Special prize for highest punt in Trim

IRISH sports fans have grown accustomed to the sight of a towering rugby up-and-under or a Gaelic football punt that takes an eternity to return from space.

What we haven’t seen before is a single high kick rewarded with €1,000 worth of sports equipment, which is exactly what will happen at the Trim Haymaking Festival on Sunday.

A new event entitled ‘Cic Árd for AWARE’ has been added to the bill for the 2011 festival, all proceeds going to the depression battling charity.

Participants will be charged €5 and given their choice of either a standard O’Neill’s football or a rugby ball and invited to give their best punt. The rugby winner will then face off against the football champion to determine who secures the €1,000 of sports gear for a sports club of their choice.

Festival PRO John Marron said the credit must go to local man Tom O’Reilly for coming up with the idea.

“Tom is the managing director of Tara Steel and provides the big rig every year for the sheaf tossing contest. He suggested maybe early in the day we could have a high kick competition using the rig.

“We realised that would take too long to run (alongside the sheaf tossing contest). So Tom decided to design goalposts especially for the Cic Árd. He got in his engineers last week and he tested it out against the yellow steeple which is a trademark in Trim, it’s a 120 feet high.

“We had Meath footballer Graham Geraghty kicking up against it to try it out. He kicked 60 feet that night but I don’t think he was pushing himself. Geraghty’s goal didn’t stand in Croke Park last weekend so our umpires on the day will not be got at because they’ll be up on two cherry pickers, they’ll be about 40 feet high.”

The festival organisers are hoping to attract some well known GAA and rugby players to boost the profile of the event and to raise as money for charity, while a host of other activities will take place on the day.