TRUE hurling fans will have eagerly anticipated next weekend while they twiddled their thumbs during the darkest days of winter, for Sunday next marks the puck-off date for the revered Munster Hurling Championship. Tipperary and Limerick go head-to-head on the sacred turf of Semple Stadium in what will undoubtedly be a colourful flurry of clashing ash and manly shoulder-to-shoulder encounters.
These days we take it for granted that top-class hurling is played at an incredibly fast pace by players who are universally fit, fast and focused. In doing so it is easy to underestimate how the continual evolution of the camán itself has contributed to the much improved quality and spectacle of modern hurling.
In the early years of the GAA, hurley sticks had a much narrower blade or bas, which was cut off abruptly at the top as opposed to the familiar rounded shape of a modern camán. Also lacking the tapered edge that facilitates lifting the sliothar, hurls from times past were not even universally made from ash. Maurice Davin, brother of the first GAA president, betrayed his earlier passion for cricket when he toured the US in 1888 with an elbow jarring camán constructed from cricket bat hardwood.
Small wonder then that 19th-century hurling matches – where wrestling an opponent to the ground was permissible – resembled a rough and tumble version of field hockey and bore little resemblance to the fast moving, sophisticated game that many now regard as the world’s finest sporting spectacle. Tactics mostly involved hitting the sliothar along the ground with the objective of scoring a goal. Points, which in the early years had no equivalent value in goals, were seen as some compensation for a near miss rather than a sought-after objective and were awarded for striking the sliothar over the crossbar or inside two additional side posts.
As the game developed, hurleys came to be universally hewn from ash and tapered to facilitate easier ball lifting and long range striking. Three points now equalled a goal and with the abolition of the side posts, soaring points scored from a distance became one of the most attractive features of the modern game.
Surprisingly, however, hurleys remained largely generic for many decades with little attempt at individual customisation. Goalkeepers use much the same camán as nimble forwards with clubs and county teams purchasing hurleys on a one size fits all basis. Indeed the hurley of legendary Tipperary net minder Tony Reddan, which is on display in the Lár na Páirce GAA Museum in Thurles, is noteworthy for its tiny bas.
Kilkenny goalkeeper, Noel Skehan, was the first to move the odds a little more in favour of the culbaire by initiating the modern trend towards individually crafted hurleys. Literally bringing a new dimension to the bas, his huge camáns eventually appeared as if they could more usefully be employed at Wimbledon. The GAA authorities were not amused, however, and laid down that the width of the bas must henceforth not exceed 13cm.
Later a dissolute attempt to introduce a plastic hurl known as “Caman Wavin” and an equally unsuccessful attempt to mass produce camáns for senior players only emphasised the fact that hurley making cannot be systematised and is essentially an artisan operation. Most top players now demand a customised hurl made to an individualised template.
Jim O’Brien is a craft hurley maker from Drangan, Co Tipperary. He has customers from all the major hurling counties and believes that hurley making is a labour intensive business where each camán must be individually finished. “The best hurleys are hewn from the root of an Irish grown ash tree where the grain in the wood follows the curve of the bas but after that there are wide personal and regional differences. Most inter-county players will now have a stock of six to 10 individually crafted hurleys”, says O’Brien.
“Cork/Waterford hurleys usually have an arched heel; in Tipperary and Kilkenny they mostly use a narrower stick, while in Galway the toe has a distinctive shape. Back-men tend to favour a heavier hurley and free takers generally don’t like too much spring in the handle but, even here, there are also many individual preferences,” explains O’Brien.
He believes that overall the trend is for shorter hurleys suitable for use in ever more crowded spaces. Today’s hurls also have a bigger bas to facilitate the modern trend towards “hurley passing” and this has greatly improved the ball control, wrist work and dexterity of the players.
According to O’Brien “Hurlers have never been so skilful – just look at the amazing ball control of (Tipperary’s) Noel McGrath.”
So if you intend settling down next Sunday to enjoy the opening round of the fabled Munster Championship, remember hurling has evolved hugely and very much for the better over the past few decades. Stronger, faster, intensively coached players; a lighter, better designed sliothar and individually crafted camáns have coalesced to create the unmatched modern spectacle of the world’s fastest field game.