Morrissey loving ‘extraordinary’ era

CHRIS MORRISSEY was there back in the days when Newtownshandrum were fighting for respectability at junior level in North Cork.

He watched as his older brothers won the club’s first junior county in 1946, then again as they followed that up with the club’s first intermediate in 1953. He was there himself from 1955 to 1980, won junior in 1968, intermediate 10 years later, over a quarter century of playing service.

Fast forward again, and in 1996, Newtown having been in the doldrums for three seasons, beaten in the first round of the intermediate championship in 93/94/95, he was chosen as trainer, and from out of nowhere, guided the team to another intermediate title.