Fifths overcome University Challenge
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Keppel had been on a high all week. He was nervous about facing the University Challenge in the semi final of the Minor cup. Trinity would be front loaded in their endeavour to get to a rare Minor Cup final. Keppel wanted to follow in the footsteps of Carr, Cooney and Roche and lift the Minor cup, a fitting climax to a hockey career that has taken him around the world.
He was somewhere between Bamber Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman. The Trinity lads he was told, are reading stuff like Greek history and Theology or perhaps Hebrew or the American civil war. He decided that his team must be ‘well read’. Amazingly Brian Reid was the first to be dropped. He might be Reid but he wasn’t ‘well Read’. Barrett, Jordan, Merriman and Rhys also did not make the cut. Mark Capel was suffering from concussion having hit his head off the wall a number of times after the rugby match in the Aviva.
He assembled a learned lot. The Glens got all the starter points and shot to a three goal lead. Burns (speed reading) got two; Sam Williamson (reading comics) managed one. The real students pulled one back before the break. Old Williamson, (reading late at night) and Keppel (reading road signs) well beaten by a slick intrusion from Trinity College, Dublin. O’Malley (reading the riot act) controlled midfield. It went to 4-2 and then 4-3 and quickly 5-3 as Roche (reading Classics (not horse racing)) stroked home the clincher just before the gong. Tobin (reading ancient history (about himself)) replaced the fading Tim (reading between the lynes). An elated captain is one victory away from everlasting fame.
Sadly Gerry Moore a centre forward who played for the fifths and up to the seconds in the eighties died over the weekend. A robust athletic centre forward remembered for some juicy jousts with Richard Mason of Avoca he terminated his hockey career when he moved to Killarney. He was about sixty years old. May he rest in peace.
