Watching the Hurling
No time for a proper post today, but I do have a gap in between meetings to share this wonderful picture of a little lad absorbed by the action at Croke Park during last weekend’s All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final between Kilkenny and Clare (won by Kilkenny by 1-25 to 1-22, after a strong fightback by Clare). It’s a superb composition, with the little boy seemingly on his own but united with the others by their joint fascination with the game.
The All-Ireland Final (between Limerick and Kilkenny) is on Sunday 23rd July at 3.30pm. Whoever the kid is he might well be there; you can tell from the yellow and black stripes of his replica kit that he’s a Kilkenny supporter…
In the Dark 
July 13, 2023 at 4:52 pm
An extract with which (cricket excepted) I entirely agree, from the Wikipedia article on hurling:
The final of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was listed in second place by CNN in its “10 sporting events you have to see live”, after the Olympic Games and ahead of both the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. After covering the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Kilkenny and Waterford for BBC Television, English football commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme was moved to describe hurling as his second favourite sport in the world. Alex Ferguson used footage of an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final in an attempt to motivate his players during his time as manager of Premier League football club Manchester United. The players winced at the standard of physicality and intensity in which the hurlers engaged. In 2007, Forbes magazine described the media attention and population multiplication of Thurles town ahead of one of the game’s annual provincial hurling finals as being “the rough equivalent of 30 million Americans watching a regional lacrosse game”. Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote after Stephen Bennett’s performance in the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final that hurling was “the best sport ever and if the Irish had colonised the world, nobody would ever have heard of football”.
July 13, 2023 at 4:57 pm
You have to watch like the crowd are doing in the picture, because it’s so fast that if you blink you’ll miss something.
July 13, 2023 at 5:31 pm
There is a steady drip of points and then the occasional goal. The hardest problem for the spectator is to see the ball on such a large pitch and with such sudden changes of direction.
July 14, 2023 at 10:43 am
That is my problem when watching on TV – cannot see the ball. Same with ice hockey – only see the puck when its in the net….
July 14, 2023 at 10:44 am
I find the yellow sliotar helps a lot with visibility.
July 14, 2023 at 2:10 pm
On TV (when cameras seldom look at the sky) or in person? In daytime or floodlit? In some environments we could do with a ball of equivalent characteristics but containing lithium batteries and with LEDs on its surface.
July 14, 2023 at 9:17 pm
I’m talking about TV, the big games are in daylight.
July 14, 2023 at 9:27 pm
It’s no easier in person. I was at the thrilling Limerick vs Cork game on May 28th, attending a wedding there that weekend.
July 14, 2023 at 9:32 pm
Limerick thrashed Galway in the other Semi-Final and are strong favourites to win the All-Ireland again.
July 14, 2023 at 9:54 pm
I hpe that my go-to multiscreen sports TV pub in Shrewsbury (called The Beacon) might show it on one screen, and day 5 of the Ashes from Old Trafford on another.