Sport Review 2010 page 2

Kilkenny and Portumna in hurling; Kerry in football, all three were considered invincible a year ago, and all three lost their biggest games of 2010. Once again, Portumna got to Croke Park on St Patrick's Day but, as I reported, the old magic simply wasn't there: Reacting to his team's 1-19 to 0-17 defeat by Ballyhale Shamrocks of Kilkenny in the All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship final, Portumna manager Johnny Kelly offered the opinion that the pressure of winning an unprecedented third Club Hurling title on the trot may have got to his players. Making no excuses for his side's loss, which was his first since taking charge, he added: 'Maybe it did, subconsciously, maybe it did, I'm not sure. We didn't talk about it but maybe at times it seeps into guys and there's very little you can do about that. It's human nature that people clap you on the back. Maybe it did. We didn't go out to lose but things didn't work out for us and you have to say Ballyhale were the better team on the day. I believe that whoever wins is the better team, so all credit to them.'[private] Johnny Kelly commented on goalkeeper Ivan Canning's misfortune â€â€ his misplaced handpass allowed Shamrocks forward David Hoyne to score their only goal, midway through the second half. 'That goal took the wind out of our sails,' the Portumna team manager said, 'but there's no recriminations on our side.' For Ballyhale, Henry Shefflin fired nine points, from 12 scoring attempts, but it was Joe Canning who won the scoring battle of the freetakers as the brilliant Portumna forward fired over 12 points. After the game, and before St Gall's of Antrim defeated Clare's Kilmurry-Ibrickane in the Club Football final, G.A.A. president Christy Cooney presented the Tommy Moore Cup to the victorious Ballyhale Shamrocks captain Eamonn Walsh. The famed Kilkenny club now head the Roll of Honour with five titles. From our occasional Final Whistle columns, we're looking back at one I wrote early this year: 'Legends of the Kilbannon boxing champ and 'Connemara Crusher' revived'. With all that was happening in sport at local, national and international levels last weekend, it would be a pity if the achievement of Coleman Barrett went unnoticed. The 28-year-old professional boxer from Galway city, now living in London, became only the third Galway man to win the Irish Heavyweight title when he defeated Colin Kenna at the National Stadium, Dublin on Saturday night. It's all of 120 years since Peter Maher, from Kilbannon, Tuam, became the first Irish heavyweight champion, and 66 years since the legendary Máirtín Thornton, the 'Connemara Crusher' from An Spidéal, emulated Maher. Born on March 16th, 1869 - son of a Board of Works inspector who'd moved from Dublin to Kilbannon to supervise a restoration project on the Round Tower, and married a local Concannon woman - Peter Maher first became Irish middleweight champion, at the age of 19; and two years later, in 1890, he was crowned the heavyweight champ. Inside another five years he was boxing in the United States, at the highest level. After James J ('Gentleman Jim') Corbett, best known as the man who defeated the great John L Sullivan, announced his retirement he nominated his protegé Steve O'Donnell as his successor. Tradition demanded that O'Donnell win the world title in the ring so he was matched against the gutsy Irishman Maher. The bout took place at the Empire Athletic club, Maspeth, New York on November 11th, 1895 and Maher surprisingly defeated O'Donnell with a first round knockout. The general public had little acceptance of the new champion and even Maher himself expressed a wish to fight Corbett for the 'real' title. But he had to fight, instead, Bob Fitzsimmons, born in England to a Co. Armagh father and a Cornwall mother. Maher lost, ironically to another first round knockout. The referee was said to have been Wyatt Earp, of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral fame and an iconic figure in American folk history. Fitzsimmons then fought another Irishman, Tom Sharkey from Dundalk, in San Francisco, the bout being billed for the heavyweight title. Sharkey was awarded victory by disqualification in Round 8 by Wyatt Earp, again the referee. Jim Corbett then announced his return to the ring and the claims of Maher, Fitzsimmons and Sharkey to be world champion were ignored. But Maher was tantalisingly close to the ultimate glory