sport in Guiness beer commercial

[DaddyTimesTwo]

There’s a commercial for Guiness I’ve seen on ESPN a few times lately. It’s a shot of of guy on a soccer-like field in the pouring rain. Hhe has a stick a bit like a hockey sitck but not bent quite so much and shorter and heavier. He looks down at a ball like a baseball. He looks at a goal being blocked by presumably the other team. It seems like a penalty shot or something. He then uses the thick, heavy end of the stick to scoop the ball up, toss it in the air and swing at it like a baseball player. Or maybe a cricket player. It’s like a cross between hockey, soccer amybe lacrosse or something.

Ideas? I’m clueless. I assume it’s some bizarre European sport like “footie”, or F1.

[MikeG]

It’s an Irish game called Hurling and it’s super fun:)

I describe it to the unitiated as “rugby with sticks”
[sub]kinda inaccurate scoring wise but it gets across the intensity[/sub]

Check out http://www.gaa.ie for more details. I’m sure the Irish Dopers will be along shortly with mroe in depth information.

[Derleth]

Only the Irish would find a way to make hurling fun.

From the above cite.

Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe’s oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.

People have been hurling for a long time.

You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley [curved stick] and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. [or, carry it in your hand for not more than four steps] After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points.

Sounds fun, actually.

Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: 1 goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards.

The site has a text-based diagram I won’t reproduce here.

Like rugby and hockey, I suppose the game is very fast and rather violent.

[everton]

You might find a little more of interest about the ad and the game in this thread from a few months back.

[Zumpel]

Yup, that’s hurling alright. Very, veeery fast game and a LOT of fun to watch. I think it’s one of the fastest field games in the world. It’s not really violent, as there are quite a lot of restrictions on how you can use your body, plus the hurleys usually are reinforced with metal on the end (otherwise they wouldnt take the strain) and far too dangerous for any funny business.

Never played it, but once you get over the initial “what the heck are they doing” phase, you can’t help but admire the skill those guys have with the hurleys (the bat), and because it’s so fast it hardly ever gets boring.

If you’ve got an irish pub in your area you might want to go there and ask if they’ve at least got a tape of the All Ireland Championship (Birr won this year). I’m sure you’ll find someone who’ll explain it to you, though just watching it can teach you quite a bit about it already.

[GUINNESS]

Only the Irish would find a way to make hurling fun

…Guinness makes **EVERYTHING ** fun…

[DaddyTimesTwo]

I knew the answer would be easy.

Thanks, I’ll sleep better.