The Irish Sport of Hurling

Hunh. Here's one I never knew about before. There's a sport that's big over in Ireland, known as hurling. Two teams of 15 players each. The players try to knock a ball around with what looks like a cross between a hockey stick and a war club. The stick is known as a hurley, or in Irish Gaelic, a camán. The ball is called a sliothar, which I think is pronounced "slitter." Or "schlitter." Or something like that.


Three points for a goal, knocking the ball underneath the horizontal crossbar at the goal line. One point for knocking the ball across above the crossbar. Of course, there's a goalie guarding the goal. Curiously enough, the 3-point goals are not amalgamated into the score, so that for example the score could be 1-7 to 2-3 (one goal and seven points to two goals and three points), otherwise known as "one seven to two three"— what the rest of the world would call "ten to nine."


Players can run holding the ball in their hand, though for no more than four seconds or four steps. Or they can run for any distance balancing the ball on the hurley (I think the operative term here is "if you can"). Or of course they can hit the ball with the hurley. Fer crying out loud, they can even reach up and catch the ball in their hand as it flies through the air. It's a different sport, if you're used to the likes of hockey or soccer.

Hurling has also spread to the United States. On the Denver Gaels website there are some videos which explain the game pretty well: video one, video two, and video three.