London 1-19 v 2-8 Fingal

Saturday 13th June 2009
Nicky Rackard Cup Semi Final - Hurling
Emerald GAA Grounds, South Ruislip
Admission: £5
Programme: Donation

Having really enjoyed my first experience of hurling a fortnight ago, I made a return trip to the Emerald Grounds, Ruislip, for this semi-final game, with a day out at Croke Park in the final at stake.



London were again the heavy favourites to win this game, however in a very entertaining game, Fingal were in the ascendancy during the first half. Although London probably had most of the pressure, they made some woeful defensive mistakes, gifting Fingal a goal with when a London defender misjudged the bounce, scored another, and really should have at least one further goal, and so Fingal went into half time 2-05 v 0-09 ahead, and a shock looked very much on the cards, particularly with London's star forward, Martin Finn, clearly struggling badly with an ankle injury.

However, in the second half, Fingal lost discipline for some reason, giving away needless fouls, and gradually London overhauled them and in the end eased to a relatively comfortable win, although no way near as comfortably as they had beaten Roscommon a fortnight ago.

This will probably turn out to be my last game of hurling until 2010, which is rather sad, as I would thoroughly recommend a game of hurling to anyone who fancies something a bit different .

London 1-22 v 1-11 Roscommon

Saturday 13th June 2009
Nicky Rackard Cup Round Two (A) - Hurling
Emerald GAA Grounds, South Ruislip
Admission (including programme): £5

Inspired by my recent tour of Croke Park together with its museum, I headed off to Ruislip, outer west London, for this Cup match between the two top sides in the National Hurling League Division 3, London having a 100% record from their six league games.

A relatively small crowd were present at this neat small ground but with a friendly atmosphere, for what was a very entertaining game. This was the first game of hurling I had ever watched, but certainly won't be the last. In a high scoring game, London set the early pace, however Roscommon scored a goal midway through the first half, and took a narrow 1-9 to 0-11 lead into half time.



However, in the second half, London soon took complete control of this game, scoring an early goal and finding points scoring increasinly easy to come by. Roscommon seemed to lose their composure as the game wore on and their defeat becoming more and more inevitable, conceding more and more fouls and making sloppy errors that London were quick to punish. In the end, London ran out very convincing winners to send them through to the next round. This was an excellent introduction for me to hurling, and I look forward to my next opportunity to watch the game soon, either back at Ruislip or on a trip to Ireland.

Kildare County 0 v 1 Athlone Town

Saturday 30th May 2009
League of Ireland Division 1
Station Road, Newbridge, County Kildare (Republic of Ireland)
Attendance: 150
Admission: €10
Programme: €3



With the season over in England, I headed over to Ireland for my footy fix in late May. The original plan was to watch Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda United, however a limited capacity at Shamrock's recently opened Tallaght Stadium of 3,500 until fully completed meant I could not guarantee being able to get a ticket. So instead, I headed out to Newbridge, a 30 minute train ride west of Dublin, to take in this League of Ireland Division 1 clash. The Station Road stadium is located close to the train station, just as well as my train only arrived 5 minutes before kick off. This did

not promise to be a good game, with Kildare marooned at the bottom of the table with just 1 point from 13 games, and Athlone not doing much better having only scored 10 points.

On a very warm, sunny evening, the game was actually very even and Kildare could count themselves unlucky to lose by an own goal half way through the first half. They had the better chances throughout, but paid the prices for completely lacking a cutting edge.

The crowd probably numbered around 200 and the game had a

very sedate, laid-back atmosphere throughout, not even the goal or a couple of gilt edged chances being missed stirring much

emotion. Whilst this made for a pleasant, relaxing evening watching football in the summer sunshine, there is little reason to encourage a special visit to Kildare County, particularly with the many other football clubs in the Dublin area.

How their seasons turned out...

Kildare County: Unsurprisingly, they finished bottom of the league, and then went into liquidation before the relegation play-off match

Athlone Town: Finished in 10th place out of 12 teams

Croke Park Stadium Tour

Croke Park, Dublin
Stadium tour and museum admission: €10.50


The tour of Croke Park comes highly recommended. Not only does it give you a comprehensive, behind the scenes tour of the fourth largest sports stadium in Europe (behind the Nou Camp, Wembley Stadium and the Olympic Stadium, Kiev) with a capacity of over 82,000.


The tour takes you through the players lounge, where there is a spectacular chandalier hand made of Waterford Crystal, with the numbers of balls corresponding to the number of hurling and Gaelic football teams of the GAA, and which, on matchday, change to the two colours of the teams playing that day. The tour continues through to one of the dressing rooms, into an indoor practice area and out into the spectacular stadium itself., where the size is overwhelming. An interesting part of the ground is the terrace called Hill 16 behind one end, which houses over 10,000 spectators. It looks somewhat out of place compared with the other impressive grandstand, but when you understand the history of the area - built on rubble from O'Connell Street and the traditional home of Dublin fans - it is inconceivable for it to be replaced. The tour ends with a tour of corporate boxes, and after the tour, you are free to browse around an impressive and interactive museum, which provides all you could need to know about Gaelic games. For someone who knew little about Gaelic Games, it certainly gave me a thirst for more, for a sports that are entirely amateur, only played in Ireland, yet is so well supported.