Last year (2004) was our 9th and completed a troika of winning seasons (10-4, 10-4 and 10-5). Once more we narrowly missed promotion, but due to the folding of a team above us we have been hauled up anyhow. Division 2 status means we cannot play 6&4 but must play 5&5. With the loss of some female players from last season, we have had to sign up some new girls. It'll be harder going this year but if we play as well as we can, then we should be able to hold on to our new divisional status this year.

Update (3/5/05): Our opening 5 games have been very promising. At 3-2, we stand 3rd in the division, ahead of both of our promoted division-mates from 2004. We have won 3 games comfortably, with a 4th win in Round 1 of the Cup. Both of our losses have been close, with one being decided by 1 run on the last out of the game. We have a tough run of games mid-season against the top 2 teams in the division, but I am happy to say that the Packers are holding their own in Division 2. Update (25/7/05): With the tough mid-season run behind us, we recovered our winning ways and now sit at 5-5. At this stage, we should be safe in Division 2 (our initial goal) and may still contend for 3rd. Unfortunately our Cup interest ended in a rather heavy defeat to division rivals 1Z-Blazers.

Team e-mail address : dbpackers@yahoo.com

Where do we play ?

From 1996 to 2001 we played in Clan Na Gael in Ringsend. For most of 2002 we were homeless due to renovations in Clan Na Gael. In 2003, there was an initiative to get as many Junior (as 3rd was called that season) teams to play in the same spot. Wanderers RFC was identified and the initiative was a great success. This arrangement continued into 2004 but Wanderers indicated they did not wish to continue the arrangement prior to the 2005 season. As it happened, our "promotion" made this a moot point because only 3rd and 4th division teams played in Wanderers, but nonetheless, this is a blow to the ISA as the venue worked well.

This year, we have extended our practice arrangement with St. Andrews to make this our home ground for 2005. We will be sharing the ground with the two Kiely's teams. As in 2004, early season practice will take place in Merrion Cricket Club, at least until the Cricket season kicks off.

St. Andrews is located on the Booterstown Avenue which links the Rock Road in Booterstown with the Stillorgan Dual Carriageway just past Mount Merrion. Coming up off the Rock Road, it is just on the right before Gleeson's pub (which is on the left). Booterstown DART station is close by and there are a number of bus routes which pass in close proximity to the school (5, 7, 7A, 8, 17, 45, 46A, 46C, 46D, 46E, 58, 58C, 63, 75, 84, 114 and 746), some closer than others. Merrion CC is in Ballsbridge and is located half way up Anglesea Road, opposite its junction with Simmonscourt (see attached map #2).






Origins.

The Packers were established in 1996 by Mike Roberts (that's me!) and Martin Quigley. Founded explicitly as a team of people who wanted to play softball, we are an independent team not a 'company team'. We are primarily self financed but we also benefited originally from company sponsorship. The team initially contained only people from within EDS. Since then the team has evolved to include players from a other places also and we now have only a single EDSer on the panel.

In late 1995, during our regular and (ahem) work related discussions, we discovered that one of the recent recruits to EDS played softball. Eureka ! We had our starting point, and so Ronan Martin (of Pigs in Space a.k.a. the Pigs) became our associate founder and technical consultant. A second Pig (Kieran Fleming) also worked for EDS and early on we got to know the Pigs, who provided us with our early instruction and several friendlies since then.

After the initial rush of 'interested volunteers' we eventually rustled up a panel of 15 genuine members (9&6). We had a survey of our new members to try to decide on a name for the team. These ranged from the sensible (Colts, Rangers) to the cryptic (Basin Blues) to the bizzare (Meat Packers). An executive decision was made and the poll winner was modified to be a little less ghoulish and to reflect the location of our home ground. The Dublin Bay Packers were born and entered division 5 of the LSL's 7&3 co-ed league for the 1996 season.