IC & St Mary’s Hurlers bring home Division 2 Trophy

In the early morning before the British University Hurling Championships a squad of 9 Imperial College and 5 St. Mary’s hurlers dragged themselves out of bed and headed to the Union where a minibus was waiting. On the road to Birmingham, with no idea of what lay ahead, the lads discussed the best starting line-up for the team. Arriving at Páirc na hÉireann by the official starting time, a first for the IC lads, gave the team enough time for a warm up and some drills.

Along with ourselves, in Division 2 there were teams from Liverpool Hope, Liverpool John Moore’s, Cambridge and Dundee universities competing in the 13-aside competition. A group stage was used to decide who progressed into the semi-finals and their seeding. In our group were Dundee and Liverpool John Moore’s; two traditionally strong Hurling sides.

With a pep talk from our managers, Brendan Earley from St Gall’s and John Harvey from Keady, before our first match against Dundee, the team were ready to step up to the challenge ahead of us. Starting with the wind at their back Dundee proved a strong opposition getting the first score despite a solid defence from Neil Clancy and Tadgh Carroll. With some solid plays from the mid field pairing of Finian McCann and James Shanahan the London side battled hard to take the lead by a point into the second half.

Not long into the second half it was clear that Imperial/St. Mary’s had the edge. Despite his recent knee-capping, right up to the final whistle, Under-21 Tyrone Captain Ryan Jones made short work of ensuring any ball that ventured into the small rectangle was in the back of the net. With a strong performance from the London side and a final score of 4-10 to 1-4, the boys in blue were quietly confident for the matches to come.

For the second of the two group stages an unchanged London side lined out against an overly confident Liverpool John Moore’s. From the throw in it was clear that Imperial/St. Mary’s had the upper hand. Half forwards Donal McCann (St. Mary’s Captain) and Armagh goalkeeper Joby Burke continually knocked balls over the bar. Again the goal machine and future seminarian Jones kept the Liverpool goalie very busy with the help of the two corner forwards Paul McGovern and John McGuckin. Goalkeeper Benjamin Ryder made some great saves to keep John Moore’s score line to a minimum. By the final whistle London had gathered a healthy 18 point lead on LJMU with the end score of 6-9 to 2-3.

As the two group matches were used to seed the semi-finals it was decided that the matches were to be Liverpool Hope vs. Dundee and Imperial/St. Mary’s vs. Liverpool John Moore’s. Due to the result of the previous match the London team thought they had this one in the bag, unfortunately the first half didn’t go quite as planned despite defenders Padhraic Comerford and Jerome Scullin’s best efforts. With only a single point lead the London managers gave the lads a severe talking to that brought everyone back to earth. Half-back Kevin Parke, straight from Mount Vernon, took the bull by the horns and made sure LJMU didn’t steal the game from under our nose.

Sean Dunne made some great runs forward making sure the ball was always well into Liverpool’s half. Burke once again made short work of the John Moore’s defence and with a great ball to Jones the Londoners got a goal up despite the Liverpudlian umpire’s protestations. With a score of 4-3 to 1-2, Imperial/St. Mary’s made it to the final for the first time.

Filled with nerves and anticipation the London team knew they would have a hard battle ahead of them. Imperial/St. Mary’s won the coin toss and Imperial Captain John McGuckin opted to play into the wind for the first half, just as every previous match had been played.

Liverpool Hope with the wind at their backs managed to get the first score of the match with a point from distance. A Trojan defending effort was given from the backs headed by Clancy, Parke and Carroll keeping Hope’s score to just a single point for the first half. Just before half time Imperial/St. Mary’s were frustrated with the referee’s controversial decision to declare a brilliant goal from Jones as a square ball (similar to offside in soccer); London a point down going into the second half.

With an awe inspiring speech from managers Earley and Harvey at half time the London boys were ready to take on anything. Imperial/St. Mary’s got straight into action with a short distance point from full forward Jones. Donal McCann got another point for the London side before Hope replied with a score; Imperial/St. Mary’s now leading by a point. With an illegal tackle on half-forward Sean Dunne, London had a free from around the half way line. Burke didn’t wait long to take the free and struck the ball beautifully into the back of the net, which may or may not have tipped off Jones’s hurl.

The goal effectively the ended the game, with some great defending from both sides before the final whistle (final score: 1-3 to 0-2) when Imperial/St. Mary’s were crowned as the British Universities Division 2 Hurling Champions, a first for either club. The Londoners, filled with pride and trophy in hand, looked forward to the night of celebrations ahead of them.