It’s not often, perhaps, that you’d link Spurs and Cavan’s sporting fortunes, but in the space of four days, they both found a different way to slay a badger to bring to an end lengthy droughts. Until Wednesday night in Bilbao, it had been 17 years since Spurs got their paws on silverware, and on Sunday in Castlebar, it had been 77 years since Cavan beat Mayo in the championship. Yes, admittedly, the links are tenuous, but a sporting drought is a sporting drought. And there’s no little joy when they end.
Not that Paul Fitzpatrick, the sports editor of the Anglo-Celt newspaper, had time to celebrate on his way home to Cavan on Sunday. “I had reports to write of discarded pitchforks and slain badgers and famous wins and generations of the same family, 77 years apart, in the same colours, fighting the same fight. That’s the beauty of it and that’s why, despite it all, we love it.”
For quite a while, Limerick’s hurlers and Dublin’s footballers had no trouble slaying badgers at all, but they’d lost their killer instinct of late. Last weekend? “An old lion is still a lion,” writes Ciarán Murphy after seeing them prove there’s life in the old dogs yet, just to add another creature to the mix. “Watching Limerick and Dublin, with 14 All-Ireland titles between them in the last 15 years, was a case study in greatness,” he says.
Dublin’s hurlers are hoping for a memorable day themselves when they play Galway on Sunday, the meeting “effectively a playoff to meet Kilkenny in the provincial decider”. Gordon Manning talks to Dublin’s Seán Currie ahead of the game, and he also previews this evening’s Special Congress vote on the skorts issue, detailing all you need to know about the event.
Hurling Man shifts uneasily as football gets mysteriously entertaining
Darragh Ó Sé: Galway won’t be down after Dubs defeat - now is the time to get battle-hardened
Euro 2028 qualification explained: The five ways Ireland can qualify, including automatically
Humble Scheffler lets his golf do the talking and what else we learned from the PGA Championship
And after Uefa attempted to confirm the qualification process for Euro 2028 on Wednesday, David Gorman brings you a Q&A to explain the convoluted business. Put it this way: the Republic of Ireland, co-hosts for the tournament, might automatically qualify - and, well, might not.
In cricket, Nathan Johns reports on a mighty fine day for Ireland at Castle Avenue where they beat the West Indies by a chunky 124 runs in the first of their three-match ODI series, Andrew Balbirnie helping himself to a century. In rugby, John O’Sullivan hails the impact of the IRFU’s much under-reported ‘A’ Interprovincial Championship, which Leinster won last weekend.
And in his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan writes about the oft beleaguered New York Knicks faithful having the “time of their lives” this weather. Granted, they lost the opening game of their NBA Eastern Conference best-of-seven series against The Indiana Pacers last night, but after knocking out the reigning champion Boston Celtics last Friday, “this team has the city believing anything is possible”.
TV Watch: Scottie Scheffler’s US PGA Championship celebrations didn’t last long, he’s back in action at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas today (Sky Sports Golf, 5pm) - and he’s aiming for his third Tour victory in a row, having won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson before his trip to Quail Hollow.
