Clarkes, McDowells and Mcilroys and we can't

Different ethic?????

Good points O - and Finn Valley among the best but as you say no international breakthrough. Was Rosie McGettigan FV?

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

OMAR wrote:well as my county of accident has been covered I'll cover my native county

for starters we are occupying the No.1 shirt of our nations soccer team for the fourth decade on the trot.
One of whom has given us one of the greatest memories in Irish sport

Aside from that there is Brian McEniff county and international manager and one time soccer stalwarth even if under a Pseuydonom.

But the award for the counties greatest sportsman easily goes to Rameltons own - Dave Gallaher Captain of the Original All Blacks.

TEAM SPORT TEAM SPORT - READ THE FOOOKING THREAD LADS!!! DUMB FOOKS!! SEAN O BRIEN - SHANE HORGAN - RUGBY - TEAM SPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
C'mon wise up-if I was to give ye every great Dublin soccer, rugby, GAA (hurling and football) player we'd be here forever ....

Jim Baker - what a crown green bowler!!

Thank you Jayo.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

OMAR wrote:[I can't figure out why our six county brethern can produce the Raffertys, Clarkes, McDowells and Mcilroys and we can't

Different ethic?????

Good points O - and Finn Valley among the best but as you say no international breakthrough. Was Rosie McGettigan FV?

You ruled out women.

Because you and I both know what a bowler Margaret Johnson was.

And the ONLY county to have a WINTER Olympic GOLD medalist, Robin Dixon.......now Lord Glentoran.

Or is two man bob a ........team event?

patrique wrote:And the ONLY county to have a WINTER Olympic GOLD medalist, Robin Dixon.......now Lord Glentoran.

Or is two man bob a ........team event?

Well its either a team sport or else a practice that has only recently been legalised - thanks to Senator Norris.

OMAR wrote:

patrique wrote:And the ONLY county to have a WINTER Olympic GOLD medalist, Robin Dixon.......now Lord Glentoran.

Or is two man bob a ........team event?

Well its either a team sport or else a practice that has only recently been legalised - thanks to Senator Norris.

The President?????????

OMAR[b] wrote:Stephen Roche - Would not have won anything without domestiques - Excluded

[/b]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but in my mind's eye, on that fateful day somewhere in Russia, as Roche bid for the magic treble, Sean Kelly powered to the front of the peleton, used his standing among the cycling fraternity and knowing within himself he hadn't the wherewithall to get there, he blocked the rest of the field with his ability and skill, leaving Roche an home and hosed run in...

I'll bow to Loyal here on the subject, but in my mind's eye ,Kelly was the best ever to wear the Green....

Boxtyeater wrote:

OMAR[b] wrote:Stephen Roche - Would not have won anything without domestiques - Excluded

[/b]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but in my mind's eye, on that fateful day somewhere in Russia, as Roche bid for the magic treble, Sean Kelly powered to the front of the peleton, used his standing among the cycling fraternity and knowing within himself he hadn't the wherewithall to get there, he blocked the rest of the field with his ability and skill, leaving Roche an home and hosed run in...

I'll bow to Loyal here on the subject, but in my mind's eye ,Kelly was the best ever to wear the Green....

Austria methinks -Villenach or something like that???

Christy O'Connor Sr. and Christy O'Connor Jr., both were Ireland's leading golfers for years.

clash-of-da-ash wrote:Christy O'Connor Sr. and Christy O'Connor Jr., both were Ireland's leading golfers for years.

Ireland's leading golfers.


WOW

Thomas Clarke wrote:Tyrone are spoilt for choice here, with the top contenders being Darren Clarke and Dennis Taylor.

Clarke, from Dungannon, is arguably the 2nd most gifted golfer Ireland has ever produced. Top 10 in the world, 5 Ryder Cups and twice World Golf Champion (in matchplay and strokeplay). The last achievement is significant, as until recently only Clarke and Tiger woods had won a WGC tournament more than once.

Taylor, from Coalisland (just down the road from Dungannon - Boc, Mugsy, notice the trend here) was twice a world snooker finalist, winning the greatest snooker match of all in 1985, with 18 million viewers watching at 1am in the morning. Dennis was ranked in the top 16 in the world for almost 20 years and, probably his finest achievement, was also a Tyrone minor footballer.

the trend being that lads from East Tyrone were mcuh better at golf and snooker than anything related to the GAA!!!!!

Thomas Clarke wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

black&white wrote:Brother Walfrid has certainly had the most lasting legacy of any Sligo sportsperson, even if his contribution wasn't in the playing sense.

Sean Fallon achieved a lot as a player, and even more in management (or assistant management!).

Mark Scanlon achieved great things in his youth, but never quite reached the same heights at adult level (an aversion to allowing his team put him on a drip after training was part of his downfall!)

No team sportspeople please ... jeeze can people here read at all .....

I fear the Yeats' County barrel has already been scraped.

Nearly omitted the delectable Mary Cullen, a member of Drumcliffe-Rosses Point no less. Was only a few years behind her in school (and behind her is not a bad place to observe her from).

Only a matter of time before I appeared hey?

Well was going to ream off a few names here like Pat Jennings, Nigel Carr, George Best (claiming him as a Down man), even a cricket name in Alfie Linehan until I read this 'can't be a team sport' rubric. So I suppose we in County Down just have to make do with current US Open Champion and world number 4 golfer Rory McIlroy, or perhaps former Ferrari F1 star Eddie Irvine. You could also argue for 'Banjo Bannon', the everyday Newryman who went on to scale Everest.

John Watson was better than Eddie.

And was jennings not the Dublin Road end of Newry......Armagh?

I am actually quite friendly with members of the Jennings family and they are good Down people

Vincent Hogan wrote a fantastic article in the Irish Independant back in February 2010. If I remember correctly, the opening line read something like:

"The day of the 2004 Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty and Tony McCoy were asked to name the most natural horseman riding".

All three replied Paul Carberry.

Or as John Francome once observed; Carberry has such balance, he could go to bed on a clothes line.

Brilliant comments.

Every sport has it's flawed genius. Their version of Maradona if you like. I think Paul Carberry is racing's flawed genius. Some might even argue with the flawed part but nobody would debate the genius.

I watched This Sporting Life last night, with the guest being Carberry. Fantastic insight into him. The half hour didn't do him justice.

On the end of his apprenticeship to Jim Bolger:
"He told me I wouldn't be heard of if I left him, I told him I haven't been heard of yet, and walked away"

Certainly proved Mr. Bolger wrong.

I remember when I was a novice punter, new to the the racing scene, myself and my friends used to go to Navan and Fairyhouse and back Carberry blind. I'd say those early days were my most profitable in terms of return on investment.

So I would say Carberry is Meath's greatest sportsman.

Not only are we a county which produced 2 noble prize winners but we do have other talents such as singing and sports stars such as the olympic swimmer Liam Ball, Darron Gibson, Paddy McCourt, Paul 'dudey' McCloskey, Martin O'Neill, Charlie Nash Not to mention the GAA stars, our Brilliant Bradleys, Joe Brolly to name but a few!

Rory Finnegan

MArk English

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:

So I would say Carberry is Meath's greatest sportsman.

He doesn't like it up him much though, looks good on the right horse but lacks the strength of Ruby or AP to really get the best out of most beats. Cost me a nice wedge when he finally decided to start riding Dirar in this years County Hurdle. Sadly by that point the race was over. Lovely horseman but way off being anything near a top jockey.

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote:Arkle.

Winner all right
Winner all right