Today.

The Dublin Bay Packers are a recreational Co-ed Softball team based in Dublin, Ireland.

In 2010 Dublin Bay Packers and curent Prem and Cup Champions BatPak merged to form an Uber Club, 2PA©K. The 2 Teams continue to cause havoc in their respective leagues while the new power goes on to dominate Blitz and hopefully pave a new way for softballl.

In 2009 we made it to the giddy heights of Division 1. It has been a win some/lose some kind of season. In a tight division one more win could have brought promotion to the Prem and one more loss relegation. We settled however for mid table obscurity with a 7 and 7 record and enjoyed the summer. We also picked up the Castleknock Bearcats Blitz Cup and the Usual Suspects Blitz Cup with some help from our friends. Our best season yet. Next year the Prem...

In 2008 we returned in style to Division 2 of the Leinster Softball League, winning a tight division on the last day with results elsewhere going our way. News of our title win was received in the coachhouse where the packer dance was once again performed!

2007 We lost only one game on our way to the Division 3 title scoring over 250 runs. We also picked up the IOST plate in Limerick and the Castleknock Bearcats Blitz Plate. This led to talk of a Trophy Cabinet and  clubhouse to host it but someone ordered another round and the train of thought was lost.

2006 saw us get relegated to Division 3 by one game, but we retained the majority of players (at least those that didn't get married),gained a few new talents, and were optimistic we would soon return to our righteous place. 2006 was also our tenth season and we picked our second trophy in the form of the Castleknock Bearcats Blitz Plate.

Team e-mail address : dbpackers@yahoo.com

Where do we play ?

Our home ground is Wesley College, Dundrum since 2006. In 2009 we played league matches on matches on Wednesdays. We practiced Monday nights in Ringsend park and provide free training for local residents who seem irresistably drawn to the bats.

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.

We extended our practice arrangement with St. Andrews to make this our home ground for 2005. We shared the ground with the two Kiely's teams. As in 2004, early season practice took place in Merrion Cricket Club, at least until the Cricket season kicked off.

Packer Lore

The Packers were established in 1996 by Mike Roberts 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 in 2009 we severed our last connection with EDS only to learn that EDS itself is now defunct. Coincidence? 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.