In January, the Irish indoor hockey teams will make history as they compete in the top tier of the EuroHockey Indoor Championships since the competition’s inception over 50 years ago.

A healthy cohort of our Three Rock club members have been a pivotal part of the men’s incredible rise, rising up from the third tier in the continent in Cyprus in 2022 and then went back-to-back to win the second division in 2024 in Portugal and will now compete against five of the top ten sides in the world.

Ross Canning, James Walker, Ryan Williams, Harry MacMahon, Jody Hosking and women’s coach Stephen O’Keeffe are pivotal parts of this story, reaching elite levels alongside respective day jobs, schoolwork and family commitments.

They are part of a wholly self-funded programme, raising the money to pursue the dream of competing at the top against the best indoor sides in the world. Every camp, every flight, every piece of kit, every competition fee, they fund it themselves. And to take on this next step in our journey, they need our help!

They are looking to raise €50,000 to support their costs over the next four months to give themselves the best possible chance of competing. You can do this in one of two ways:

1. Donate directly to their fundraising here: https://gofund.me/b13fceeb5

2. If you or your company are in a position to sponsor the team or can open a door with an introduction to a potential sponsor, you can contact Harry MacMahon on +353 85 219 7079

With great regret, we must inform you of the passing of Philip Odlum, long time member  of Three Rock who always enjoyed his hockey and the company of his team mates.  

We pass our condolences to Kristina and his immediate and wider family in the club.  His funeral is at 10.30 tomorrow in Sandford Parish Church, Ranelagh.

Our Rovers represented in a big way at the FIH Pro League over the past week as the Irish men’s team pulled off a remarkable pair of wins over reigning Olympic champions Belgium as well as putting it up to 2016 Olympic gold medalists Argentina!

It comes during a key phase in their preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris.Among many highlights:

– Ben Johnson scored two brilliant goals on Sunday in a 4-1 win over the Belgians, winning player of the match into the bargain!

– Ali Empey scored his first senior international goal against Argentina on Saturday

– Daragh Walsh won his 100th cap on Sunday against Belgium, putting together some virtuoso performances in midfield

– Luke Madeley fired home three drag-flicks over the course of the four games

– Ben Walker set up Ben Johnson and scored another in the Sunday win over the Belgians!

– Jaime Carr starred in goal, including two particularly spectacular save/stick clearances

What a week! They have their next games next weekend in London where they will play Great Britain and Germany.
Pictures via Hockey Ireland media releases!

Pictures courtesy of Hockey Ireland/World Sport Pics

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On 6^th April 1974 Three Rock Rovers 1^st XI won the Irish Senior Cup in a season when they also won the Leinster Senior League.

A 50^th Anniversary Reunion Dinner was held on 5^th April 2024 where four of the surviving six members of the 1974 team attended.  Regrettably six of the original team – Derek Hennessy, Richard Fitzsimon, Michael Varian, Malcolm McMullan, Richard Mellon and David Judge – are no longer with us while Peter Craig and Paul Coulson were both unable to attend on the evening.

In the 1970’s the format of the Irish Senior Cup was different in that the winners of the Leinster, Ulster and Munster Sections played off for the title.  Rovers had won the Leinster Section defeating Dublin University by 1-0 on 9^th February 1974.

Lisnagarvey had won the Ulster Section and they came to Dublin on 23^rd February 1974 where the match finished in a 1-1 draw.  Rovers then had to go to Ulster on 9^th March 1974 for the replay on the Lisnagarvey ground at Blaris outside Lisburn.  Played on a muddy pitch in front of a hostile crowd, Rovers went 2-0 up in the first half with goals from Derek Hennessy and David Judge and survived a second half siege to emerge victorious by 2-1.

The final was then played at Londonbridge Road on 6^th April 1974 against Cork Church of Ireland who had won the Munster Section.  An early goal by Richard Fitzsimon and a penalty stroke by Derek Hennessy in the final five minutes won the match for Rovers by 2-1.

