Sunday, June 25, 2006

Double delight

Again, it was no classic but as predicted England are through to the Quarter Final of the World Cup. The performance of the team has to improve if we are to progress, Lampard was awful again, Beckham was poor (apart from the winning free kick) and as for the defence, they really need to get their act together especially John Terry and Ashley Cole. The simple truth is if we play like that against Holland or Portugal, we will be heading home. In the next match Rooney will hopefully be fully fit, if he does we may have a chance (and he is overdue a big game) but the service needs to improve considerably along with the possession and passing which was woeful. Anyway, England has six days to go to get it right.

On another sporting note, Cork won the Muster Hurling final by three points against Tipperary and I am a tenner up over my work colleague John (you should know by now not to bet against Cork). In case you are realising what is Hurling? it is basically in layperson's terms a game that is an outdoor team sport of Celtic origin, played with sticks(similar to a hockey stick) and a ball. The game, played primarily in Ireland, is arguably the world's fastest field team sport in terms of game play. The objective of this field game is for one of two teams to score more goals and points, during a match, than the other. A team comprises 15 players (I got an easy explanation off wikipedia).

Cork have won the All Ireland Hurling Championship for the past two years and last year I was luck enough to get a ticket to the final(they are like gold dust) in front of 82,00o in Croke Park, Dublin. I have been a fan of Gaelic games since I was a ten year year old (Gaelic football is the other game) when I was taken to an All Ireland Semi-Final at Croke Park that involved Monaghan and Kerry. With my mother from County Monaghan and my Dad from County Cork, I have split allegiances though every summer it provides some great matches and I enjoy the thrill of watching Gaelic games.

This afternoon I was lucky enough to watch both games in Ganleys in Morden, which had both the hurling and the football showing. In term of the result, it is double delight and I am not one of these people who does not want England to win despite my Irish heritage. However, if the Republic were in the World Cup, I have to confess that I would be cheering them on.

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