Alley ruled the roost with classy show in ’70
Winners ‘played like men inspired’ on a day overshadowed by sudden death
CLUB GAA players all over the country have been digesting the news that several county finals will take place in November this year, following the release of the amended and updated fixtures plan on Thursday.
Somewhat appropriately therefore, this week we are looking back at a Senior hurling championship decider that had an extremely late finish – with the wonderful photography of P.J. Browne from New Ross once again embellishing this journey into the past.
Action in the 1970 competition commenced on April 19, but it didn’t conclude until November 29 when Buffers Alley romped to a most impressive 4-16 to 1-4 victory over Shamrocks, the titleholders.
However, the day was tinged with immense sadness after Willie Doran – the 63-year-old father of four of the winning team’s stalwarts – collapsed in the course of the first-half and died.
Just to put that closing date into some context, it was still earlier than the December 8 staging for the Alley’s first Senior success in 1968. Of course, Wexford’s All-Ireland Senior and Minor victories had a lot to do with that.
Since then, no county Senior hurling championship has been concluded later than the 1970 version. The final did run into November again in 1973, 1976, 1979 (when it went to a second replay), 2001, 2003 and 2008, but on all those occasions the champions were known before the 29th.
In order to explain the late finish 51 years ago, firstly I shall try to explain the somewhat convoluted nature of the championship structure.
A total of 13 club teams were in the hat for the first round draw, with an even number created by the addition of the winners from the District section.
This was always played at the outset, with two semi-finals plus a final between the four Districts to determine the Junior and Intermediate clubs’ representatives in the Senior championship proper.
The action started on April 19, but four rather than three games were needed to decide the outcome before New Ross District beat Enniscorthy District by one point in a replay on May 17.
By that stage, the opening first round game had been played. The full draw had produced the following pairings:
Geraldine O’Hanrahans v. District winners; Rathnure v. Shamrocks; Oulart-The Ballagh v. Kilmore/Rathangan; Duffry Rovers v. Ferns St. Aidan’s; Horeswood v. St. Martin’s; Ballyhogue/Davidstown v. Faythe Harriers; Liam Mellows v. Buffers Alley.
Those games spread from May 10 – when the Harriers advanced by six points – all the way through to August 9 and the Alley’s comfortable success in the Gorey District derby.
The losers’ group – introduced to the championship in 1968 – was in its third year, and six of the beaten first round teams were in contention. As that section was confined to clubs only, New Ross District weren’t entitled to continue.
In any event, those early-year wins had represented the high point of a campaign that saw them concede a first round walkover to neighbours Geraldine O’Hanrahans.
The losers’ section started in similar fashion on July 26, with Kilmore/ Rathangan not fielding against newcomers Duffry Rovers because some of their players – including the Berry brothers, Jim and Jack – were in the USA. While they expected to get a re-fixture date, instead their rivals – first-time Intermediate champions in 1969 – were given safe passage into the next stage of the competition.
The purpose of the losers’ section was to produce one county semi-finalist, and that spot went to Shamrocks, the reigning champions, via wins over Liam Mellows and Ballyhogue/Davidstown respectively, having earlier gone down to Rathnure.
Meanwhile, the seven first round winners engaged in a series of games to determine the other three qualifiers.
Faythe Harriers and Ferns St. Aidan’s were both eliminated on August 9, losing to St. Martin’s and Oulart-The Ballagh respectively.
There was a significant happening immediately after the Oulart-Ferns game, played in Gorey, when Wexford selector Nickey Rackard approached Mick Jacob and asked him to return to the county squad for the following Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Galway in Athlone.
Mick and his brother, Christy, had left the panel after a disagreement the previous October, but he accepted this request and went on to star at midfield alongside Dave Bernie in the subsequent heavy loss to Cork on the first Sunday in September.
By the evening of August 9, it was now whittled down to five teams in the hunt for three semi-final places. It had been decided that one would be granted a bye, and Buffers Alley were selected via the luck of the draw.
Rathnure comfortably eliminated Geral-dine O'Hanrahans in the quarter-final, and likewise St. Martin's were far too strong for Oulart-The Ballagh almost one later.
The latter match had a devastating conclusion for Mylie Ryan, a stalwart of the losing team, who lost his right eye as a result of an incident in the closing stages.
After that long drawn out process in get-ting down to the last four, the semi-finals went ahead over successive Sundays in November.
And wtth the Alley beating Rathnure by two points, and the Shamrocks see-ing off St. Martin's by 13. the decider on November 29 was billed as the clash of champions.
With the Gorey District men taking the title in 1968, followed by their Enniscor-thy town rivals one year later, this would settle the argument as to which side was strongest.
Nobody could have foreseen what followed, as the Ally's winning margin of 21 points (4-16 to 1-4) was the largest since the 1924 final.
Their performance was described as 'magnificent' in the press, after they 'strode majestically to their second county Senior hurling title in three years when they overwhelmed the fancied Enniscorthy Shamrocks (holders;)'.
The reporter praised 'one of the great-est exhibitions of non-stop. power-packed hurling in a county final in Wexford in recent years, as the Alley swept away the challenge of the reigning champions almost contemptuously — never allowing them to settle down or become a serious threat.
He continued: 'Fo r the crowd of 5,200, this game, as a contest. proved a great disappointment. Eagerly awaited as the most evenly matched final pairing for many years, it turned Into one of the most ill-matched contests of all times, as the Shamrocks found themselves outplayed and outpaced in every phase of the game.
'But it was a brilliant solo performance by Buffers Alley, and their display may have done a great deal to redeem the image of hurling in Wexford. They played like men inspired, tickling for every ball as if their very lives depended on It. They played with tenacity and grim determina-tion and, at times, with a nay abandon that