All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1952

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1952


team=Cork
titles=17th
captain=Paddy Barry
manager=
munster=Cork
leinster=Dublin
ulster=
connacht=
poty=
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1952 was the 66th 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 7 September. The match was contested by Cork and Dublin, with Cork taking the title by 2-14 to 0-7. The prize for the winning team was the Liam McCarthy Cup.

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 Leinster Championship advanced directly to the All-Ireland final.
* The winners of the Munster Championship advanced directly to a lone All-Ireland semi-final.
* Galway, a team who faced no competition in Connacht, entered the championship at the All-Ireland semi-final stage where they played the Munster champions.
* There were no representatives from Ulster in the All-Ireland championship.

All-Ireland final

Overview

Sunday September 7 was the date of the 1952 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Cork and Dublin. Cork were appearing in their first championship decider since 1947 when they were defeated by Kilkenny in what many regard to be as the greatest All-Ireland final of all-time. They last won the title the year before in 1946 when they defeated the same opposition. Dublin, however, last won the All-Ireland title in 1938 and last appeared in the final in 1944 when they fell heavily to Cork.

After Cork’s heroics in defeating a seemingly unbeatable Tipperary team in the Munster final and Dublin’s exciting victory over Wexford in the Leinster decider, the All-Ireland final was expected to be an exciting affair between two up-and-coming teams.

Match report

At 3:15pm the sliothar was thrown in and the game was on. The first quarter of the game lived up to all expectations a sit was played at breakneck speed, however, the contest quickly developed into a drab one-sided affair. Immediately after the throw-in the sliothar broke to Christy Ring who took off on one of his trademark solo runs. He was fouled as he neared the Dublin goal and he duly converted the free to give Cork a one-point lead after just a minute of play. Interestingly, the Dublin team contained two Cork men, Con Murphy and Seán Cronin, the former having played for his county in the 1946 and 1947 championship deciders. He equalized shortly afterwards when his 70-yard free sailed straight between the posts. Gerry Kelly also pointed a free to give ‘the metropolitans’ the lead for the first time. The opening half saw Norman Allen and the aforementioned Con Murphy sent high and low ball into the Dublin forwards but to no avail. The sliothar bobbled around the Cork goalmouth but never found its way into the net. This was attributed to the inaccuracy of the forwards, however, the Cork defence was given due credit for performing their duties well, with John Lyons, Tony O'Shaughnessy and Gerry O'Riordan being singled out for individual praise. Dublin had little to show for their dominance in the possession stakes as midway through the first half Christy Ring set up Liam Dowling for a goal that opened up the game. McCarthy, Allen and Kelly responded with three more points for Dublin, however, Cork continued to find their feet and click into gear. Further points by Christy Ring (who was being expertly marked by Des Ferguson), Paddy Barry, Willie Griffin and Joe Twomey had Cork in front at half-time by 1-15 to 0-5. Cork were indeed lucky to have the lead as Dublin were superior in many areas on the field. They would have had the lead at the interval but for a great save by goalkeeper Dave Creedon from a Tony Herbert shot in the fifth minute of play.

Even at half-time the Dublin team felt that they could cause an upset and defeat Cork. Their superiority in stages throughout the opening thirty minutes was not reflected in the scoreboard. Quickly after the restart Christy Ring took off with the sliothar again and headed straight towards the Dublin goal. His shot was a strong and accurate one, however, a great cheer went up from the Dublin supporters as goalkeeper Kevin Matthews pulled off a great save. There was little else for the Dubliners to cheer about in the rest of the half as Cork completely took over as the game came to resemble a victory procession. A succession of four points by Christy Ring, one of which was scored when he cut the sliothar over the bar from his knees, got the Cork men motoring again. Further points from Willie John Daly (0-2), Paddy Barry (0-2) and Joe Twomey (0-1) effectively settled the destination of the Liam McCarthy Cup once and for all. Liam Dowling, Cork’s goal-scoring hero, stepped up again in the second half and added a second goal to his overall tally of the day. Con Murphy and Norman Allen scored Dublin’s sole points of the half as Cork emerged as the new All-Ireland champions by 2-14 to 0-7.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1952-09-07
15:15 BST
team1=Cork
score=2-14 – 0-7
team2=Dublin
report=
goals1=L. Dowling (2-0)
C. Ring (0-6)
P. Barry (0-3)
W. Griffin (0-1)
J. Twomey (0-2)
W.J. Daly (0-2)
goals2=C. Murphy (0-2)
G. Kelly (0-2)
N. Allen (0-2)
R. McCarthy (0-1)
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=64,332
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).
* Horgan, Tim, "Christy Ring: Hurling's Greatest" (The Collins Press, 2007).
* Nolan, Pat, "Flashbacks: A Half Century of Cork Hurling" (The Collins Press, 2000).
* Sweeney, Éamonn, "Munster Hurling Legends" (The O'Brien Press, 2002).

ee also