NEIL McManus was among the Antrim hurlers who answered an ‘SOS’ call from English club Robert Emmet’s last weekend after the London champions’ hurling sticks got lost in transit between Heathrow and Dublin.
The Emmet’s arrived at Waldron Park, Roscommon to play Mayo champions Torreen in a Connacht championship semi-final last Sunday without a hurl between them but Antrim skipper McManus was among the many players who donated sticks which were hastily ferried to Roscommon (a three and-a-half hour drive) by Paddy Magill.
“We got the first flight on Saturday morning,” explained Emmet’s manager Kevin McMullan, originally from Cushendall himself.
“We had them all in a big golf bag and we were standing waiting on them in arrivals but they didn’t turn up. They told us the bag wasn’t put on the plane and said they would put it on the next plane.
“We gave them an address in Dublin and asked to get it couriered to that address and they said that was fine. They rang us and said the bag was on its way and would be there at 4pm but no hurls turned up.
“We rang and rang and rang but couldn’t get through to anybody. We were still hopeful they would turn up on Sunday morning and then one of our players put a post on Facebook: ‘Help needed, big game coming up and we have no hurling sticks…’ and people rang from everywhere.
“People rang from Roscommon and Galway. Brian Hickey, who plays for St Gabriel’s in London, rang to say ‘I’ve got five or six hurls in my house and I’ll get my parents to drop them over to you’.
“The Cushendall lads said: ‘There’s a car going down with a boot full of hurls for you lads. Take your pick’.
“We still don’t know where our sticks are but fair play to all the boys up in Antrim, the Cushendall lads, Paddy (Magill) coming down to watch us and he went round and the boys fired all their sticks into a bag. The game was at 1pm and we got the sticks at half 11.
McMullan said the gallant actions of hurlers across the country were typical of the community spirit that exists within the caman code.
“Everybody just said: ‘Look there’s a team down there – it doesn’t matter where they’re from – and they’re stuck’. It was a big Antrim thing too, because I’m from Antrim and there’s a few Antrim boys on our team,” he explained.
“A top hurler like Neil McManus would get his hurls made but he didn’t care, he just threw them in the bag and said if they get broke, they get broke.”
Unfortunately, the borrowed hurls didn’t have quite the desired effect last Sunday. Despite trailing for most of the game, Torreen forced a draw and won 0-30 to 1-23 in extra-time.
“Having your own stuff makes a massive difference,” said McMullan.
“Lads get their own hurls of a certain weight and a certain height. If you’re used to playing with a hurl and then you’re going into a semi-final and you don’t have it, it makes a wold difference.
“We led the game the whole way through until the 63rd minute, point up and they forced a draw and won in extra-time.
“It was a bad bit of scheduling. The football champions Tir Chonaill Gaels had a three-week break and they’re playing at Ruislip on Sunday. We had one week. We play our county final and then the following week we’re playing against a team in Ireland?”
