Boston-bound Quaid counting his blessings
WHEN Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid sat down in his home in Effin last November to watch the semi-finals and final of the Fenway Classic the last thing he envisaged is that he would be heading to this year’s event as an AllIreland champion. But now Limerick are hoping to round off their glorious year by winning the Aer Lingus Fenway Hurling Classic in Boston tomorrow. ‘I’d say it was the furthest thing from my mind a year ago when I was watching it. We were after having a disappointing year, we didn’t get promoted in the League and the Championship didn’t go that well for us. ‘At that stage we were only starting to look at getting back into it and seeing if we could improve. By November you tend to be putting the year behind you and starting to look forward and that matches from Fenway sort of came in the middle of that process last year. ‘But it shows how quickly things can change. Galway were the All-Ireland champions then, Clare won the Fenway Classic and Tipp and Dublin also competed. ‘It never even crossed my mind that we might be in it the next time it happened, let alone be heading over to Boston as All-Ireland champions,’ said the 29year old. And when they boarded their Aer Lingus flight in Dublin Airport yesterday morning they knew they were heading away to become the first Limerick team since 1974 to play a match abroad. Back then Limerick, having won the 1973 All-Ireland final against Kilkenny, headed to San Francisco to take on the All-Stars. Limerick will head away on a team holiday just after Christmas but Quaid said the squad were really looking forward to this weekend’s trip to Boston. ‘There is a competitive streak there in all of us and we will see that in Boston this weekend. We are looking forward to it. We see it as the last couple of games of 2018 and it has been a great year for us.’ Limerick meet Wexford in the second semi-final on Sunday with the winners taking on either Cork or Clare in the final. All three games will be live on TG4.