Double joy for Breaffy as they retain their mixed and ladies All-Ireland titles

Breaffy Rounders was set up in 1980 and is still going strong with the sport bringing in new players every year.

FOUR IN A ROW: Breaffy Rounders Ladies won their fourth consecutive All-Ireland title. Pic: GAA Rounders

Breaffy Rounders completed the double last Saturday when they claimed All-Ireland success in both the ladies and mixed team competitions in Abbottstown.

The South Mayo club completed the double for a second year-in-a-row with the ladies team claiming their fourth consecutive title and the mixed team winning back-to-back titles having won their first All-Ireland last year.

The ladies were first up and had a tough battle against Wexford’s Glynn Barntown coming out on top on a scoreline of 11-8.

The mixed team saw off Cavan’s Erne Eagles 8-5 to claim the double for the Mayo club.

BACK TO BACK TITLE: Breaffy Rounders mixed team retained their All-Ireland title. Pic: GAA Rounders

Women’s co-manager and mixed teams player Colm Jordan said that the four-in-a-row winning ladies side self-motivate themselves as they continue to rack up their All-Ireland titles.

“We are lucky enough with the bunch we have they are self-motivated a lot of them. Once you start winning you like the feeling off it.

“We have a great group, we have a lot of good people in the group and every year we come back people seem to be refreshed and re-energized and just like the challenge of going again.

“Four-in-a-row is an amazing achievement and the ladies team really showed resilience because the first couple of years they were losing in the semis for maybe the first three or four years. Ever since they got the first win they have blossomed since then.” 

Breaffy Rounders was set up in 1980 by Tom Higgins in Breaffy National School. Breaffy Juvenile rounders had success over the last four decades in Community Games and GAA Rounders competitions.

There has been a men’s team down through the years, winning four consecutive titles between 1992-1995, the girls team lapsed for a time and was re-established 2017 with a senior ladies team. However girls did play with Castlebar Rounders at underage level with great success.

Breaffy currently have up to 35 senior members within the club and this year welcomed 12 newcomers to the sport. Rounders is on the rise with four clubs now in Mayo and is open to anyone who would like to take up the sport.

“We have people playing this game that have never played before” said Jordan. “They have seen it on social media and decided to come out and join us. I say maybe 40% of our senior players now would never even have played the game and came up and joined us and gradually picked it up.”