The Salthill Fives

What a day! I was up with the birds at 7:00 a.m. to play golf I went to my local course. There was a team event where the best score on each all was recorded for me and my friend who I played with. Didn't get off to the greatest start as we both lost a ball on the second hole. In this particular format you really can't afford to have any hole where neither of you score so that was kind of game over at that stage. We motored on and did our best and managed to beat our handicap in the end. We were well and truly off the pace, with the winners getting nine more points than what we managed but we really enjoyed it and that's the main thing.

As soon as I got home from golf it was get out of the golf clothes, get sunscreen on and get the boys ready and get out the door because we had plans for the afternoon. We had the Salthill till fives and the beach to go to ended up leaving the house here around midday and only got back a little while ago, so we're going for nine hours and had a great day.

What are the Salthill fives? Good question, this is what they say:

"Salthill Devon’s popular five-a-side tournament returns this summer for our biggest tournament yet. For the last 46 years Salthill Devon has invited five-a-side teams from all over the world to enter the competition. This year we welcome men's teams, u13 boys , and u13 girls cup! Each mens team is guaranteed 3 games with the winners taking home €1500!"

I've played in it with friends lots of times it was always good fun but not this year we didn't put in a team as we are a little bit old for playing. We got there on time for the last 16, quarter finals and semifinals. My kids are really into the soccer now so they really enjoyed the day out. This is us watching one of the matches:

As you can see from these next few pictures there's quite a few people there and this was around the stage of the last 32 and last 16 and already the crowds were starting to build up. As the day got on, the crowds thickened up even more and it was a great atmosphere down there. I'd love to have been playing to be honest. Maybe next year, as three of the four semi finalists had players much older than me and my friends, so maybe we still have something to offer.

We got ourselves a nice perch up in the hill that was kind of under some trees so that the kids had some shade and the adults could sit in the sun. After I got 2 hours sitting out though even the adults were getting a bit too warm in the warm summer sun, so we end up missing some of this second semi-final and the final as the kids were getting too hot as well. We went to a local restaurant to grab some food and then we went to the beach for the last hour or so before going home. What a day!

The photos used are all my own captured on my trusty Samsung smart phone

Thanks a million for stopping by

Peace out.