in the world pro fight game, and it's fascinating to look at the list of star names on the Heavyweight Roll of Honour after Bob Fitzsimmons and up to the 1930s: James J. Jeffries, Marvin Hart, Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson, Jess Willard, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Max Schmeling, Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, Max Baer, James J. Braddock and Joe Louis - the latter's record has not been broken; he held the title longer than any man: 10 years, 8 months and 8 days. Incidentally, Peter Maher's fight with Bob Fitzsimmons took place on February 21st, 1896 in Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico. A long way from Kilbannon, and long, long before there was Sky Sports to show it live for the lads sipping their pints of stout back in the famous Duddy's pub! Martin Thornton (Máirtín Ó Droighneáin) came to prominence as a boxer in the 1940s. Unfortunately, he is chiefly remembered for the wrong reasons - he lost his biggest ever fight too easily! On August 24th 1945, at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, in a welter of excitement, the colourful character from the West of Ireland known as the 'Connemara Crusher' and by some as the 'Spiddal Slugger' entered the ring to fight the newly crowned British and Empire champion Bruce Woodcock, conqueror of Jack London whose son Brian would fight (unsuccessfully) Floyd Patterson in 1959 and Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest,' in 1966. Bruce Woodcock wasn't in that class, but he was good, and Máirtín Thornton knew it. Out of loyalty, many Connemara people backed Máirtín to punch his way to fame and fortune against the champ but who did Máirtín back to win? That was the big question. Reports say he was on 1500 pounds for fighting Woodcock - a huge amount of money at the time - and it's claimed that on the day of the big event, with thousands of fans flocking to Dublin, Máirtín threatened to pull out of the fight unless the British promoter Jack Solomons doubled his cash to 3,000 pounds. Sensationally, he got his way. Did he then go all-in on Woodcock with the bookies? We'll never know! He lost on a TKO (technical knockout) in the 3rd round. When he returned home by train the following evening and heard about an angry crowd waiting for him at Galway Railway Station, he got off the train in Athenry! Máirtín Thornton had been crowned Irish Heavyweight champion on the night of February 4th 1944, defeating Paddy O'Sullivan (knockout, Round 3) at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. In total, in his pro career, he won 14 fights (eleven by K.O.) and lost eight. He fought in Dublin, Belfast, Waterford, Bristol, Manchester, Leicester and London. He is also remembered for having taken part in fight scenes in 'The Quiet Man', some of which was shot in Connemara close to where Máirtín Thornton lived, and it was also said he was related (far out) to the man who made the film, John Ford, American by birth but the youngest child of Irish immigrant parents, Feeneys from Spiddal. Coley Barrett is a cousin of pro' light-welterweight and former amateur champion Francis Barrett who famously carried the Irish flag in the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games in the U.S., in Atlanta, Georgia. Coley competed in the high-profile Prizefighter series in London last October. A 25/1 outsider at the start, he reached the final and boxed well, but lost the £32,000 top prize to Audley Harrison. Last Saturday night Barrett won the Irish Heavyweight title by outscoring Southampton-based Dubliner Colin Kenna, after the Galway man survived a second round knockdown. Already he's preparing for his first defence of the title, against the leading contender, Martin Rogan from Belfast. It's well known that life hasn't been easy for the Barretts, but they are resilient and they have indomitable spirit. Francie never lost heart, and although Coley showed exciting promise when he won a bronze medal at the World Juniors in 2000, he has found it slow going in the pro' game. But now, after a four-year break from the ring following the death of a sister, he is chasing his dreams again. We wish him luck all the way. CHELTENHAM! A great sporting Theatre of Dreams, and in 2010 there were thrills and spills to keep hearts pounding. Disappointment, sadly, in the Champion Hurdle with the defeat of Go Native, the horse we'd called 'our own one in a