Breaffy Rounders

Rounders was introduced in the Breaffy community back in 1980 by Tom Higgins, the then Principal of the local primary school. Tom trained boys and girls teams at underage levels and competed in many competitions. Rounders was always a very popular sport in Breaffy and many of those children who first played at the start with Mr. Higgins still recall some of their best childhood memories from playing rounders.

For children rounders is an excellent sport to play. It is a team sport where communication is key but also there is the individual side when a player has to come to bat, the game is in their hands and for many children who may not shine in large sports teams, batting in a rounders game is a chance to shine and we find many children excel when the so called pressure is on.

Breaffy Juvenile rounders has had much success over the past 4 decades with Community games competitions and many GAA Rounders competitions.

In the mid nineties, the Breaffy senior mens team dominated the rounders competition winning 4 All Ireland titles in a row 1992 through to 1995, and a couple of those men from those winning teams are involved today in our current senior teams.

Breaffy ladies never competed in senior competition before the reformation of the Senior section of the club back in 2017. Many of the ladies players had played with Castlebar Rounders club and had much success at underage level.

One interesting thing about rounders is that it is the only sport that male and female can play on the same team at a competitive level as well as social. Also when it comes to adults playing there is no age limit, 2020 saw a grandfather and his granddaughter play on the same team in finals.

Our Senior mixed team reached the national finals in 2017 – our first year competing at senior level and came runners up to The Heath on that occasion. That successful first year has driven us on to continue and every year we welcome new players to our club and have had a great social side to the club also.

Since Breaffy Senior ladies started competing at national level in 2017, we hadn’t lost a game in the league stages of the competition until we met Glynn Barntown in 2020. The ladies have reached the semi final stage of the competition every year, coming so close on a couple of occasions to making the final. This was finally achieved in 2020. After having to wait till June 13th 2021 to play the delayed final against 4 in a row reigning champions Glynn Barntown, and an epic, and one that many involved in rounders say is a perfect example of how to play the game, Breaffy ladies overcame Glynn-Barntown to lift the cup and claim the title of Senior Ladies All Ireland Winners for 2020.

2021 has been another successful year at underage level with the girls u13 Breaffy Community games team winning the All Ireland title for the first time ever. This brought great celebrations to the community with bonfires and celebrations that all will remember for years to come.

To finish our 2021 season we entered the inaugural Connacht Challenge Cup in which 12 teams from all over Connaught and Ireland competed in the Connaught centre of excellence in Bekan where our mixed panel of 22 players won the title, another cup for our club and a great finish to our 2021 season.

Going forward we hope to continue to grow our club and continue with juvenile aspect. Like all clubs our coaches are volunteers and we have many involved in coaching who are very experienced and willing to give their time even when they have no children involved in the club. This goes to show the love our senior members have for the game and want to teach the next generation of players how to play the sport so they may one day play at senior level.

GAA Rounders is very active at promoting the sport and in Mayo in 2021 there has been 2 new adult clubs started. So after many years of being the only affiliated club in Mayo it is great to see new clubs and players. The one thing that all our members have is a love of the sport we play and with more new clubs in Mayo it is showing how the sport of rounders is growing and thriving. Breaffy rounders will do it’s best to promote the sport and teach the next generation of rounders players.