The game of Hurling.

[Mike Stenson (RIP)]

Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe's oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.

The stick, or "hurley" (called camán in Irish) is curved outwards at the end, to provide the striking surface. The ball or "sliothar" is similar in size to a hockey ball but has raised ridges.

Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.

You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points.

Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: 1 goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards.


A game is played over two halves of 30 minutes (at club level) or 35 minutes (at inter-county level).

hurling1Players wear a jersey with their team colours and number on the back. Both teams must have different colour jerseys. The goalkeepers' jerseys must not be similar to the jersey of any other player. Referees normally tog out in black jerseys, socks and togs.

Goalkeepers may not be physically challenged whilst inside their own small parallelogram, but players may harass them into playing a bad pass, or block an attempted pass.

Teams are allowed a maximum of three substitutes in a game. Players may switch positions on the field of play as much as they wish but this is usually on the instructions of team officials.

Officials for a game comprise of a referee, two linesmen (to indicate when the ball leaves the field of play at the side and to mark '65'' free kicks and 4 umpires (to signal scores, assist the referee in controlling the games, and to assist linesmen in positioning ''65' frees).

A goal is signalled by raising a green flag, placed to the left of the goal. A point is signalled by raising a white flag, placed to the right of goal. A '45'/'65' is signalled by the umpire raising his/her outside arm. A 'square ball', when a player scores having arrived in the 'square' prior to receiving the ball, is signalled by pointing at the small parallelogram.

[Rhona]

    The fastest - bestest game in the world......helmets have been made a compulsory part of the kit over the last couple of years. All children and minors have to wear them, quite a lot of seniors don't bother with them - although everyone wears gum shields as quite a lot of teeth have been blown clean out of heads

[Bertie Horak]

Thanx for that Mike, I was hoping somebody would post something on "hurling".  Now I know, and I think I saw a snippit of a hurling game on Gillette world of sport on TV.   
Looks like you handled the rugby party better than another Mike we know - looks like he's a bit fragile today - not much chirping in posts!

[Michael Alexander]

I heard that...... busy watching a movie on my pc called 300...about the SPartans and historical action....Wow...what a brilliant movie so far.....

[Bertie Horak]

Yes, also watched it on DStv today. Great movie, and it almost looks like the characters were painted!
Enjoy Mike!

[Rhona]

The best movie ever - I even saw it in one of those 3D movie places while in Durban, think it's called the IMAX - but this is the hurling section not the movie one..........so push off and watch your movie elsewhere

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

 

[SandyB]

I thought Hurling was something people did when they drank too much      

[Mike Stenson (RIP)]

.

[SandyB]

Only teasing Mike .. arent we just the  bunch  of philistines ??

[Rhona]

We're not phillistines Sandy - this is the ultimate game of skill

[SandyB]

Oops  methinks me been  misunderstood  , will  find someone  with one of those  hurling instruments   at  my  front  door ... I  was  refering to me  being a philistine  cos I  made the  comment on  the  other form of  hurling ...   
  Air  is cleared  so Now  Dont  send  any  of  your  hurling friends to  my  front  door  Ok??  I ve  hired  security just in case ..   

[Michael Alexander]

Kilkenny's high kings of hurling

Kilkenny 3-30 Waterford 1-13

A tornado which originated deep in Kilkenny yesterday morning moved north-eastwards with such intense ferocity that by the time it reached Croke Park in the afternoon nothing could possibly survive its awesome power.

Hapless Waterford were first sucked into its unforgiving eye before being blown out in tiny fragments which were left strewn all over the place.

In the end, Kilkenny had not only moved to the top of the All-Ireland senior hurling honours list with 31 titles, they had also become the first team from the county to capture the three-in-a-row on the field as opposed to the committee rooms.

They had done so with a truly remarkable display which left Waterford looking like junior club players who had come together for the first time on their way to Croke Park.

Here was a Waterford team that had improved from game to game through Antrim, Offaly, Wexford and Tipperary, yet they were left so far behind yesterday that from the 21st minute onwards, they were barely visible in Kilkenny's rear mirrors.

Accelerating

But typical of Kilkenny, they motored on anyway, accelerating regularly as if to prove to themselves that they could reach any pace they wished. A first half total of 2-16 was increased by a further 1-14 in a loose, leisurely second period where Waterford's grim battle for respectability yielded nothing.

John Mullane battled on doggedly in attack, while Eoin Kelly picked up a fair amount of loose ball around midfield but many of their colleagues had long since resigned themselves to the fact that Waterford's first All-Ireland final attempt for 45 years was destined to end in abject humiliation.

It was painful to watch most of the Waterford players losing their personal battles so comprehensively that they must have wondered where the gulf in class had come from.

