Congratulations to the authorities in Kilkenny - both GAA and Garda - for their superbly marshalled arrangements for this game.
At a time when other qualifier games seem to have visited chaos on unsuspecting provincial venues, this has to be put on the record. The car parks were large, well stewarded, adjacent to the pitch and well-signposted. The roads in and out of Kilkenny were kept clear, to everyone's benefit. The various areas of the pitch itself were well signposted and - unlike some other venues we could name - the Maoir were extremely good humoured. But then, being mostly Kilkenny men, maybe they shared a secret that the rest of us didn't... We saw former inter-county 'great' Pat Henderson, wearing a Maor's bib and diplomatically defusing a situation involving a Waterford couple who were essaying the time-honoured tradition of 'liftin' de chi-yeld over de sti-yel'. Proving that, in Kilkenny, devotion to the game of hurling runs deep and true and continuies well after a glittering inter-county career.
A couple of Waterford fans, overly-conscious perhaps of their own elevated status as citizens of the Gateway to the South East, were amused by signs designating one terrace as the city end. They thought that, like Thurles, it should be designated the town end. Kilkenny, of course, has been a city - the Marble City - for not much less a span of years than the 'Urbs Intacta' itself.
The new stands in Nowlan Park are excellent. If there is a quibble, it is that more toilet facilities could be provided as well as some more shops at half-time. This game underlines Nowlan Park's claims as a serious championship venue. However, the pitch seems shorter than other venues and with the new lighter sliothar, there may be a danger that most games will degenerate into a swapping of lengthy puckouts almost from end to end. It would be interesting to see how a football match would play in these surroundings, though the shock of seeing a football being kicked around Nowlan Park might be a shock too far for some of Kilkenny's 'hurling' men!
Nowlan Park also has the major advantage that fans - with the right credentials and password, of course - can get past the ever-vigilant military guard at James Stephens's barracks - just around the corner from the stadium - and quaff copious amounts of drink at heavily subsidised prices. The tradeoff, however, was that only a solitary corporal stood in the bearna baoil behind the bar and, thus, by the resulting bottleneck (if you'll excuse the unintended pun), the military authorities managed to carefully ration the amount of drink sold. After all, it wouldn't do to have civilians knocking back too many pints and half-ones that properly belong to the brave officers and men of An Tríú Complacht Coisithe. The Quarter Master Segeant, or maybe even the CO himself, would require an explanation on Monday moring, if that happened. Nevertheless, so impressed were they by their experience, that AFR observed a number of burly Waterford fans who were tempted to take out their old moth-eaten FCA and Slua Muirí great coats and wear them to future games at the Kilkenny venue.
James Stephens barracks fronts onto the aptly-named Hebron Road, a telling reminder of the Battalion's dedicated service among the wadis of South Lebanon. However, An Fear Rua has had more than his fill of contact with the military top brass over the years and so opted for the quieter, cloister-like surroundings of Carroll's pub just across the road from the barracks main gate. Here, the hurling medals among the customers outnumber the Lebanon medals by a factor of five to one and the talk is of hurling and hurling lore, while images of Kilkenny glory gaze imperturbably down upon the customers. And the well-conditioned 'learghe' bottles out of the cooler - with their distinctive, tangy bitter flavour - alone are worth the trip to Kilkenny...
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