You can't beat a puck around on a nice summer evening with every strike punctuated with that familiar sound of ball meeting bas. For an assortment of reasons, hurling preparations have been disrupted so far this year and last week was one of the first such evenings we have had. This year we are looking to go one better than last year's runners-up spot in the European Championship. Martin Crowley, an Erins Isle native, will again lead us in trying to achieve our goal. Even though he is now 48, he is yet to retire and played at home right until his move here three years ago. The tracksuit still gets thrown off on occasion and he remains a capable operator with all the instincts one would expect of an Erins Isle man!! I'm all too aware of the frustrations of training a football team on the continent but to train a hurler team takes an even deeper resolve and Martin has had to call on this time after time. As you would expect, Hurlers are in short supply over here and Hurlers who were playing up until the point when they left Ireland are even fewer. Still, he has grown the numbers of players and we are getting more and more competitive.
Our first tournament of the year took place in Paris on Saturday and we travelled with 15, carrying some injuries and missing one or two others. Zurich and Luxembourg had to pull the plug on their journeys early last week so it left just ourselves, The Hague and Paris. The alarm clocks went off in Brussels some time shortly after 6am. Some made the trek to Gare Midi to board the Thalys whilst others prepared for the 3hr drive. I travelled by Thalys which meant a 1.5hr spin down to Paris' Gare Nord. The early morning banter was in good supply as the Public Sector was subjected to a healthy battering.
I detest Paris with a passion. I only needed one visit to the French capital in February last year to confirm this. You will forgive me for not boring you with a lengthy rant as to why. Anyway, it was not a surprise when we were greeted by grey clouds and drizzle. I never bothered to get my bearings so I'm not quite sure what part of Paris the pitch was but I'm guessing it was somewhere North-East. The scene is always the same when you arrive at a tournament venue. The massive crowds you had expected to see the world's finest sport live, are no where to be seen. Instead you have a sprinkling of lads from the host club, most of whom are concentrated on getting the makeshift crossbar up onto the the rugby stantions whilst balancing on wonky ladders.
As my ankle is taking an age to recover, I had it strapped up but was still only able for goal. Its a position I am familiar with having being banished to it for many years in Kinsale. I used to secretly enjoy it, especially the buzz you get from charging an opponent down in a one-on-one to smother his shot or the enjoyment when you get the distance and height spot on to meet a forwards run. I was fronted by Crusher and Willie with Captain Keary and Timoleague native Aidan Harte outside of them. Newtownshandrum's Dominic King held down midfield with the energetic Emmett Devine along side him. The Hough and Conor A gave the half forward line a substantial presence whilst Rochey and Eoin gave the full forward line a dangerous look. Eoin is still struggling with the broken finger and was a doubt as a result but it was good to see him line out. Starting on the bench were Adrian, Dec, Yann and Martin. We didn't have that kind of depth of hurlers last year and with one or two more missing because of injury and travel, its looking like we'll have a decent panel this year.
Den Haag were as poor as I've seen them and travelled without five key players. We blitzed them in the first half with a mixture of well taken and fortunate goals. I think Eoin did the most damage with Rochey grabbing a couple of points and the Hough chipping in with a few. The second half continued in the same vein but The Hague did strike for a goal. The noisy Sean Simpson won a free which was placed no more than 13 yards out despite my protests. I was a bit of my line and he struck it well just over my right shoulder. Instead of having my hurley in the bat position i tried to bring it up but succeeded only in deflecting it over Crusher's head and into the roof of the net. I'll be listening to that one for a while. We won out handy in the end anyway.
With Paris beating The Hague in the next game it meant we had one meaningless group game and a final against Paris. Lads were tried out in different positions and all acquitted themselves well. Myself and Rochey were on the same page regarding puckouts and i was able to find him a good bit. I had a few moments of distraction as i was involved in some engaging conversation with the lovely lady umpire from New Zealand but fortunately my net was never found. We won out handy in the end and headed for our break before the final.
The first half of the final was much more competitive as Paris upped the ante physically and made us work hard for whatever we got. Still, it was evident that they are a new team and their unfamiliarity with eachother meant they found it difficult to work the ball up the pitch to get scores. We led 1-8 to 0-2 at half-time and increased the margin in the second half. We will expect tougher challenges as the year goes on. Paris, if they keep at it, will improve and we can't read anything into the performance of The Hague when they are missing so many. We hit an incredible amount of wides and will need to improve on that as well as dealing with high balls into the full back line. We were lucky on a couple of occasions as some balls that bounced around could easily have ended up in the back of the net.
Next stop is Luxembourg and we will be faced with absentees when we make that journey too. Hopefully myself and Eoin will be back to full fitness and also Eoghan Kelly. There are five tournaments and you need to win 4/5 to be sure to be crowned champions so we have the first hurdled climbed.
