The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Basktball Blitz never fails to leave one thunderstruck
THE lights go down and the spotlight comes on. The arena is full to capacity, a thousand bodies, young and old, tightly packed as one. Standing room only – if you’re lucky. The heat is stifling but adrenalin fills the air. It’s St Mary’s Christmas Blitz finals day and the Community Centre is buzzing.
AC/DC’s Thunderstruck is blaring from the speakers. If ever there was a song that befitted an event it’s this classic. The Senior National Schools A final is about to tip off. Firstly, though, the boys names must be called out. Starting with the captain and down along through the team. Every player must have his moment in the sun. The lights go up again and the ball is thrown in. Twenty minutes of mayhem ensue, before the ultimate champions are crowned.
It’s every young fellow and girl’s ambition in Castleisland to win the Christmas Blitz. It’s the supreme achievement. It ranks higher than an All-Ireland medal, the Super Bowl or the NBA Championship. To win a Blitz title is the alpha and the omega. The Premier Men’s final will throw in after the national school’s game. It will feature Americans who can dunk the ball and Irish guys who shoot three-pointers for fun. Still, it won’t top the National Schools game for sheer excitement.
The five days of the Blitz will see competitions from Junior National Schools to Senior Men Division’s 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Senior Ladies Divisions 1, 2 and 3. There are 22 different divisions in all. The Premier Men’s competition is the pinnacle. The lower league adult competitions will feature players who were really good when underage but now resemble a golfer with only one club. They know what should be done but have lost the tools to execute it. The last time that they touched a basketball will have been at the previous year’s Blitz. They tog out again because that is what you do in Castleisland after Christmas. For 50 years there has never been any other way. Pints will be drank in local hostelries after the games, and tall tales will be regaled of times gone by.
Before the finals day, the previous four days of action will be split between St John’s Hall and the Community Centre. The juvenile competitions will take place in St John’s Hall. It will be packed to capacity and the tightness of the theatre will see rival supporters attempt to out-shout each other in a cacophony of noise. St John’s Hall is what Thomond Park used to be before they did it up. The dressing rooms are small and the court is tight, but the atmosphere is off the charts. Memories and heroes are cemented for generations on its hardwood.
The Community Centre used to be a bit like St John’s Hall one time. A bigger version though, with a tiled floor and a balcony. The balcony was the place to be if you were a school goer. It was The Kop or the Hill 16 of the arena. Songs were sung and chants were recited. I remember being up there when Claremont Admirals won the Premier Men title some time back in the 1980s. Magnum PI was big at the time, and Claremont had an American that was the head of Tom Selleck, moustache and all. He shot the winner with a second left on the clock and the balcony went wild. I honestly thought that it was going to come down that night, but thankfully we lived to tell the tale.
The Centre is on a different level now with a beautifully refurbished floor and tiered seating. The balcony is well gone, but the atmosphere has never diminished.
Donal ‘Duke’ O’Connor is a man that many will have heard of, but very few will know. Duke rarely gives interviews or seeks the limelight. He speaks in that matter of fact style Kerry accent that exudes honesty and integrity, but has a sparkling twinkle of roguery at its core.
Duke is a product of Barrack Street, a stone’s throw from the castle that gives his town its name. For 50 years he has been the captain of the Christmas Blitz ship, and for four of the five days of the competition Duke will rarely be seen outside of St John’s Hall. It is as if this modest arena embodies Duke’s own nature.
The great Con Houlihan wrote an article for the Christmas Blitz programme in 2014. It was a typically brilliant piece and he extolled the virtues of Castle Island’s beautiful Fountain at the bottom of the town. Cast in limestone from the ruins of the old castle and built in 1847, it is a landmark of epic proportions. Like the Christmas Blitz the Fountain is a symbol of strength and community.
Con finished his article with a lovely line: “My congratulations to the basketball carnival, may it go on getting better and better.”