The 1974 winning team pictured above:  (Back Row) Derek Hennessy, Eric Bradshaw, Houghton Fry, Trevor Myles, Richard Fitzsimon, Paul Coulson, Michael Varian.  (Front Row) Peter Craig, Malcolm McMullan, Richard Mellon (Capt), John Findlater, David Judge.

Trevor Myles, John Findlater, Eric Bradshaw and Houghton Fry at the reunion.  (Inset) Peter Craig and Paul Coulson.

Another photo of the reunion.  Roger West (Current Club President), Trevor Myles, John Findlater, Eric Bradshaw, Houghton Fry, Neale Webb (Past Club Captain and member of the 1974 squad) and Cedric Christie (Past Club President).

1973/74 Final Leinster Senior League Table.

The Haughton family would like to inform the club on the passing of Joe Haughton (peacefully) on Monday 4th March at the age of 104.

Joe was father to Robert and Jenny, and grandfather to Phelie and Michael (Maguire) all of whom club members will know well. He was also cousin to Bill and Ken whom older members will remember fondly.

Although Joe never played, his contribution to the club was large in other ways.Should anyone wish to celebrate a great life well lived, there will be a service in Churchtown Meeting House at 2 pm Thursday 7th March.

https://rip.ie/death-notice/joseph-pedlow-haughton-dublin-548864

Five Rovers have been called up for Irish indoor international duty early this year as the senior side travel to Portugal in February and a development side play in Denmark this weekend.

Ross Canning, Jody Hosking and Hames Walker have all been included in the senior side who go to Paredes for the EuroHockey Championship II-A from February 2 to 4.

It is the second tier in Europe and the highest level Ireland have competed at in men’s competition since nations events were introduced in 1974.

All three of the lads played in the 2022 Championship III in Cyprus, scoring 30 goals between them when the side finished in third place.

Ireland are in a five-team competition with Cyprus, Denmark, Lithuania and Norway with the winner potentially earning promotion to the top division for 2026. Ali Haughton is on the reserve list for the panel should there be any late changes.

For the Development side, Rovers will be represented by Harry MacMahon and new club member Ryan Williams who joined before Christmas from Waterford.

They are playing in the annual Mason Cup in Denmark where they are in an initial group with local clubs Orient Lyngby and Copehagen as well as Sweden’s Roslagen.

The other four-team group has teams from Denmark and Germany. The tournament starts on Friday, January 5 and runs until Sunday.

In a busy international January, there is also a wealth of Belgian-based Rovers who have been called into the Irish side to compete for Olympic qualification.

Luke Madeley, Ben Walker, Daragh Walsh and Jaime Carr are off to Valencia for an eight-team tournament from which three sides will earn a ticket to Paris 2024. The tournament runs from January 13 to 21.

Every game from this event will be live-streamed on the FIH’s Watch.Hockey platform.

George Vincent Byrne

We are sad to announce the recent death of George Vincent Byrne. Neale Webb, John Findlater, and Cedric Christie, have shared their memories of George with his family,

Neale has said that George was a long standing and popular member of TRR.  He was a member of the team of 1952/53 that won the Irish Senior Cup – see attached – and Club Captain in 1971/72.  He was also the organiser of the tour every year at Easter to the Folkestone Hockey Festival by the Buccaneers – a touring team made up of members of TRR and Trinity 1st XI’s – right up to the 1990’s.  Most notably he was a most amusing after dinner speaker at the former Annual Men’s Dinner for many years plus playing the club songs on the piano. 

John mentioned that  “When I last met George he gave me two team photographs. The 1st team of TRR 1952/3 which did clean sweep of winning Irish Senior Cup, Leinster league and Mills Cup. The second photo was of TRR 2nds captained by George which won Railway Cup, Watt Cup, The Middle league and the Johnson Cup.”

Peafowl Chicks

Members might have recently noticed the fenced enclosure in our back car park area, and we are now delighted to announce the safe arrival of four peafowl chicks. Due to recent works being carried out in their normal nesting area in Marlay park, one of the park peahens decided that TRR would be a better place for her to lay her four eggs.

