Sports writing from United States rich in depth and quality
tually began to find some form.
Westmeath managed to add just two more points to their tally, both from Joe Fallon frees, the second of which left them leading by six with 20 minutes remaining.
Meath slowly whittled away at the Westmeath lead but there seemed no way back as they trailed by three in the final minute of normal time.
However, when substitute John Cullinane directed a ball towards the danger area it was collected by full forward Graham Geraghty.
The Seneschalstown man was forced to reverse out of a cul-desac before parting to Murphy who despite being surrounded by four defenders bolted a terrific left-footer to the roof of the net.
A memorable goal that sent the game to a replay which ended in a 2-10 to 0-11 victory for the Royals. MEATH: Cormac Sullivan; Mark O’Reilly, Darren Fay, Cormac Murphy; Nigel Nestor, Enda McManus, Paul Shankey; Nigel Crawford 0-2, John McDermott; Evan Kelly 0-1, Trevor Giles 0-3, Richie Kealy 0-1; Ollie Murphy 2-1, Graham Geraghty 0-2, Donal Curtis 0-1. Subs: Hank Traynor for McManus, Dermot Kealy for Shankey, Ray Magee 0-1 for Murphy, John Cullinane for Kelly, Niall Kelly for Curtis.
WESTMEATH: Cathal Mullin; John Keane, David Mitchell, Fergal Murray; Brian Morley, David Murphy, Damien Healy; Rory O’Connell, David O’Shaughnessy; Joe Fallon 0-5, Paul Conway 1-0, Michael Ennis 1-0; Dessie Dolan 1-3, Martin Flanagan, Ger Heavin 0-1. Subs: Damien Gavin for Murray, David Hughes for Flanagan, Derek Heavin for Morley.
REF: Michael Collins (Cork)
MEATH 3-8 LOUTH 2-9
LOUTH manager Paddy Carr sinking to his knees after Graham Geraghty rode to Meath’s rescue with a late goal was an iconic photograph from the GAA season of 2002.
Another great escape for the Royals in this Round Two All-Ireland qualifier at a sunny Pairc Tailteann on a Saturday evening after Louth were stunned by two late goals.
With just three minutes remaining Mark Stanfield had scored a wonder point to push the Wee County into a fully-deserved 2-9 to 1-8 lead.
The insurance score surely and they still held that advantage with just one minute of normal time and three added minutes remaining.
Some disgruntled Meath supporters were making for the exit and Sean Boylan’s obituary was been penned for the Sunday newspapers.
But then as the clocked ticked towards the 70th minute mark super sub Richie Kealy struck for a Meath goal.
The drama didn’t end there as Graham Geraghty broke Louth hearts with another goal, this time in the fourth minute of added time to secure an unlikely victory.
Louth were crestfallen and who could blame them.
Armagh referee Brendan O’Gorman had to get a Garda escort off the pitch as the Wee County questioned the amount of added time played.
Geraghty, who arrived at the venue by helicopter after acting as best man at a wedding in Enniscorthy earlier in the day, could have easily taken an equalising point.
However he must have wanted to avoid extra-time to get back to the wedding celebrations and made a quick dash to board his awaiting flight soon after the final whistle.
Meath boss Sean Boylan summed it up afterwards when he said ‘If I was a Louth man today I’d probably be the most disappointed man in the world because we appeared to be dead and buried.’ MEATH: Cormac Sullivan; Mark O’Reilly, Darren Fay, Cormac Murphy; Paul Shankey, Hank Traynor 0-1, Paddy Reynolds; Nigel Crawford 0-2, John Cullinane 0-1; Evan Kelly 0-1, Trevor Giles 0-2, Nigel Nestor; Ray Magee 0-1, Graham Geraghty 1-0, Donal Curtis. Subs: Richie Kealy 2-0 for Curtis, Ollie Murphy for Magee.
LOUTH: Stuart Reynolds; Alan Page, Aaron Hoey, David Brennan; Simon Gerrard 0-1, Martin Farrelly, John Neary; Ken Reilly, Seamus O’Hanlon 0-1; David Reilly 0-1, Christy Grimes, Barry Clarke 0-1; Ollie McDonnell 1-1, Mark Stanfield 0-3, JP Rooney 1-1. Sub: Nicky McDonnell for Clarke.
REF: Brendan Gorman (Armagh)
IKE IN every industry, in every walk of life, there are workers with a wide variety of skills.
These skill sets can differ across the globe, with the way someone completes their craft often markedly different from one side of the world to the other.
Sports writing is the same; everyone will have their favourites, styles they prefer to read over others, and this reviewer is no different.
It’s something I have mentioned before in these reviews, while delving into books from around the world.
I have said on record that my preference is to read sports writing from across the Atlantic, when time allows to sit back and delve into what’s on offer.
It’s not necessarily because they have more talent than the best this side of the pond has to offer, I feel there are other reasons.
Obviously there’s a deep talent pool, with a top drawer education to match in most cases. But for me it’s often simply down to the fact that the top level talent have more of an opportunity to work on a piece, to take their time, chip away and create something memorable.
There are things about American writing that grated on me too, rules they use that fly in the face of what is the norm here, but over the years I’ve become used to their quirks and it tends to aggravate less and less.
So with that in mind, what would be the perfect book for me to spend a Covid-ruined weekend afternoon perusing?
Well, that would be ‘The Best American Sports Writing’, on this occasion the 2018 edition edited by Jeff Pearlman.
The premise of these publications are pretty clearly explained by the title. It is a collection of articles, deemed the best of the previous year, snuggled together in a tidy paperback.
While topical categories clearly have an impact (this edition has a lot of work on concussions, CTE and the effects), the fact that each edition is edited by someone different allows the publication to keep a freshness a single editor might lose.
Writers featured here include Howard Bryant, Tom Junod, Jane Bernstein and Jim Owczarski. Wright Thompson, writer of the foreword in last week’s ‘Chaos is a Friend of Mine’ is also included, while a personal favourite was Reid Forgrave’s ‘The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE’.
Not only do the 25 stories that make up the 300-plus pages of sports writing gold make this book a great read, but the five pages at the end that list a treasure trove of quality work that just missed the cut pushes it to another level.
Here series editor Glenn Stout gives readers all the details needed to go searching out these titles, including author, publisher, date of publication and title of the piece, which gives a little insight into the content of the article.
Being the best American sports writing, most of the stories are based on U.S. sports so that will turn some people off right away.
However, if that is something you can look past, and just enjoy reading really well-written pieces of journalism, then there is no specific market for this. Anyone who can appreciate a good article can meander their way through these stories and get engrossed.
Then, if this is something you enjoyed, the next step is to start making your way through other ‘years’ in the series.
DEAN GOODISON