The Dubs and Chelsea , Spurs , Man United , Sunderland , Stoke City , Newcastle United , Man City and the local street bowlers (apologies if I've left out any teams etc but ye are all the same to me !) were out in force on Sunday last as were their many supporters , which allowed standing space only in the hotel where we were trying to run a 650-ticket raffle : I have no idea whether the Dubs beat the street bowlers or even if that's who they were playing against (!) or if New City beat Strokeland (!!) but I do know that CABHAIR were the real winners on the day - plus , of course, those eight lucky punters that pocketed a nice few bob in between all the madness !
A chap called Anthony , from the Kildare area , was there with a bunch of his mates, all of whom were crazy Chelsea fans and, being Chelsea fans , were well used to taking a gamble (ha! ha! Tony - take that !) so they sent Tony over to us with a tenner and we sold him five tickets. And two of those tickets were winners - Chelsea Jimmy won the 1st prize , €200 , on ticket 146 whilst his buddy , 'Hammer' , won the 5th prize , €20, on ticket 550 : that was our drinks for the day sorted (!) and swear to God it was like they had won the mug. Or cup, or whatever it is that those soccer teams win , such was the cheering and slagging that went on !
A quiet , unassuming and gentle young lady from Ballyfermot , in Dublin - and her to be dressed in her 'Dub Colours' and blue and white hair (!) , Marion Sullivan , bought her ticket from us about half-an-hour before the raffle began , as did her pal , Robbie Molloy , also from Ballyfermot - Marion won 2nd prize , €100, on ticket 658 and Robbie collected €20 ,4th prize, ticket 322. A Spurs fan , Luke, from Meath, had ticket 422 which won him 3rd prize, €40, and his fellow-Spurs fan, Gerry, from Roscommon, collected the 6th prize of €20 with ticket 501. County Westmeath weren't playing that day but Clare , from Mullingar , got herself 'on the pitch' by collecting 7th prize , €20, with ticket 353 and our last winner was Dáithí , from Wexford , who won 8th prize with ticket 434.
It was a loud ,colourful and hectic few hours for us , the sports fans and the hotel staff , but it was the craic for us all and a good time was had by the lot of us and, more importantly , the CABHAIR organisation was the overall 'Winner'. And we now have a few weeks to get ready for the next one!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