What followed was a joint effort between staff in Marlay Park and TRR to keep mother and eggs safe until hatched, and we are thrilled to now report the success of this cooperation within the local community.

Mother and babies are now safely back in the care of staff in Marlay Park, where they will be restricted until the chicks are strong enough to fly.  Our hope is that all four will do well, and perhaps they will return to their birthplace and fly in to visit in the future. We are proud to play our part in protecting biodiversity in the area. 

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Tractor Repairs

Our tractor was found to be unsafe to use without having the cab section replaced. Organising the necessary repairs involved loading the tractor onto a large truck and driving it to county Laois where it has to remain for two weeks before being loaded and returned to us. This is a bigger operation than it sounds, and we would have been unable to do this without the support of Shane Kearns of CrossCut tree care specialists, who has been very generous in using his own truck and equipment to personally transport the tractor to the repair centre and to collect it when it is ready. This has saved TRR a significant amount, and we are very grateful for his kindness. 

Sponsorship Updates

Our ongoing main club sponsor, Brewin Dolphin, is now RBC Brewin Dolphin https://www.brewin.ie/, and their new signage has now been erected in the club. Robert Tilson and Peter McConnell, who are both longstanding members of TRR HC, will be happy to help with any investment management queries. 

We are happy to welcome a new club partner sponsor, Wilson’s Hospital School http://www.wilsonshospitalschool.ie/ . Further details can be found on the school website, or in their advertisement below. Our contact with the school is Jenny McCormack, who will be remembered from her days of playing hockey in Dublin, and we are very grateful  to be the club of choice that benefits from Wilson’s Hospital support.  You will notice their new pitch boards in the club. 

AIB have also recently renewed their club sponsorship agreement, many thanks to Cathal O’Connor, Jonathan Carney, and Tanya Twomey in AIB for their ongoing support.

Gus Nichols has also kindly renewed sponsorship, the new Fanagans Funeral Directors pitch boards are in place. Thanks Gus for your continued loyalty to TRR. 

The support of our sponsors is a vital part of our club, and if you can be a sponsor, or know of a new sponsorship opportunity, please email Bernie at club.manager@threerockrovershc.com and she will put you in touch with the relevant person. 

Sponsorship Opportunities

Hockey in Ireland has a significant and growing footprint – with industry experts ONSIDE estimating 1 in 10 adults having some interest in the sport – and c.100k+ adults are interested in becoming more involved in Hockey today.

TRRHC is uniquely placed with its own facilities and diverse membership categories to support local and national businesses in increasing their brand awareness through sponsorship packages. Sponsorship from local and national companies goes a long way to support the club’s development and progress, and we hugely value the support we have received from our main sponsor Tilman Brewin Dolphin, along with all our many pitch side advertisers.

If you know of a company that wishes to increase its visibility and support local sport through sponsorship, we have packages available to explore with you. Please get in touch with us directly and we can discuss options with you

President’s 2023/2024 Season Welcome

Welcome back to all for the start of an exciting new season!

The Officers, committees and Club Manager have been working hard all summer to try to put everything in place so we can all enjoy our hockey – they are deserving of our sincere thanks.

Just a few things to remember – if you have not done so yet please pay your club subscriptions and the IHU €10 – the latter is essential for every player otherwise you will not be included in their insurance scheme.

And through the generosity of a club member, we shall be able to open the bar from 1-5pm every Saturday until Christmas and the Short Corner café will also be serving great food. Your support of both of these actually helps the club’s finances, so come up after your game and please invite the opposition to join you. There are good 00 beer choices for the drivers amongst you!

Lots more to announce later, but for now – let the games begin!

Roger P. West, TRR President

2023/2024 Subscriptions

The subs are an invaluable source of income for the club, they help to pay coaches, maintain the clubhouse, keep the lights on, both on and off the pitch, and supply the equipment you, the members use.

You can pay your Senior Subs below

Rovers Representing

Over the summer just gone we had numerous Rovers Representing with all age grades, provincial and international. You can see a run down of all our Rovers, both home and abroad, who have represented this summer! Everyone at Rovers is delighted for them as always and can’t wait to see what happens over the coming 23/24 season!

