Whenever I know that the team we are playing do weekly reports I’m always interested in their version of events and I have to say fair play to Ballynagross for their summing up of last Saturdays game. I read it on their website and again in the Down Recorder and while it has (as you would expect) a Ballynagross slant it was a reasonable and balanced view of the game. Yes Castlewellan deserved to win but 3-0 was very harsh on a good Ballynagross side and I think anyone at the match would concur. No doubt our own report on our website had a Castlewellan slant but I like to think that it also gave a fair appraisal of the game. The account in the Mourne Observer also was balanced and the sports editor obviously mixed and matched both sides versions which is fine as I trust him implicitly to do so while retaining the integrity of the reports. However the summing up of the weekends Newcastle League games in the ‘Outlook’ stated that ‘If Ballynagross had have had some of the luck that Castlewellan had it may have been a different outcome’, (who was their English teacher!) for the life of me I can’t see how anyone could suggest this, luck was fairly evenly distributed as far as I could see and clearly the notion is at odds with reports in the other papers, and while everyone is of course entitled to their opinion surely they have to be there to see for themselves or seek both sides point of view, is that not a basic premise of reporting? The only reason that this irks me so much is that it has happened before. Also I note that the paper has us already in the semi final against Mourne Rovers! We have to get past Annalong Swifts this Saturday first before that could occur and that will be no easy task. I don’t suggest for one moment that there was any disrespect involved but it was quite an oversight. Informed, balanced and fair that is all anybody wants.
