It’s hard to keep up with fixture changes

SADLY, IT’S an all too common occurrence these days to see the official G.A.A. fixtures list supplied to this newspaper altered beyond recognition by the time the weekend arrives. Take last week’s Oulart-The Ballagh v. Ferns St. Aidan’s Pettitt’s Senior hurling championship clash as a case in point.

The original fixture had the game down for Innovate Wexford Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday, part one of a double-header also featuring the Oulart-The Ballagh Intermediate ‘A’ team against Gusserane.

It emerged, after our deadline, that the main county ground wasn’t available, so the games were moved to St. Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy.

However, there was another twist on Thursday night when it was confirmed that Oulart-The Ballagh’s Murtha Doyle was included on the official panel of 24 for Saturday’s All-Ireland Under-21 hurlig championship semi-final against Cork.

That was reason enough for the Senior game to be postponed altogether, and it will now go ahead in Monamolin on Wednesday evening.

It later transpired that Doyle didn’t feature in the action in Kilkenny on Saturday, meaning that a game was called off when there really was no need.

In fairness to the player concerned, that was nothing to do with him, and his club were within their rights to seek a postponement.

However, the ‘Seen and Heard’ team had reason to raise our eyebrows when we learned that another unused player on the official 24 last Saturday, Daire Bolger of Rathgarogue-Cushinstown, had played with his club the next day in their Courtyard Ferns Intermediate hurling championship defeat to Monageer-Boolavogue.

It seems strange that, in exactly similar circumstances, one game is called off while another goes ahead. What was the difference between the two?