Hospital Pass, by its nature, is many and varied but with Olympic Handball and wealthy free-takers included today we reckon it’s just surpassed itself.
Are you Ireland’s best and/or wealthiest free-taker? There could be €10,000 in it for you.
That’s the news which came our way today with the announcement of a new Cic Saor competition (that’s “free kick” to the non-Gaelgóirs among you), for which the five-figure prize fund will no doubt raise a few eyebrows among club and inter-county players alike the length and breadth of the country.
In a nod towards poker tournaments everywhere, there are a limited number of “re-buys” available in each round, in which eliminated contestants can fork out €20 to get another chance. Nine times.
That’s one gripe we have with it – you may as well be judging Ireland’s wealthiest free-taker as its best – and there are a couple of others, namely the against-the-clock round, which favours speed over accuracy and clearly goes against the grain for all self-respecting free-takers, and which also has the proviso that “players must make a reasonable attempt to score a point when against the clock”, a rule which would seem to guarantee an off-the-ball shemozzle or two between players and tournament organisers during the competition.
Still, on the face of it, a free-taking competition is a fantastic idea and we wish them the best of luck with it. More details are on cicsaor.ie.
The Mort is Back!
Exiled Mayo forward Conor Mortimer could be about to make a swift and unexpected return to action – only not with James Horan’s side.
Instead, The Man Known As The Mort could be tempted into trying his hand at Olympic Handball having been invited to try out for the Irish international side.
Mortimer’s slim frame and white boots meant he was never exactly suited to International Rules but this could be a golden chance to earn international honours before the curtain comes down on his sporting career.
The development comes far too late for The Mort to make a surprise bid for a place at London 2012 but he could yet make it to the European Championships, with two of the 16 squad places for qualifiers against Belgium and Estonia later this year reserved for non-Olympic Handballers.
Lúcás Ó Ceallacháin, of the Irish Olympic Handball Association, told the Irish Examiner: “What we actually launched this week is a talent transfer programme where we hope to attract athletes from other sports. Conor plays Gaelic football so he’d be a guy we would be interested in, but there are plenty of athletes from rugby to Gaelic games to basketball that could make the crossover.”
Watch out, Cats…
Having been skinned alive and seen eight of their nine lives mercilessly extinguished by Galway a few weeks ago, we seriously doubt whether Kilkenny will entertain any complacency ahead of their All-Ireland quarter-final against Limerick on Sunday.
But if there is any lingering swagger a quick glance at the top individual scorers in the hurling championship to date could stamp it out.
Limerick trio Shane Dowling, Niall Moran and Graeme Mulcahy are blazing the trail at the top having scored, from play, 4-9, 5-6 and 3-11 respectively so far this summer.
Okay, so there should be a giant footnote there – Limerick did score 17-65 in the qualifiers against Laois, Antrim and Clare. Still, for Kilkenny it’s a case of forewarned, forearmed and all that…
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