2007
At the AOB stage of the 2006 UCD RFC AGM a gentleman rose from a seat down the back of the room and proposed that the Rugby Club should honour the memory of one of its great patriot members. There was a stunned silence in the room as Judge David Maughan proposed a memorial to Kevin Barry. Moustache bristling, Maughner never batted an eyelid although some of the rest of us had difficulty keeping the smiles off our faces. It was only when Kevin Kenny suggested downstairs afterwards that Kevin Barry wasn’t a member of UCD that Maughner decided enough was enough and that we were a disgraceful unpatriotic bunch! David later saw the funny side himself - all be it the next day.
Sadly by the time the season began in October Maughner was no longer with us having passed away after a brief illness. In discussion with his sidekick Jimmy Scally shortly after the funeral he told me about his and Maughner's trips to Cambridge with Collidge over the years. I was regaled with many stories including an account of a meeting with an MI5 agent and I was hooked and much to the Treasurers horror and the delight of Scall and with a little bit assistance from one Shane Geraghty a tour was proposed and seconded at an early executive meeting!!
Contact was established with Ian Minto the director of rugby in Cambridge, to whom a huge amount of thanks must go to. Then the De Vere University Arms was contacted and accepted a very large booking for the 2nd and 3rd of February 2007. They are another to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude (not financial this time thankfully). The preparations were underway and as the date drew closer Billy Murphy switched on his organisation machine whipped us into shape with a flurry of meetings in his office and up in UCD. All the time Brian Corr’s sleep pattern was becoming more and more erratic as we promised that we’d start fundraising very soon. And for the record we did do some fundraising - by the way there may be some unclaimed golf gear in Philip McLaughlin’s sports shop.
Alas the preparations were complete and we set out for Dublin Airport on a sunny spring morning. Checked in and ready to go we moved through customs and the duty free without incident. We were joined on the Ryanair flight by the late Doctor Declan Tyrell and his wife, Margaret who were a very welcome addition to the trip. Declan’s presence will be sadly missed around the club.
Other Alecadoos included our President Alex Spain James Scally, Billy Murphy and the oldest alecadoo of all Mr David ‘Leg-O-Lamb’Carrigy! Having boarded the flight and having been told to ensure all mobiles were switched off there was a sudden whizzing sound from the back of the plane followed by a loud cackle and we all knew Mr. Catchphrase Whelan himself was on board. The rest of the flight was thankfully uneventful.
Having checked into the fine hostelry that is the De Vere University Arms we met out on the Peoples Lawns for an impromptu training session under the watchful eye of Hugb Byrne the official coach and the tour Captain Simon Norton. There was a lot of work to get through for the match the next day and so we thought it best to retire to the hotel bar to discuss tactics. After a few light beverages we went to a Japanese Noodle Bar and ate al fresco under the Cambridge stars. The rest of the night was free to view the sights and sounds of the beautiful, romantic, peaceful city that is Cambridge!!!
After a hearty breakfast in the University Arms we set off for Grange Road, the home of the Cambridge University Blues. The ground was immaculate and it was a great honour to play on such famed and hallowed turf. The match kicked off at 2.30 and it was an emotional rollercoaster of a match with sterling performances from Peter Shanley, Andy O’Brien, Tim Bye, Jamie Kearns and Dave Warner. Every single player on the park that day played their hearts out and it would have ended fairly at 17 all after 80 minutes.
However it was not to be; in the 3 minutes of injury time Cambridge ran in two tries and converted one of them to leave an exhausted Collidge side with too much to do and no time to do it in. It finished 29 points to 17, the score line in no way reflective of the match at all. It has to be said that it was one of the finest performances by a Collidge side all year. There were some very tired and sore bodies in the dressing after the game but you would be hard pushed to find a tourist who would say it wasn’t worth it. As the Cambridge Captain put it afterwards “a cracking game played in great spirit”.
The Cambridge Blues fed and watered us while we watched in somewhat muted tones as England beat Scotland in their opening six nations encounter. Then it was back to the Hotel to don our Number One’s (blue shirt, Collidge tie, blazer and chinos for those of you who are unsure) and make our way to St. Edmunds Collidge in Cambridge University for what Gero aptly described as a Legend Feed! We were hosted by the Dean of St. Edmunds and the girls of St. Edmunds aka ‘Eddies Angels’. The Angels made a huge impression on all of the UCD players but certainly some more so than others. There were many troops who were evicted Big Brother style from their rooms by their roommates in the wee small hours of that fateful Cambridge morning.
Breakfast the next morning was an understandably quiet affair and those who were going down to Cardiff for the Wales v Ireland match had the honour of travelling in a new mini bus powered almost entirely by a new fuel called Mahon Gas, available in service stations nationwide soon! The rest of us made our way back to a drizzly Stansted where Ryanair brought us all safely home to Dublin. I’m not sure how many people actually got to watch the Welsh match but I think the vast majority of tourists were to be found on couches dozing with satisfied smiles on their faces.
All in the trip was a great success and we look forward to hosting Cambridge next year. Thanks to every single person who came on the tour and made it such a great occasion. Special thanks should go to Alex Spain Stephen O’Dwyer, David Carrigy, Shane Geraghty and Billy Murphy without whose help and guidance the tour would not have been possible. It was a great weekend and hopefully the revival of an old tradition in Collidge Rugby!
Frederick Gilligan