Sports Gear Direct First Division:

Co Council 4 Jay Bazz 4:

TWO teams whose season began full of expectation met for the season time in the Sports Gear Direct First Division at The Regional Park.

Goals from top scorer Mario Fosca (2), Rob Susek and Kevin Murphy eased the hosts into a 4-2 lead before the visitors staged a dramatic late recovery to tie up the contest and keep their slim hopes of promotion alive. 

Earlier, Sam Heffernan and James Fleming had kept Jay Bazz in touch only for the late revival to yield further goals from Fleming and captain Brandon Downey. Lukasz Chowaniek, Evan Mohally and Kieran O’Regan impressed for Council while Jay Bazz’s star performers included Heffernan and David O’Sullivan.

Sports Gear Direct Premier Division: 

Satellite Taxis 0 Doolan’s Cow 6:

Champions Doolan’s Cow continued their remarkable winning streak by showing no mercy to a depleted Satellite eleven at Deerpark Secondary School. 

Aaron Hennessy (2), Tony O’Reilly, Jason Creamer, Stephen McCarthy and Liam Horgan registered the goals for the unbeaten visitors who remain on course to create history by becoming the first team to lift the four domestic trophies on offer for a second time. 

Craig Keegan, James O’Shea and Roy McCarthy shone for the shield and league winners.

UCC Utd 7 SCS Crookstown Utd 0: 

UCC United chasing the runners-up spot with Satellite Taxis put Mooney Cup finalists Crookstown to the sword at the Farm. 

Mo El Shouky fired in a brace in the 35th and 43rd minutes before Adam Lannon added a third three minutes into the second 45. After Wassim Magnin quickly ran in number four, further goals from Ali Ahmidat, Martin Beltran and Gearoid Grainger sealed the College’s biggest win of the season.

Healy O’Connor Solicitors 2 Marlboro Trust 1: 

Healy’s did the double over Marlboro by winning their best of three encounter at Garryduff. Shane Murphy scored twice for the hosts, his second, a bullet long-range header following a corner. 

Kevin Sullivan’s reply for Trust reduced the deficit but came too late to impact the result.

70th ANNIVERSARY: 

In the good old days for all who played, the pain was certainly worth the gain!’ 

As the CBSL prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary next season, many teams and companies have come and gone in the intervening years. 

The unique appeal of the league, unlike any other in junior football nationwide, continues to be its ability to bring workmates together from various departments of a firm, going on to forge lasting friendships both inside and outside the job.

So what was it like to have managed and played with one of those teams? Former Cork Examiner and CBSL Treasurer, the late Frank Linehan gave an interesting insight into a week in the life of a team manager during the club’s unfulfilled years of the late '80s before the successes of the early nineties and the second consecutive league and cup double which occurred 30 years ago this year.

"I’m manager, delegate, first-aid man, water bottle carrier, treasurer, secretary, laundryman and any other job that comes along. My week begins on Tuesday morning collecting gear from the laundrette, evening at the delegate meeting. Work the following day. I put the fixture on the notice board. 

"Within an hour one of the players tells me his uncle has died in Timbucktoo or Outer Mongolia or someplace and he wouldn’t feel right about playing. Another tells me his mother-in-law is coming to dinner. He dreads her. Two down and it’s only day one. 

"Thursday, two more withdrawals. Have to guarantee two players I left out last week that they’d get the full 90 minutes this weekend. 

"Friday, Tries to collect script. Nobody has small money, it’s all €50 notes. All promise to pay on the double next week. Saturday, refuse to answer the phone at home in case it’s a withdrawal. In the evening I get gear, footballs and water ready."

The late Echo racing tipster Dave Cronin, who played with Examiner through the eighties and early nineties, gave the view from the player’s perspective. 

"The legendary Bill Shankly once said: 'Football is not a matter of life and death. It’s far more important than that.' 

"Such sentiments hardly apply to mere soccer enthusiasts, Man United fans excluded, but over a decade of involvement with Examiner certainly left an indelible mark on this observer’s life. 

"It also left marks on most other parts of my body, but more about that later. Our teams had their share of highs and lows, but there was never any doubting their enthusiasm."