Hey Dopers of Dublin

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, September 11th is the All-Ireland Championship Hurling Match, right?

Recall, I won the Guinness sweepstakes? The tickets & stuff should be arriving today (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!) and we’re supposed to arrive there on September 9th. Since we’re going to be there for a week, it’d be really cool if we could hang out some. But at the very least, we’re planning on watching the game in a pub on the 11th, so plan on being there, whereever there is… (Like we can name an appropriate place to watch the game.)

We’ll be asking lots of hurling questions like: who are we rooting for? And, what just happened?

Cool. We’re looking forward to it!

2

Just remember: whenever *anyone * hits the ball with their stick, shout out, “YA FECKIN’ BOLLOX!” It’s a traditional way of showing your support.

3

I’ll be rooting for Galway, They played an amazing semi final against Kilkenny, I was really surprised, I had money on Kilkenny:) Kilkenny just seemed to have no defense, very out of character.

4

As my loyalties usually lie with Laois and Westmeath, perhaps the two worst hurling counties if you discount Laois’s fluky thrashing of Cork in 1915, I think I’ll go with MikeG (despite his spelling of “defence”!).

Galway have only ever won 4 hurling titles [1923, 1980, 1987 and 1988] compared with Cork’s 29 - one more than Kilkenny. I shall be in Kilkenny on the 11th so will probably be watching it in a pub there.

As for the rules, js_africanus:

15 blokes a side who, unlike in soccer or rugby, line up all over the pitch (which is an enormous 135 or so metres long);

Game divided into 2 halves of 35 minutes, with a bit of injury time added on;

Hit the ball over the bar and between the uprights = 1 point
Hit the ball under the bar and between the posts = a goal (counts as 3 points);

Whacking anyone (opponent, teammate, referee, spectator etc) with your hurley is actually against the rules.

Otherwise, don’t concern yourself with 65’s, puck-outs, small parallelograms or any of that nonsense; you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

Hope you enjoy it!

5

Me, too! I hope the Dubliners will join us for the fun.