Yes, you read that right, Vets Fest returned this year after a very long hiatus!
Words kindly provided by Bernie Keogh
After a covid-induced break of three years, the annual Vets Fest was held again in TRR over the June bank holiday weekend. This festival raises much needed income for the club each year it is held, and is a successful key event in the club social calendar. Initial plans for the event had been made and progressed by Naomi Heritage, and when Naomi had to step down Janet Jolley very kindly stepped in to make sure that the event could go ahead. Natalie Rule, with her vast experience of previous vets fest organising, offered her help and with the added support and assistance of long-standing dedicated TRR volunteers Orla McKeown, Bruce Johnson, WIlliam Haughton and Cedric Christie in their various roles, the event was a great success.
Umpires played a key part, and we were very grateful to Nick West, Jess Rule, Guy and Gillian Garrett, Doug Murray and Dorothy Kennedy for volunteering their services. The bar was staffed by Kara (TRR President) and her family (Gary, Zoe, and Jack) plus Shane O’Brien’s brother Ronan (who we hope to have helping us for future bar functions) and Don Gray (who kindly stepped in at short notice)..
Huge thanks to Simon Walker, who sponsored burgers for the Friday night BBQ, and to Peter Hinds who purchased and donated a number of large bar jugs for the event while the balcony was out of use. Thanks also to Joe Ryan (Boss Tills), who as usual has been a bighelp to the club by donating the use of a second bar till for the duration of vets fest. It involved two callouts, and some temporary changes to the set up, so we really appreciate this kindness and support from Joe. Thanks also to Diageo, for providing plastic glasses, uniforms, trays, and sanistiser, and also to Fergal Funge of Bulmers Ireland who donated two boxes of plastic glasses.
Cian Mooney and his staff provided catering for the festival for the first time, and provided an efficient and quality food service with very positive feedback. Cian is our regular club caterer, and can cater for private functions and events. The tournament meal on Saturday night was held in Taylors Three Rock, and we are also grateful to them for providing a lovely meal and an efficient service that allowed the teams to return to TRR HQ promptly for music and drinks afterwards.
As can be seen, it takes a lot of organising and an army of workers (many of whom do so on a voluntary basis) to run a successful international fundraiser such as this that brings much needed revenue into the club. We are very grateful for the work and generosity of those mentioned above, and to the others who helped in the background and whose names might have inadvertently been left out of this report.
