Water Polo team hungry for success

WATER Polo players based at a Northside swimming club are set to make waves this Easter when they travel to Budapest for a training camp run by the Hungarian national team coach.

The talented youngsters at Clontarf Swimming and Water Polo Club will be trained and mentored by the current World and Olympic champions.

William Dolan, a spokesperson for the club, said it will be a fantastic opportunity for the players.

“We will then have a chance to put our finely tuned skills into practice in a series of tournaments where our teams will play a selection of Hungarian teams,

? he told Northside People.

“We hope to continue building on this success and take our teams to the next level in their sports development.

?

To help finance the trip, the club held a successful bag-pack day at Nolan’s of Clontarf recently and raised the sum of

?¬1,391.

A table quiz and social night will be held this Friday, February 28 at the Beachcomber Pub at 8pm. A team of four costs

?¬40. There will be winners and runners-up prizes, spot prizes and a raffle. To book your table, email [email protected] or call 087-2638478.

The club would sincerely like to thank the customers and staff at Nolan’s of Clontarf for their kind and very enthusiastic support for the bag pack.

“Over the course of our bag packing day we received lots of interest in Clontarf Swimming club and in water polo as a sport,

? added Mr Dolan.

The huge promise shown by the water polo team should come as no surprise given that Clontarf Swimming Club was founded way back in 1884, and has a history of success stories over the last 130 years.

It is the oldest swimming club on the Northside of the city. At that time the only other swimming clubs were Dublin Swimming Club (1881) based in Blackrock and Sandycove Swimming Club (1882).

Originally based in the Clontarf outdoor sea baths, built in 1864, the club held a full programme of races during the summer months.

Many of these races were held at 7am thus explaining the club crest – the sunrise inside a life buoy.

The Irish Amateur Swimming Association was founded in 1894 which Clontarf Swimming Club became affiliated to in 1908. They then started competing at senior level making a huge contribution to Irish swimming, providing champions, Olympians and many internationals at all age groups.

Today, the club now mainly concentrates on water polo and long distance sea swims such as the Island Swim. They have provided many water polo internationals both senior and junior over the last 100 years and right up to the present day.

As the club is about to embark on a tour to Budapest, it is interesting to note that one of Clontarf’s best ever swimmers – Michael Kelly Snr, the 200m Irish breast stroke champion 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959 – had the distinction of being the only Irish man to compete in the European Championships in Budapest in 1958.

More recently, in 2008/09, through the great efforts of Bobby Nolan and his connection with the Hungarian national water polo team coach Denes Kemeny, two players – George Boyge and Kristof Nyemsec, from the Vasas Club in Budapest – visited Dublin to play water polo for Clontarf and brought a lot of experience and skill to the senior team.

Clontarf has a rich history of swimming and water polo tours over the past 130 years. The earliest on record were 1912 and 1913 to the Isle of Man. In 1926, 1927 and 1928 they toured Devon and Dorset and in 1932 they went to the Channel Islands.

In 1934/35 they toured Barcelona and Hamburg and in 1938 travelled to Exmouth. After the Second World War in 1947/48, they toured France.

During the

’70s and ’80s the club regularly went to the UK to compete, playing in Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and London. Budapest will be another city to add to the illustrious list.

Today, Clontarf Swimming Club is proud to continue this successful tradition with boys and girls’ teams ranging from juvenile to senior adult. They compete on a 32-county basis playing against teams from Drogheda to Galway to Donegal to Belfast.

If you would like more information or are interested in joining, email [email protected]