pup fiction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eaycbrx_0Ow http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0305/ireland/corry-seals-deal-for-ucc-in-thrilling-centenary-final-186050.html Corry seals deal for UCC in thrilling centenary final UCC 2-15 Cork IT 2-14 By Fintan O’Toole Monday, March 05, 2012 The adverse weather impacted on the spectacle but Saturday’s eagerly-awaited Fitzgibbon Cup final in the Mardyke concluded in a blaze of drama as UCC claimed a thrilling extra-time success as they celebrated the centenary of the competition in style on home soil. A bumper attendance were treated to an absorbing contest as the neighbouring colleges clashed in a first all-Cork final. The narrative of the game was penned by Cork IT for long stages as they bossed the exchanges with the triumvirate of Stephen White, Lorcan McLoughlin and Aidan Walsh, placing them on the brink of a momentous triumph as they led 0-11 to 0-8entering the last 10 minutes. However, UCC launched a remarkable recovery, underpinned by the scoring touch of substitutes Brian Hartnett, who followed in the footsteps of his brother Kevin who captained UCC to the 2009 title, and Dean Brosnan as they both goaled in a frenetic finale. CIT pounded the UCC goalmouth in injury-time and in a madcap exchange a huge scrum developed on the 20-yard line, before the ball squirted through to Jamie Coughlan, who found the net after his first attempt had hit the post, to send the tie to extra-time. "It was unbelievable trying to clear the ball as there were bodies everywhere going for it," reflected UCC’s John O’Callaghan afterwards. "We forgot about inside near the goal where Jamie Coughlan was and we should have covered it really. But we powered on in extra-time." The extra-time exchanges provided terrific entertainment. UCC made an early burst with Stephen Moylan and Shane Bourke benefiting from improving weather conditions to loft over some beautiful points. They led at the midway mark of extra-time by 2-13 to 1-12 but CIT steadfastly refused to lie down. A delightful flick by Paudie O’Sullivan created the opening for substitute Colm Casey to goal in the 71st minute and when Walsh split the posts in the 78th minute, it appeared as if these teams refused to be separated. However, Seamus Corry proved the last-gasp scoring hero for UCC when he landed a famous injury-time point. "[Stephen] Moylan drew in the corner-back and I just slipped behind him," recalled the Ballymartle man. "I was calling for it all right but to be honest, he was a brave man to pass it to me. If I missed it, I’d have been shot. I don’t score many points so thank God it went over." It was a tremendous triumph for UCC yet a gut-wrenching defeat for CIT, who lost last October’s Cork senior championship final to Carrigtwohill by a similar margin. They produced a performance defined by bravery and guts which looked set to propel them to a historic first success in normal time. UCC’s O’Callaghan was well placed to empathise with their opponents as he had been part of the CIT Fitzgibbon Cup set-up over the last few years. "I played for them for a few years trying to win the Fitzgibbon and had a great time there. I couldn’t think about having played for CIT before the match if they won today I was going to get no medal. Paul O’Connor gave us a great speech on Thursday night and we were going to go through a wall to win it after that." UCC’s victory was a reward for their persistence. The match was slipping away from them during the second half but with defenders Killian Murphy and William Egan in inspirational form, they stuck to their task. The strength of UCC’s panel was another key factor. Corry came on to score the winning point and put in a vital shift at midfield. Hartnett showed the opportunism to whip a shot to the net that kick-started the revival in the 54th minute while, six minutes later, Brosnan rose to bat in UCC’s second goal. The introduction of Robert White was also important as he provided a great focal point at full-forward for UCC. For manager Paul O’Connor it was another Fitzgibbon Cup triumph to cherish. "Before the game people said it was the dream final and for us that’s the dream result. The end of normal time was incredible. It’s at times like that, you question why you get involved in sport. It’s not good for the heart. "It does mean a lot to people like myself, John [Grainger] and NickyEnglish who’s down here for the weekend. It’s just fairytale stuff to win it down here on the 100th anniversary." Scorers for UCC: Pauric Mahony 0-6 (6f), B Hartnett, D Brosnan 1-0 each, S Bourke 0-3, S Moylan 0-2, Philip Mahony, S Harnedy, B O’Sullivan, S Corry 0-1 each. Scorers for Cork IT: J Coughlan 1-4 (0-4f), C Casey 1-0, J Cronin, D Drake, A Walsh 0-2 each, P Gould, M O’Sullivan, S White, T Quaid (1f) 0-1 each. UCC: D McCarthy (Cork); S Maher (Tipperary), J O’Callaghan (Cork), K Murphy (Cork); J Barry (Tipperary), D Fives (Waterford), W Egan (Cork); B Murray (Cork), Philip Mahony (Waterford); S Harnedy (Cork), D McCormack (Tipperary), Pauric Mahony (Waterford); S Moylan (Cork), S Bourke (Tipperary), B O’Sullivan (Waterford). Subs: S Corry (Cork) for Murray (h-t), R White (Cork) for Harnedy (47), B Hartnett (Cork) for O’Sullivan (47), D Brosnan (Cork) for McCormack (55), M Grace (Kilkenny) for Maher (inj, 76), Murray for Brosnan (80). CORK IT: K Roche (Cork); B Withers (Cork), S McDonnell (Cork), E Keane (Cork); S White (Cork), L McLoughlin (Cork), P O’Connor (Clare); J Coughlan (Cork), M O’Sullivan (Cork); J Cronin (Cork), D Drake (Cork), P Gould (Cork); C Fennelly (Kilkenny), P O’Sullivan (Cork), T Quaid (Limerick). Subs: A Walsh (Cork) for Quaid (28), C Casey (Cork) for Gould (45), N Kelly (Cork) for M O’Sullivan (55), S Daniels (Waterford) for Keane (65), Gould for Drake (67), M O’Sullivan for Cronin (70). Referee: Brian Gavin (Offaly).

