Our Big Game on Sunday; Boyle v Padraig Pearses
Boyle return to the County Semi-Finals on Sunday next at Hyde Park at
2.45. Their opposition, Padraig Pearses, are possible favourites for the title.
Boyle narrowly lost in their first round to Pearses so they too are in with a
good chance of progressing on Sunday. This will be Boyle’s third semi-final in
three years the other two being in ’16 and ’17 where they lost out to St.
Brigid’s and Roscommon Gaels. I see a different atmosphere about the team this
year though and this could be a breakthrough year. Boyle are a better side this
year and there is a quiet resolve to maximise the window of opportunity that
seems to be there this time. However having said all that while their first
half performance against Michael Glavey’s in Castlerea last Saturday was
scintillating their opening 20 minutes of the second half was puzzling dipping
into a valley. It was like an effort at Dutch football deserting
the defensive trenches to play in no man’s land. I’m confident though that all
that is absorbed and that winning pragmatism will emerge on Sunday. So
hopefully the town, which currently has hedged its bets in terms of
flag-waving will, flower after Sunday. Tonight -Thursday- I drove home through
the town and I am puzzled by a noticeable absence of the colours even in places
where it would be thought a given.
Win or lose I applaud the huge effort that all of the panel members and
management have put into this and previous campaigns. They are putting Boyle
football on the map and hopefully a big and VOCAL support from Boyle will
congregate in a not very hospitable environs of the large stadium that is Hyde
Park.
Two Weeks in the Life of…
All-Ireland Football Reflection
Oscar Wilde said he always wanted to have something to read in his
travels and that was the reason why he used to carry his diary with him. I keep
a raw record also which is locked in being illegible to everyone else but
myself!
Why I mention it here is that when I sat down to stay on track with a
few paragraphs bi-weekly I wondered what will I ‘scribble’ this evening ? Also
the evening is short as I am going to Roscommon …again …as I hear over my
shoulder. I left off last time preparing to go to the All-Ireland
football final replay. That is nearly forgotten now! However it was a real
contest between two gladiatorial giants. For quite a while it was a chess game
with little to choose at half time. Dublin reenergised from an escape in the
drawn game saw new heroes emerge with Mannion, O’Callaghan, Kilkenny,
Cluxton and a relatively unknown i.e. Murchan striding around Coke like
antelopes in a safari park. The old aristocrats Kerry brought their warriors
and great tradition to the table too with names we will hear for the next
decade like Clifford, O’Shea, Murphy and Geaney but in the end the blues for a
combination of reasons finally arrived at station number 5 and being cast into
the folklore of Gaelic football for as long as it survives.
Last Sunday in the independent Sports Section there were two columns on
the back page one by Colm O’Rourke and the other by Joe Brolly. I haven’t read
Colm O’Rourke’s piece yet maybe on the train tomorrow but I have scanned
Brolly’s. towards the end it deals with the Dublin football team in broadest
terms and how they have reached out to Diarmuid Connolly as told by selector
Declan Darcy. It is worthy of your attention. A telling end to his column is
the following, and I quote " Long after the stadium was empty the stewards at
Coke park went into the empty Dublin dressing- room, only to find Stephen
Cluxton mopping the floor" !
Having returned to base I tuned in on Sunday to the ladies All-Ireland
final. After a tough contest in terrible conditions they won their third title
in a row. I had hoped Galway would win but they fell short. I expect that they
will return
Sunday Morning Hurling Abbey Park on the 29th
I have been informed that the official launch of a hurling initiative will
take place on Sunday morning next at the Abbey Park at 11m. I think that
hurling is the supreme game and that it was never better. The skills which are
on display in top games are mesmerising. And what’s more it’s getting better if
that is possible. I played hurling as a boy since it was part of the heritage
of Athleague with which club I played as I did in the CBS.
There have been a number of times that hurling has sparked as if into
life in Boyle. I remember Richard McGee mentioning that it was around in the
late forties. A legendary character called Bob Carr who came from Offaly and
had a saw-mill at Ardcarne promoted the game through the later sixties. Army
officer P.J.Keane, who played for Limerick and Munster, got a good young team
together in the early seventies with T. P. Toolan and Martin Candon being on
Roscommon under-age teams. The fire went out but a Mister O’Dowd originally
from Galway but back in Boyle from England tried again to light the flame. I do
not know why it died again.
Now I am told that a number of people are setting out on that journey
again with the support of the County Hurling Board for Minors. From what I have
heard there are enthusiasts from Cork and Wexford amongst those involved. I
really hope it catches on. I see its sister game camogie beginning to be
nurtured by a number of dedicated and excellent ladies in the park at the moment.
Bringing a game like hurling to a new place is not a short project it is a ten
year one and I wish it well because to me it is the Riverdance of
sport.
A Scottish Story of Appreciation
I will just paste to here a nice heroic story as told by Neil Francis
rugby columnist of the Sunday Independent of Sept. 15th
“A TRANQUIL gathering in the Scottish highlands is disturbed as a small
boy falls into the icy waters of a nearby river. There are shrieks as the boy
is carried away towards a waterfall and certain death. Before anyone can even
think, a young man dives in and swims heroically for the toddler. Just as it
seems that the waterfall is about to take him, the hero lunges and grabs the child
by the scruff of the neck. He scrambles for an outlying rock right on the edge
of the waterfall. Against all odds, he holds on until they can both be pulled
to safety. Once back on land, the hero returns the child to his grandfather.
The old man turns to the rescuer and points to the child's head:
"He had a hat..."
(I got interrupted when doing up this blog which I send to post late
Thursday night ... well actually very early Friday am. Perhaps I can get
back to the second half on Saturday!)
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