Hump it long to new recruit – or is he just a water-carrier?
WEXFORD U-21 hurlers didn’t take the hump when their training was interrupted by a most unusual guest last Sunday with an equally bizarre appetite.
The players were almost finished their session when a camel, part of the circus that was pitched nearby at the Showgrounds in Enniscorthy, decided to join them.
“We weren’t in any danger, the picture makes it look a lot closer than it really was,” said amazed manager JJ Doyle.
“But he ate three of our training cones!” he chuckled.
“He was chewing away on them, and at the end of training we were three short, so we could only conclude that he actually ate them!
“We were training at St Patrick’s Park and there is a circus pitched at the far end of it.
“Their animals were out grazing and weren’t tied up but they were well away from us initially so we’d no worries.
“We were finishing up when this camel wandered down. Needless to say he caused a bit of a stir and there were a lot of jokes going around afterwards.”
Doyle, who managed the county’s women to three AllIreland senior camogie titles, has taken over as U-21 boss this season.
His backroom includes former camogie mentor Tommy Roche and ex-stars Larry Murphy and Niall McDonald.
Their first championship game is not until early June but they are already training three times a week, including Sunday mornings, which Doyle says suits so many of their players who are away in college during the week.
The county is desperate to get some underage success again, and their current batch of U-21s includes Jack Guiney, Andrew Kenny, Lee Chin, Gary Moore and Jack Hobbs of DIT, whose college side caused a surprise last week by beating the University of Limerick to join them in the Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-finals.
The county’s new four-legged U-21 recruit caused much mirth and laughter when pictures finally emerged on Twitter yesterday, including the suggestion: “Put him on the edge of the square and hump it in long to him.”