million' â€â€ seeking to clinch the final leg of the three-part one million pounds bonus for his Co. Galway owners, the Docado Syndicate, led by Eamon Doyle and Kitty Carr of the Park House Hotel and Restaurant, Galway city. But for Ardrahan and Galway, that great National Hunt jockey now riding at the highest level across-Channel, Paddy Brennan, had the greatest day of his racing life. In beating two legendary rivals, Kauto Star and Denman, Paddy ensured his place in jump racing's Hall of Fame. Born in Ardrahan on April 13th, 1981, Paddy Brennan's first sport was hurling, as a boy, but after spending the summer of 1995 working for Co. Kildare handler Gerry Stack he embarked on a five-season apprenticeship with top trainer Jim Bolger, for whom he rode eight winners. The first of those came on Ivory Isle at Gowran Park in August 1998. He became too heavy and tall for the flat and moved to Paul Nicholls' stable as a conditional jockey in 2001. He stayed there for two and a half years, riding winners for Nicholls and Jeff King, before joining Philip Hobbs in the 2003/4 season as one of that yard's conditionals. Paddy also struck up a good rapport with Ashley Brook, on whon he won the Grade One Maghull Novices' Chase at Aintree in 2005 and enjoyed a first Cheltenham Festival success that year aboard Shamayoun in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle. Paddy was appointed as retained rider to owners Andrea and Graham Wylie for the 2006/7 season after dropping by trainer Howard Johnson's County Durham yard for a cup of tea and toast. He rewarded those connections when guiding Inglis Drever to victory in the 2007 Grade One Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham â€â€ the gelding's second success in the race. Paddy, who wishd to return to the south of England, left Johnson at the end of the 2006/7 season for Naunton at the start of the 2007/8 campaign. He has enjoyed the move taking big races aboard Imperial Commander and Hello Bud, among many others, bringing him to 441 career wins to the end of the 2008/09 season. On 20th March 2010, just a day after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Imperial Commander and the Grand Annual Chase on Pigeon Island, Paddy achieved his 500th career winner aboard stable favourite Petite Margot in the 'Home From Home' Handicap Chase at Ffos Las. Remarkably, there were Galway links, too, with the 2010 Aintree Grand National hero, and the runner-up, as I reported: Hats off to the Burke family of Loughrea in celebration of champion jump jockey Tony McCoy's fantastic Aintree Grand National victory on Don't Push It for owner J. P. McManus and equally legendary trainer Jonjo O'Neill. But spare a thought for the gallant runner-up Black Apalachi, never out of the first two from start to finish, and it too, of course, we can call a Galway horse! Indeed, at the risk of the proud native breaking out in me again, Apalachi is half a Milltown horse! The other belongs of that great hurling and racing stronghold on the north-eastern edge of Galway city, Castlegar, or 'Cashel' as it's affectionately known in hurling. First though, due tribute to the great, inimitable Tony McCoy, the fiercely determined Antrim man who is regarded by the National Hunt experts as probably the greatest jumps jockey of all time â€â€ although I have to say that, sport being as much about emotion as cold calculation, I think it might be fairer to make it a tie between McCoy and the equally truly great Pat Taaffe, of Arkle fame. And what about Ruby Walsh? And Jonjo O'Neill himself? Well, it's too complicated at this stage. For now, let's just stand back and admire the genius of 2010 Aintree hero Tony â€â€ the real McCoy. And we extend our personal best wishes to the Burke family of Loughrea, for Michael and Mary are the proud parents of Chanelle Burke, wife of Tony McCoy, and indeed it was a proud Chanelle who spoke eloquently in tribute to her gifted, ever courageous husband when interviewed on television, in the winners' enclosure at Liverpool after the great race. Finally in Part 1 of this three-part series, I noted in our files this time last year, the following comment I'd made about the end of 2009: 'It was the year that ended freezing cold, when driving your car felt like you were a crude, hopeless novice on an ice-skating rink; when the best way to keep warm in the middle of Christmas Day was to go back to bed!' So, it's true: history repeats itself.[/private]