Quite what the psychological impact will be on the Waterford players remains to be seen but there has to be a worry that it will leave them seriously scarred.

Granted, they went into the game as underdogs but they could never have anticipated that their ruthless opponents would move up another notch from the high-efficiency operation that swatted Cork aside in the semi-final.

Waterford remained just about solvent for the first 15 minutes but quickly had their assets stripped by the closest to perfection that any team has possibly ever produced in an All-Ireland final. By the time Martin Comerford shot the first of Kilkenny's two wides in stoppage time at the end of the first half, seven different players had contributed 2-16 while Waterford's 0-5 had come from Eoin Kelly frees.

Waterford had been crucified to such a degree that there was never the slightest chance that they would construct a meaningful comeback. They re-shaped the side for the second half, deploying Ken McGrath at centre-forward with Eoin McGrath and Eoin Kelly moving to midfield in an attempt to curb the rampaging thrusts of Derek Lyng and 'Cha' Fitzpatrick.

It made absolutely no difference as Kilkenny continued to dominate. They won the second half by 1-14 to 1-8 which certainly wasn't a fair reflection of their superiority.

Mullane's 46th minute point drew ironic as it was Waterford's first score from play while their goal in the 69th minute was the result of an error by James McGarry who had been sent in as a sub for PJ Ryan eight minutes earlier.

He got his hurley to Kelly's shot but it spun into the net for what was the only goal Kilkenny conceded in a championship campaign where their average winning margin was over 17 points per game.

Ominously

The extent of the difficulties facing Waterford was ominously clear from early on. Kilkenny were stronger under the high ball, reacted quicker in open play and applied a level of skill which Waterford couldn't match. They enforced themselves on the game to such a degree that Waterford must have found it difficult to breathe.

Two examples within a minute of each other illustrate the point. Eoin Murphy looked to be comfortably in control of the situation in the ninth minute as he attempted to get in a clearance but was shouldered over the endline by a persistent Eddie Brennan for a '65 which Henry Shefflin pointed.

A minute later Eoin Kelly was blocked by Noel Hickey and Tommy Walsh as he tried to bear down on the Kilkenny goal. The ball was cleared and a marker put down.

If Brennan had done well on the previous incident, he did even better in the 21st minute when he smacked in Kilkenny's first goal from a pass by Eoin Larkin. Less than a minute later, Brennan struck again, whipping home the rebound after Clinton Hennessy had saved from Aidan Fogarty.

There was still nearly 50 minutes to go but the contest had been safely secured by Kilkenny who headed from the half-time break with a 2-16 to 0-5 lead. On and on they powered in the second half, scoring at will from all angles and distances.

They led by 26 points (3-27 to 0-10) after 65 minutes and while Waterford pared four points off the embarrassing deficit in the remaining minutes, it still left them facing the biggest defeat in an All-Ireland final for 65 years.

Mullane apart, their attack was buried by a defence where Tommy Walsh was the best of a very competent lot.

Midfield was overrun by Lyng and Fitzpatrick, while Brennan, Larkin, Shefflin and Fogarty cut swathes through the defence. And when Brian Cody played his only outfield substitution card, it worked brilliantly too with TJ Reid scoring four points from play. Truly a day neither Kilkenny nor Waterford will ever forget, admittedly for very different reasons.

Scorers -- Kilkenny: E Brennan 2-4; H Shefflin 0-8 (5f, 1'65); E Larkin 1-4; TJ Reid 0-4; A Fogarty, D Lyng 0-3 each; J Fitzpatrick, R Power 0-2 each.

Waterford: E Kelly 1-9 (9f); J Mullane 0-3; D Bennett 0-1.

Kilkenny -- PJ Ryan; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, J Tyrrell; T Walsh, B Hogan, JJ Delaney; J Fitzpatrick, D Lyng; H Shefflin, M Comerford, E Larkin; E Brennan, R Power, A Fogarty. Subs: TJ Reid for Comerford (44), J McGarry for Ryan (61).

Waterford -- C Hennessy; A Kearney, D Prendergast, E Murphy; T Browne, K McGrath, K Moran; M Walsh, J Nagle; D Shanahan, S Molumphy, S Prendergast; E McGrath, J Mullane, E Kelly. Subs: S O'Sullivan for Nagle (ht), J Kennedy for S Prendergast (ht), P Flynn for E McGrath (52), T Feeney for D Prendergast (63), D Bennett for Shanahan (63).

Ref -- B Kelly (Westmeath)

[Rhona]

  - Kilkenny were absolutely outstanding.......Even a mixed bag of the best 15 hurlers hand picked throughout the country would of been no match for The Cats.

[Michael Alexander]

I did say....I Er! Uhm! like Kilkenny....