All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1951

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1951


team=Tipperary
titles=16th
captain=Jimmy Finn
manager=
munster=Tipperary
leinster=Wexford
ulster=
connacht=
poty=
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1951 was the 65th edition of Ireland’s premier hurling knockout competition. The championship ran from May to September of that year, culminating with the All-Ireland final, held at Croke Park, Dublin on 2 September. The match was contested by Tipperary and Wexford, with Tipperary taking the title by 7-7 to 3-9. It was Tipperary’s third All-Ireland title in-a-row.

Format

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was run on a provincial basis as usual. All games were played on a knockout basis whereby once a team lost they were eliminated from the championship. The format for the All-Ireland series of games ran as follows:
* The winners of the Munster Championship advanced directly to the All-Ireland final.
* The winners of the Leinster Championship advanced directly to a lone All-Ireland semi-final.
* Galway, a team who faced no competition in the Connacht Championship, automatically advanced to the All-Ireland semi-final where they were drawn to play the Leinster champions.
* There were no representatives from the Ulster Championship in the All-Ireland series.

All-Ireland final

Overview

Sunday 2 September was the date of the 1951 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Tipperary and Wexford. It was only the second meeting of these two teams in the championship. Tipperary were appearing in their third championship decider in-a-row, having recorded wins over Laois in 1949 and Kilkenny in 1950. Wexford, however, were lining out in their first All-Ireland final since 1918 and hadn’t won the title since 1910. These two sides last played each other in the championship in the All-Ireland final of 1899 which Tipp won.

Match report

The All-Ireland final of 1951 saw the novel pairing of Tipperary and Wexford. Wexford had been out of the limelight for many decades, however, there was a buzz about their current team that was bolstered by the three Rackard brothers, Nick O'Donnell and Tim Flood. Tipperary, however, had their own stars and were out to capture their first three in-a-row in half- a century. As the teams arrived onto the Croke Park turf the 68,000 spectators were greeted by the odd sight of Tipperary wearing an all blue strip and Wexford wearing an all green strip. A colour clash between these two counties necessitated the wearing of the provincial colours of Munster and Leinster. Wexford lived up to the pre-match hype when they took a five-point lead in the opening half. Nicky Rackard bundled the sliothar, Tipp goalkeeper Tony Reddin and anything else in his way over the goal line. Tipp, however, weren’t back-to-back champions for nothing and they immediately hit back. At half-time Tipperary led Wexford by a goal. It looked like another close finish to an All-Ireland final; however, the second-half was a master class by Tipperary. The Munster men went on a goal-scoring spree as Wexford goalkeeper Ray Brennan made a whole host of errors. At the other end of the field Tony Reddin was superb in making save after save. At the full-time whistle Tipp were the three-in-a-row champions on a score line of 7-7 to 3-9.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1951-09-02
15:15 BST
team1=Tipperary
score=7-7 – 3-9
team2=Wexford
report=
goals1=
goals2=
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=68,515
referee= W. O’Donoghue (Limerick)

{| width=100% style="font-size: 90%"MATCH RULES
*60 minutes.
*Replay if scores level.
*Three named substitutes

References

* Corry, Eoghan, "The GAA Book of Lists" (Hodder Headline Ireland, 2005).
* Donegan, Des, "The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games" (DBA Publications Limited, 2005).
* Sweeney, Éamonn, "Munster HUrling Legends" (The O'Brien Press, 2002).

ee also