Towns Cup joy for Donaghadee

Donaghadee 55 : 0 Larne

Harry Allen reports

The Donaghadee club has always been fond of the Ulster Provincial Towns' Cup. Last Saturday was the day of Donaghadee's First Round Tie against Larne RFC and the Down club was pleased to host a pre-game lunch at Donaldson Park.

Present were quite a few guests from organisations such as the seaside town's RNLI station, its Rotary Club, the Cricket Club and a number of the club's generous sponsors. All present were also very pleased to see in good health Maurice Bunting, a man who had been a stalwart on the Donaghadee team that contested the Towns' Cup final at Ravenhill in 1963 and who is still a staunch fan. The special guest at the lunch on Saturday was Moira Russell, one of Donaghadee's most loyal supporters through the last five (or is it six?) decades.

In a mostly one-sided game such as this was there inevitably comes a time when all concerned begin to lose interest so obvious seems the result. The Donaghadee backs and forwards did combine well for Ian Martindale and Andrew Findlater to score fine tries.

As the referee began to think time was up Millar strolled over for his third try and then kicked the conversion to take the final score to 55-0.

Almost immediately the referee decided time was up and within a few minutes the Donaghadee players were able to contemplate their Towns' Cup second round match, away to Coleraine next Saturday.