Summer 2023

Irish Senior Men’s – Ben Walker, Ben Johnson, Conor Empey, Luke Madeley, Jaime Carr, Mark Samuel, Ali Empey

Ireland won the EuroHockey Championship II title on home soil, in Abbotstown, and the above Rovers were all apart of the wider summer squad and/or the squad who won the European title!

Irish Under 16s

Boys –  Sam Rothwell

Girls –  Hannah Duffy, Eva Doyle

Irish Under 18s

Boys –  Alex Lynch, Ben Pasley, Josh Gill

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Hockey ID – Matthew Burke, Joe Whelan, Head Coach Scott Mulligan

Ireland secured a Championship II bronze medal at the The 2023 EuroHockey ID Championships in Mönchengladbach and our very own Rover Matthew was the captain! Congratulations to him and Joe on their exploits and to super coach Scott, who has been invovled with the Rovers and Irish ID programs for a while now.

Irish Master’s World Cup success

Roger West, Stuart Switzer and Carl Colllings played in the Masters o65’s World Cup in Tokyo, with Stuart having the honour of captaining the squad. . We had wins against Malaysia, USA, South Africa and Japan but lost to Australia in the group games. This got us through to the final where we played Australia again. Although we played well the Australians were too strong and we lost 4-1. It was a great experience to play in a World Cup in the Olympic stadium with the icing on the cake coming home with a silver medal. It was also a great opportunity to see something of Tokyo and other areas of Japan and to experience first hand the renowned Japanese friendliness, courtesy and hospitality.

Paris 2024
Congratulations to our super star umpire Ali Keogh on her selection for the 2024 Olympics as one of the umpires for the Paris Olympics! Everyone at Rovers is delighted for and this is well deserved after years of hard work!

Leinster 23/24 squads

U16 boys

Simon Montgomery

Jason Robinson

U18 boys

James Coffey

Harry Glennon 

Hugo Faulkner

Oscar Pasley

Peter Montgomery

Philip Cole

Sam Rothwell

Zach Silverman

U16 Girls

Eva Doyle

Juliette Duffy

Success for Arul

Congratulations to Arul Selvaraj, husband of our caretaker Solo, who has been named the male coach of the year at a recent award ceremony in Malaysia.

Following on from bringing the Malaysian men’s hockey team to success in winning the Azlan Shah cup for the first time and finishing up runners-up at the Asia cup last year.

This award recognises the dedication and commitment to hockey that Arul has continued to demonstrate in any role. We wish Arul further success with the team.

Tag rugby world cup

Congratulations to Aoife McCarthy and John Pearson, TRR Ladies 1s player and former Ladies 1s coach respectively, who represented Ireland at the Tag Rugby World Cup in Limerick last month!

Senior Fixtures

September 16^th – 17^th

L2 v Genesis, Division 4, St Raphaelas @11:15

M1 v Corinthians, EYHL, Grange Road @13:00

L1 v YMCA, Division 1, Wesley College @14:00

Sunday

M1 v Railway Union, Railway Cup, Grange Road @14:00

End of Season BBQ

This Friday is the traditional end of season Captain’s challenge at Grange Road from 7pm. Teams will be mixed and social is the aim of the game on the night! The clubhouse and bar will be open on the night and there will be a pitch side BBQ as well on the night!

We look forward to seeing everyone at the club on Friday from 7pm, whether you play in the matches or not please do come along! The link to sign up was sent around over the past week or so, however, please contact Peter Hinds or Stephanie Lyon if you would like to participate, numbers are needed as food has to be ordered.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of Three Rock Rovers Hockey will be held in the Clubhouse on the 15th of May from 7.30pm. The Agenda and official invite will be sent out to all members by Luke over the coming days so please keep an eye out. If you have any questions or queries please contact the Club.

We would like to see as mamny members as possible on the night, please help the club ahead of the 2023/24 season and be a part of Rovers Roar off the pitch!