US National College Hurling Championship latest

[Eamonnca1]

Latest from Stanford:

It's a Stanford v Purdue final!

Stanford and Purdue have qualified for the second annual National Collegiate Hurling Final after a pulsating day of hurling on the California campus. Some tight contests were fought hard by all teams, although greater numbers helped the stronger teams to stretch their leads in the closing minutes of the games.

The two remaining round robin games that were scheduled for Sunday morning have now been cancelled since they make no difference to the outcome. Activities at the field begin at 12:00 noon with the Poc Fada and 65s contest which is open to everyone.

Results from Saturday:

Stanford 4-6 (18) Cal 3-1 (10)
Purdue 5-15 (30) Davis 5-5 (20)
Stanford 4-18 (30) Davis 5-6 (21)
Purdue 7-8 (29) Cal 5-3 (18)


   
      
   
   
   
   

	Played	Won	Lost	Drew	Points	Scoring diff.
Purdue	2	2	0	0	4	20
Stanford	2	2	0	0	4	17
Davis	2	0	2	0	0	-18
Cal	2	0	2	0	0	-19

Sunday's revised schedule:

12:00 Poc Fada (open to all)
12:30 65s contest (open to all)
1:00    Third Place Playoff, Davis v Cal
2:30    Final, Stanford v Purdue
4:00 East v West challenge game

7:00 Party in Fibbar Magee's downtown Sunnyvale

[Eamonnca1]

And Purdue are champions.  Details (and the requisite YouTube film) to follow.

[AZOffaly]

Is that a bit disappointing for the National final Eamonn? I'd have thought there'd have been a few more travelling schools? That's basically the Northern California championship plus Purdue. No programs set up places like Notre Dame, Boston College, Northwestern, Illinois etc etc etc?

[Eamonnca1]

Well it's one more team than we had last year, but it is a bit disappointing since we were expecting more people to travel but they pulled out.  There was supposed to be a fifth team made up of Indiana University plus a handful of other players from other colleges.

Money is an issue. This program is on a shoestring budget with much of it funded out of people's pockets, especially my own.  We have a few ideas about fundraising though, so hopefully next year we'll be able to help teams to travel. 

That said, it was still a great weekend.  The weather was on our side and this was the first time hosting the event on a college campus where the facilities are second to none.  You could have played snooker on the surface.  And being on a campus we had more of a sense of this being the main event, whereas at Gaelic Park last year it had the feel of a sideshow at the edge of the bigger Irishfest.

What was interesting was a squad of ladies soccer players were walking past from a nearby field and I overheard them saying "oh this must be the hurling."  This is the level of visibility the game is getting now, we're moving beyond the "what the hell game is that" stage.

[AZOffaly]

Fair play, ye're doing great work, and I wasn't being critical at all. Out of small acorns mighty oaks do grow, and all that.

I just find it interesting that California seems to be the hub of the activity in Collegiate hurling, I'd have thought somewhere in the midwest or East of the country would be the heart of USA hurling country

Anyway, fair play and best of luck in the future with it anyway. I'd say your videos are a main reason for the profile being raised even slightly.

[Eamonnca1]

Thanks man.  If you have a look at http://ncgaa.org/find-a-club/ you can see the geographic spread of college clubs. There's actually more of them in the midwest but they're geographically scattered.  In California there's not so many but they're clustered together and are blessed with a climate that lets them play most of the year round, so it's easier for them to have a conventional regional championship spread over a couple of months, whereas in the midwest they have to wait for the snow to thaw and do it in a single tournament weekend. 

We're in the process of getting games organized for a new set of startups that have sprung up on the East coast, which happens to include two football clubs which is interesting.  We might be within a few years of having a national college Gaelic football championship too, and I think we'll certainly have an eastern regional championship this coming academic year.

[Eamonnca1]

Full scores from the weekend:

Round robin:
Stanford 4-6 (18) Cal 3-1 (10)
Purdue 5-15 (30) Davis 5-5 (20)
Stanford 4-18 (30) Davis 5-6 (21)
Purdue 7-8 (29) Cal 5-3 (18) 

Third place playoff:
Cal 5-12 (27) Davis 6-4 (22)

Final:
Purdue 5-15 (30) Stanford 2-6 (12)


Congrats to Purdue and a big thank you to all who came, volunteered, sponsored, and made the event possible.  A particular word of thanks to Purdue who spent 50 hours (yes, you heard me correctly) taking the TRAIN! from Indiana to California in one of the most epic journeys that are sure to go down in GAA folklore.

[AZOffaly]

That's up there with Mick O'Connell rowing in from Valentia

Looks like Davis gave Cal a good game in the 3rd place play off... and actually not too far off in all their games.

[Eamonnca1]

That's up there with Mick O'Connell rowing in from Valentia

Looks like Davis gave Cal a good game in the 3rd place play off... and actually not too far off in all their games.

Except for the final, it was neck-and-neck in all games up to the last ten minutes.

[Eamonnca1]

And the video is now up.  Enjoy.

[Hardy]

It appears great progress is being made. The skills seem to me to have improved extraordinarily from the clips we saw of the first year of this.

[Jinxy]

Great stuff, well done to everyone involved.

[Eamonnca1]

Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ncgaa

[Eamonnca1]

Cal had a fitting end to their epic 2013 campaign at Purdue on Saturday. After many players had driven 2,300 miles in a minibus, they overcame Indiana University in a grueling final to take the national championship.

Results:

Indiana University 3-6 (15) Purdue 2-7 (13)
Indiana University 1-3 (6) Cal 5-11 (26)
Cal 1-15 (18) Purdue 4-3 (15)

Final: Cal 2-9 Indiana University 1-9 (12)

[Oraisteach]

Great stuff altogether, Eamonn.  Wonderful footage and obviously improving skills.  Are shinguards outlawed in the college game?

Also, what won the poc fada?