Ireland’s quietest hero calls time
News broke a short while ago the 1997 Snooker World Champion Ken Doherty has called time on his long and illustrious career in the professional ranks in the sport. One of the quietest and most unassuming sporting heroes the island of Ireland has ever produced, the Ranelagh native never did, you feel, get the credit or recognition he deserved. In Ireland at least.
Ken’s golden May Bank Holiday came at a time when Scotland’s Stephen Hendry was still a powerhouse in the game. By the time Doherty defeated him on that magnificent Monday night (18-12), Hendry had won the title seven times and actually bounced back to reverse that result a year later.
Unfortunately for Doherty, though, whilst it could be said that he saw off the great Scot and the other big names of that era, there were another bunch – dubbed snooker’s Class Of ’92 – including but not limited to Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins – who more or less made the sport their own and to some extent still are.
That said, just as our man would have no doubt attained inspiration from the likes of Steve Davis and Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, you can be sure his success was the reason many a youngster picked up a cue for the first time and please God his legacy will continue to be so.
Another one ticked off the list
So, ridiculously belatedly but in keeping with the shambolic manner in which Championship draws and fixtures have been handled this ‘summer’, the details for the next stage in the horrible structured All Ireland SFC have finally been published. And, as a result of same, Derry’s Celtic Park will becomes the latest ticked off my list of grounds still to visit.
Things will play out as follows:
Saturday 13 June
GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship, Round 2A
Donegal v Cork, MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey, 3pm
GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship, Round 2B
Monaghan v Roscommon, St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, 4.30pm
Kildare v Kerry, Cedral St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, 5.30pm
Derry v Meath, Celtic Park, Derry, 7pm
Sunday 14 June
GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship, Round 2A
Louth v Armagh, Páirc Grattan, Inniskeen, 1pm
Galway v Westmeath, Pearse Park, Salthill, 2pm
Tyrone v Mayo, O’Neills Healy Park, Omagh, 3.30pm
GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship, Round 2B
Cavan v Dublin, Kingspan Breffni Park, 2pm.
Soccer Valuations
You do have to wonder sometimes how those charged with running the financial end of professional football arrive at their determinations. Because some of what has gone on regarding transfers in England this week – even though the engine of last season hasn’t fully cooled off yet – has been eyebrow raising to say the least.
How, for example, have Arsenal allowed Katie McCabe leave without even offering the Dubliner a new contract. Worse still, allowing her leave those formerly housed at Highbury and head across the English capital to their greatest rivals in the Ladies game, Chelsea.
But then, the questions could also be asked as to how Manchester United just rolled over and allowed the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho and, most recently, Rasmus Hoijlund leave the club without getting within an ass’s roar of justifying their price tags. Or indeed how the great Seamus Coleman is currently sans club.
Rugby Evaluation
Though possibly through a different lens, surely the Brains Trust within Irish rugby will be undertaking a similar exercise in critical self analysis after what can be best described as a patchwork season for the country’s top performers in the oval ball code.
Don’t let a Triple Crown or two of the provinces qualifying for European finals cod you. Gone are the days when that would be enough to placate the masses. So spoiled have we been with success over the past two decades that anything other perceived domination is considered failure.
Even though such evaluations are as unrealistic as they are pompous. In my humble estimation, the problems handicapping both Leinster and the national team are one and the same. Coaches who are in situ for elongated periods with too much of a loyalty to old soldiers.
As referred to previously here, Munster are currently a basket case and, while both Connacht and Ulster have both made genuine and commendable progress, in terms of the bigger picture, Irish rugby needs the four provinces competing to their optimim to be seen in its best light.
The golden chalice has become the bucket with the hole
“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole/Well fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it”. So went the old children’s song when I was a kid. It’s not difficult to imagine similar words being to the forefront of thoughts down Nore side since Derek Lyng announced he was stepping down as Kilkenny senior hurling manager.
Now, the Urlingford man’s decision to vacate the role has been greeted as surprising in most quarters, but it harfly was. When you’ve been around as many post match interviews as have I, you come to recognise the little signs.
Such as when the Emeralds clubman addressed the media after what has turned out to be his final match in charge.
It was “Kilkenny will win All Irelands again”. Very noticeably not “We“. If Lyng was never to set foot on a GAA pitch again (as if that would be the case) his record of representation and service to Kilkenny hurling is exemplary. For the fact that he was the one who took on the Rubix cube that was trying to fill the void left by Brian Cody exiting stage, he deserves the highest commendation. He’ll take quite a bit of replacing himself now.