Due to injury, the start of Mark Stanfield's year was something of a nightmare. However, once the county man regained his fitness, things began to click into place with both club and county. Louth rattled the might of Galway in a second-round qualifier at Parnell Park on July 3, while O'Connells gave the Pats the fright of their lives in a thrilling SFC quarter-final tussle at Dowdallshill 13 days later. All in all, it was an eventful year for Mark, who's a key member of staff with innovative Dromiskin-based tyre recycling company Crumb Rubber Ireland Ltd. Crumb Rubber Ireland Ltd. is the country's first dedicated tyre recycling facility. Offering an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of used tyre disposal at its state of the art Dromiskin facility, Crumb Rubber is a true innovator in its chosen field. The brainchild of Leo Kerley, the company offers a tyre collection service on demand. Waste certificates are issued upon collection of tyres, which are in turn brought to a state-of-the-art £4m facility that can handle tyres of any size and description - from lawnmower tyres to the largest earthmover tyres. The recycling process creates no waste by-products as the entire tyre is recycled. The company has the capacity to process up to 880 tyres per hour but, despite the fact that this country produces an abundance of this particular waste, only a small percentage is working its way into the recycling process. Thus, Crumb Rubber Ireland is always on the lookout for scrap tyres and is just a phone call away on 042 9382611, 097 6535933 or 087 2532619. Identifying a niche in the marketplace, Crumb Rubber Ireland provides an ideal solution to the largely unrecognised problem of scrap tyre disposal - an issue that, before the company's formation, was not being properly addressed in a country where tyre recycling is in its infancy. Crumb Rubber charges only £2 per tyre and these are then brought back to the ultra-modern plant in Dromiskin, where they are ground down into tiny pieces. Cleverly, the recycled rubber can be put to a variety of uses: filling for playground surfaces, equestrian centre surfaces, gardening, as rubber cobblelock, astro turf, or in areas such as playgrounds where a soft surface is desirable. Louth and O'Connells footballer Mark Stanfield is a key member of the Crumb Rubber personnel. He told 'Wee County 2004': "The plant opened during the spring of 2003 and is the only tyre recycling facility in Ireland, based at Mooretown, Dromiskin. We have four trucks on the road. We bring them to the factory, remove the wire, and then shred the rubber. "This leaves us with chippings of rubber [crumb rubber], which can be put to a variety of uses, such as walkways for horses, on golf courses, for gardening and landscaping, and even for drainage on football pitches. Indeed, we recently did a drainage job for the Joes on their pitch at Cluskey Park. "Leo Kerley and Padraig Hand set the company up after Leo researched the tyre recycling business in America, where it has taken off in a much bigger way than it has here. But Crumb Rubber Ireland is doing well too and we're dealing with literally hundreds of enquiries." Of course, Mark Stanfield is much better known for his exploits in the maroon jersey of O'Connells and the red of Louth. Reflecting on O'Connells' encouraging performance in senior football in 2004, he notes: "Our aim at the start of the year was to stay up and to give it a good shot. We achieved that and the fact that it was also our 75th anniversary meant it was a big year for the club. "We started well but, to be honest, we were a little disappointed with the second half of the season. We got eight points from the first seven games but then let it slip a bit after that. Otherwise, we could have pushed for a place in Division 1A." The Castlebellingham/Kilsaran men raised a few eyebrows with their championship performances, which were all the more commendable considering that they were senior rookies: "We played poorly against Kilkerley but then had a big win over the Joes which put us on course for the quarter-finals. We drew the Pats, who of course went on to win it, and there wasn't very much between us on the day. I think it was 0-11 each with five minutes to go and we hit the crossbar and had another goal effort cleared off the line. If we'd got the goal, we'd have beaten them, but it wasn't to be. "Still, I'd take a lot of heart from our performance. The young lads who played that day did us and themselves proud, and we can only build on that." The prime objective of survival was achieved on the last day of the season: "We were relieved to beat Roche in our last game because there was a relegation scrap between ourselves, Kilkerley, Stabannon and the Malachis and it was great to get past that." The year started badly for Mark. Shortly after Christmas, he sustained a serious groin injury, which necessitated four months' rest. He missed out on the entire national league and a second-half substitute appearance in the Leinster championship clash with Wexford was his first for the county team all year. He explains: "For four months it was just light training and pool work. After missing the entire league and coming straight into the championship, I was ring-rusty and it was difficult to get into the game. "I played against Galway in the back door and we had them on the rack in Parnell Park. It was only when we were pushing forward for a winner and they were defending desperately that they broke and got the winning goal." Mark's overall assessment of the county team: "Val came in and had a lot of injuries to contend with. But there's definitely something to build on. When you look at what Westmeath and Fermanagh achieved during the summer, it's not beyond any team to have a good run in the championship. I think we have a major chance of doing well next year, especially if all the injuries clear up and we get back some of the young lads who weren't available. "There are a lot of good footballers in Louth. For the eight or nine championships that I've been involved, we've been very unlucky a lot of those years. If we could just get a break and get over one of the big teams, then we could really go places." On the club front, Mark says he's hoping to do even better in 2005: "We're delighted to stay senior but when you see the Pats going on to win it out, you have to be a little disappointed as well. There are some very good young players in the club and I know we can go places. I'm also a bit disappointed that we didn't keep going in the league because there was nothing between six of the teams in Division 1B. "We have gone from mid-table in junior to the second division of senior and there's room for even more improvement. Next year, we hope to push for Division 1A and a good run in the championship. Some people couldn't believe how well we played against the Pats and we're hoping there's plenty more where that came from." Tweet

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