I opted out of staying on for the dinner (at which Crusher was named player of the tournament) and so travelled back with Emmett and Conor. Due to some road closures it took a little longer than expected. My personal highlight was ordering two hamburgers without sauce, a medium sprite, a large fries and a McFlurry all in french. I even finished of with 'my french is terrible', in french, which earned a smile from the lady behind the counter! I managed to get exactly what i ordered though without being asked for clarification once. Thats progress my friend!
Our first tournament of the year took place in Paris on Saturday and we travelled with 15, carrying some injuries and missing one or two others. Zurich and Luxembourg had to pull the plug on their journeys early last week so it left just ourselves, The Hague and Paris. The alarm clocks went off in Brussels some time shortly after 6am. Some made the trek to Gare Midi to board the Thalys whilst others prepared for the 3hr drive. I travelled by Thalys which meant a 1.5hr spin down to Paris' Gare Nord. The early morning banter was in good supply as the Public Sector was subjected to a healthy battering.
I detest Paris with a passion. I only needed one visit to the French capital in February last year to confirm this. You will forgive me for not boring you with a lengthy rant as to why. Anyway, it was not a surprise when we were greeted by grey clouds and drizzle. I never bothered to get my bearings so I'm not quite sure what part of Paris the pitch was but I'm guessing it was somewhere North-East. The scene is always the same when you arrive at a tournament venue. The massive crowds you had expected to see the world's finest sport live, are no where to be seen. Instead you have a sprinkling of lads from the host club, most of whom are concentrated on getting the makeshift crossbar up onto the the rugby stantions whilst balancing on wonky ladders.
As my ankle is taking an age to recover, I had it strapped up but was still only able for goal. Its a position I am familiar with having being banished to it for many years in Kinsale. I used to secretly enjoy it, especially the buzz you get from charging an opponent down in a one-on-one to smother his shot or the enjoyment when you get the distance and height spot on to meet a forwards run. I was fronted by Crusher and Willie with Captain Keary and Timoleague native Aidan Harte outside of them. Newtownshandrum's Dominic King held down midfield with the energetic Emmett Devine along side him. The Hough and Conor A gave the half forward line a substantial presence whilst Rochey and Eoin gave the full forward line a dangerous look. Eoin is still struggling with the broken finger and was a doubt as a result but it was good to see him line out. Starting on the bench were Adrian, Dec, Yann and Martin. We didn't have that kind of depth of hurlers last year and with one or two more missing because of injury and travel, its looking like we'll have a decent panel this year.
Den Haag were as poor as I've seen them and travelled without five key players. We blitzed them in the first half with a mixture of well taken and fortunate goals. I think Eoin did the most damage with Rochey grabbing a couple of points and the Hough chipping in with a few. The second half continued in the same vein but The Hague did strike for a goal. The noisy Sean Simpson won a free which was placed no more than 13 yards out despite my protests. I was a bit of my line and he struck it well just over my right shoulder. Instead of having my hurley in the bat position i tried to bring it up but succeeded only in deflecting it over Crusher's head and into the roof of the net. I'll be listening to that one for a while. We won out handy in the end anyway.
With Paris beating The Hague in the next game it meant we had one meaningless group game and a final against Paris. Lads were tried out in different positions and all acquitted themselves well. Myself and Rochey were on the same page regarding puckouts and i was able to find him a good bit. I had a few moments of distraction as i was involved in some engaging conversation with the lovely lady umpire from New Zealand but fortunately my net was never found. We won out handy in the end and headed for our break before the final.
The first half of the final was much more competitive as Paris upped the ante physically and made us work hard for whatever we got. Still, it was evident that they are a new team and their unfamiliarity with eachother meant they found it difficult to work the ball up the pitch to get scores. We led 1-8 to 0-2 at half-time and increased the margin in the second half. We will expect tougher challenges as the year goes on. Paris, if they keep at it, will improve and we can't read anything into the performance of The Hague when they are missing so many. We hit an incredible amount of wides and will need to improve on that as well as dealing with high balls into the full back line. We were lucky on a couple of occasions as some balls that bounced around could easily have ended up in the back of the net.
Next stop is Luxembourg and we will be faced with absentees when we make that journey too. Hopefully myself and Eoin will be back to full fitness and also Eoghan Kelly. There are five tournaments and you need to win 4/5 to be sure to be crowned champions so we have the first hurdled climbed.
I opted out of staying on for the dinner (at which Crusher was named player of the tournament) and so travelled back with Emmett and Conor. Due to some road closures it took a little longer than expected. My personal highlight was ordering two hamburgers without sauce, a medium sprite, a large fries and a McFlurry all in french. I even finished of with 'my french is terrible', in french, which earned a smile from the lady behind the counter! I managed to get exactly what i ordered though without being asked for clarification once. Thats progress my friend!
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