Minor final halted early by down pour

December 2002

Craanford 0-0, Blackwater 0-0 (Match abandoned after 26 minutes): This was a match that didn’t finish and probably shouldn’t have been allowed even to start.

The Wexford Creamery Minor Hurling Roinn 2 championship final at Coolree on the Saturday before Christmas was mercifully whistled up by referee Nicholas Kehoe after 26 scoreless, rainsoaked, and miserable minutes in the midst of one of the worst downpours in years.

Heavy rain had fallen overnight but the day began to brighten up around 10 a.m., ahead of the scheduled 1 p.m. start, only black clouds to roll in and the heavens to open again just after throw-in.

It was the correct decision, as the extreme conditions meant the game was little more than a lottery, to have a county title decided on such a day would have been unfair on all involved.

Blackwater had marginally the better of things in the play that did take place, and created more scoring chances too, but that didn’t matter in the end, as the referee sent the sides back to the dressing rooms earlier than expected, and allowed the sizeable crowd to seek shelter in somewhere other than the exposed Coolree grounds.

A small few were heard grumbling about how the game being abanonded in mid-match, as they made statements along the lines of ‘if he (the referee) started it, he should have finished it’.

Their grumbles would be better directed towards those responsible for organising the championship, for not having it completed at a respectable time of year, instead of expecting 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds to hurl in the midst of December downpours.