Barrs 1974 to 87 3 All Ireland club titles in each code

Barr’s Senior Champions 1977. Back; Brendan O’Shaughnessy, Bertie O’Brien, John Foster, Jerry O’Shea, Jim Power, Christy Ryan, Brendan Manley, Malachy Kennedy, Charlie Barrett, Donal O’Grady, Con Roche. Front: Seamus Gillen, Tony Butler, Jimmy Barry Murphy, John Allen, Denis Burns, Gerald McCarthy, Charlie McCarthy, Eamon Fitzpatrick, Gerry Murphy, Barry Wiley, John Cremin, Tony Maher.

Barr’s 1985: J Kerins, J Cremin, J Meyler, K Scanlon, M Carey, E Desmond, D Philpott, P Hayes, C Ryan (0-2), B Searls (0-1), D Barry (0-5), M Slocum (0-1), J Barry Murphy (1-1), D O’Mahony, T Leahy. Subs: R Kenny, K McCarthy. http://stfinbarrsnhf.ie/?page_id=119

David Gower

David Gower and John Morris pose after buzzing the ground-England vs Queensland Cararra Oval 1991

There was something rather ironic about David Gower and John Morris sharing the same birthday - April Fool's Day. For it was during the 1990-91 Ashes tour that the pair of them decided to have what Gower described as "a little bit of fun", which almost ended in them being sent back home in disgrace.

England were not enjoying the best of series, two-down after three Tests, although Gower was in superb personal form with hundreds in both the second and third Tests. The squad then slipped to defeat against New South Wales before heading for a match against Queensland at the Carrara Oval, a venue on the Gold Coast some 50 miles south of Brisbane. But at last they showed form in the game, which was to provide them with their only first-class win of the trip, and on the third day, Morris, whose opportunities had been limited, completed a hundred before getting out within minutes of Gower shortly before lunch.

All the players were aware of the biplanes flying high above the ground throughout the match, and they were also aware that the airfield was nearby. At the break Gower mentioned to Allan Lamb and Robin Smith that he fancied a flight, and Morris, who overheard, eagerly asked to be included in any arrangements. "I did think of asking Graham [Gooch, England's captain]," admitted Gower, "but I knew he would be unhappy with us flying, and as that was the entire point of the exercise, I decided it was best not to mention it at all."

The airport was close enough to reach in a few minutes, and also to ensure that were England, four-down at the time, to collapse then the pair would be back in time to field. On arrival, they had to wait for a flight on the aptly-named Joy-Ride company's planes, but after checking that Smith and Lamb were still batting, they each climbed into a pre-war Tiger Moth and took off.

Gower had already persuaded his pilot to indulge in some low flying - the planes were supposed to stay over 2000 feet but in the event they buzzed the Oval at nearer 200. They dipped down moments after Smith completed his own hundred and Lamb, who knew who was in them, playfully pretended to shoot them down with his bat. No-one else was any the wiser.

However, one of the pilots had tipped off the press before take-off, and Adrian Murrell, a photographer covering the trip, thought he recognised the passengers through a telephoto lens. By the time they landed, there was a reception committee.

