After another year of celebration of the life of Fran Leonard, the dust has settled for another year. Yet again, the day was a huge success, but it wasn't helped this year by attrious weather conditions. Driving rain and high winds for over a week meant that the pitches in the club were unplayable. However, it didn't prevent the days activities going ahead.

As always, the ever accommodating O'Dwyers club agreed to play the adult game on the All Weather Pitch and it turned out very well under the circumstances.

First off was the mass of course in Our Lady of Victories Church on Ballymun Road. Jude did her usual task of ferrying members between Erin's Isle and the church on the specially commissioned bus meaning that the mass as it always has, had a big representation from the club.

Following the mass back at HQ our Under 10 Footballers challenged O'Dwyers Under 10 Footballers for the Juvenile Cup. Two separate 7-a-side outfits from each club played two 10 minutes a side halves with the overall winners (total scores) claiming the cup. I'm delighted to say that it was our own club who took the cup this year.

After the Under10 matches had finished, onto the pitch came the bigger kids!!! It was a match that was the first of its kind played on our All Weather pitch and is something that could definitely work in the future and has given some food for thought. The format was a 7-a-side game of 20 minutes a side. One Goalkeeper, 2 backs, 2 midfields and 2 forwards. The other important rules were that you could only score a goal or point within the opponents half of the pitch and also, if the ball hit the wall at each end it was deemed wide. For the purpose of continuity though, the side walls were in play. Having played in the game myself, it is very energy sapping and intense and so I can vouch that the "flexi-sub" policy that was agreed worked well also! The ended in Erin's Isle reclaiming the adult cup after a 1 year exile.

As in previous years, both clubs joined other members and the Leonard Family and friends in the clubhouse after the games for some well deserved refreshments and of course the all important presentations. Below is a nice picture of Marie Green from Cry.ie presenting the cups to our victories captains.

Of course the real importance of the day is/was to increase awareness of the importance of Cardiac Screening and Special Guest Marie Green addressed the large gathered crowd on how CRY is continuing to help save lives in Ireland every day. Marie also told us of the importance of Fund Raising to keep their organisation running. With that in mind a number of our Senior Camogie Team have committed to running the Dublin Mini Marathon next year for CRY and also members of the Intermediate Football team are hoping to do similar for CRY by taking part in a triathalon.

If you would like to help yourself please visit the CRY Website at www.cry.ie

The Leonard Family would like to thank everyone involved in making this day such a success again this year and of course the club would like to SINCERELY thank the Leonard Family for all their help. Roll on 2010!