1997 in Gaelic Games - All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1997, 1997 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1997, 1997 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, Sligo Senior Football Championship 1997, Sligo Intermediate Football Championship 1997, All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 1997. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1997 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Guinness Hurling Championship) was the 111th edition of Irelands premier hurling competition. The championship ran from May to September of that year, culminating with the All-Ireland final, held at Croke Park, Dublin on 14 September. The match was contested by Clare and Tipperary, with Clare taking the title by 0-20 to 2-13. It was the first year that the 'back-door system' for defeated provincial finalists was introduced. The 1997 championship saw the biggest ever innovation in the competition's format up to that point. The 'back-door system' was introduced to provide more matches in the All-Ireland series of games. From the first competitions in 1887 until 1996 if any team was defeated at any stage of the Provincial or All-Ireland competitions it meant automatic elimination. This system was deemed the fairest as the All-Ireland Champions were effectively the team who won all of their games. However, there were some problems with this system. Over the years Galway had become the only credible hurling team in Connacht, thus giving them an automatic pass into the All-Ireland semi-finals every year. Similarly in Ulster there were many problems as hurling was much weaker and confined to a small few counties in the north-east. While the Munster, Leinster and Ulster provincial championships were played as normal the new plan introduced by the Gaelic Athletic Association allowed the defeated Munster and... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3451851