When Gower and Morris sneaked back into the dressing-room, Gooch asked: "That wasn't you two up there by any chance, was it?" Gower recalled that he "put on my best choirboy face and said something like: 'Who, me? Heavens, no'." But events were quickly moving on.

The press corps had been alerted (for a time stories did the rounds that Gower had considered dropping a water bomb on the pitch) and they asked Peter Lush, the team manager, for a comment. He was livid and immediately went to confront the two aviators. But by this time they were back at the airport posing for another photographer, Graham Morris, who had missed the fly-by pictures.

When Morris returned to the hotel he was, to quote Gower, "ambushed by a steaming Lush in the lobby who demanded to know what had been going on ... John Morris puffed in shortly afterwards and was pounced on by this human volcano." Lush wanted an immediate inquiry. Gower, however, inadvertently raised the manager's blood pressure several more notches - he had gone out to dinner.

Morris rang Gower at the restaurant and warned him trouble was brewing and said Lush wanted to see him immediately. Gower, almost inevitably, was not about to abandon dinner and a bottle of 1987 McLaren Vale Chardonnay to be chastised as if he was a naughty schoolboy. He returned to the hotel to find three notes from Lush, each one increasingly irate, summoning him to an 8.15am hearing.

Gower and Morris were faced with a stony-faced panel consisting of Gooch, Lush, Lamb and Mickey Stewart, the coach. Stewart kicked off by complaining he had had to get up early, and it went downhill from there on in. "You can either be heavy about it or you can treat it as harmless prank," Gower told them. No guessing which they chose. But Gooch then questioned Gower's commitment and a heated discussion ensued.

Common sense would suggest that the senior player should have privately be told not to be such a fool and that the less-experienced Morris should have been given a sharp reprimand. But that was not the way England functioned back then. "What followed was reflective of the attitude at that time," Gower recalled. "Gooch and Stewart were very regimental in their dealings at the time. It was a one-rule-for-all-types regime, which didn't allow someone to have a little bit of fun."

The pair were fined £1000 each, the maximum allowed under their contracts, which made no distinction between senior and junior player. For Morris, who received £15,000 for the whole four-month trip, that was quite a slap. "I think they over-reacted in punishing us, and I've always said that," Gower explained. "My biggest disappointment about that incident was that my form slumped. I had been playing very good cricket up until then. Whether it was psychological or not, my form was miserable in the final two Tests. I had all sorts of personal reasons for wanting to do well and it just went downhill. I don't regret the incident; I just regret the lapse of form after the incident."

"They let us down badly," Gooch countered. "What if the rest of the team, especially the younger ones, thought that sort of behaviour was par for the course?"

The pair were left to sweat until the eve of the fourth Test at Adelaide before Lush summoned them, told them of the fine, and said he was about to issue a press release labelling the incident "immature, ill-judged and ill-timed." Gower told Lush he thought he had over-reacted, and left. It is worth noting that Lush was the tour manager in Pakistan three years earlier when Chris Broad had refused to leave the field after being given out and Mike Gatting had his infamous spat with Shakoor Rana. Not only were they not punished, but they actually received, with the rest of the squad, a £1000 hardship bonus!

Publicly, Gower was cool and unbothered, telling the press that he thought £1027 (the fine plus the cost of the flight itself) was a bit steep for a 20-minute jaunt; privately, he seethed. Relations between him and Gooch were at rock-bottom and never really recovered. Gower made only 11 and 16 at Adelaide.

It later emerged, via Lamb, that the panel had discussed sending both players home, but that had only been dismissed because the side was doing so badly.

"One would hate to think that it has become a crime to enjoy a cricket tour," noted Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Cricketer, while in Wisden Cricket Monthly, David Frith, Gower's dinner companion on the night of the flight, wrote: "The fines should ensure that no England player in future will even dare to look up from his crossword puzzle while a match is in progress."

There was no happy ending. Gower, one of the most naturally gifted batsmen of his generation, played only three more Tests after that series, and England were the poorer for it. It was never said, but in the all-work-and-no-play environment fostered by Gooch and Stewart, there was no place for him. His omission from the 1992-93 tour of India caused a huge row which culminated in a public meeting attended by thousands demanding his inclusion. It never happened. Morris never pulled on an England sweater again, despite being one of the country's leading batsmen until his retirement in 2001.

Earlier in the tour Lamb and Gower had been in trouble after being seen at a casino with Kerry Packer and Tony Greig during the first Test at Brisbane. The pair left at midnight and no action was taken against them. Lamb, who was standing in for Gooch as captain, was at the crease overnight and added only four to his score the next morning, his dismissal triggering a collapse which resulted in defeat.