Nadal wins absorbing Wimbledon Tennis Final,Federer’s contribution was immense as a loser

Moment of the Day  2

What a month it has been for Spain ,European Soccer Champions 2008 and now their Star Tennis Player Rafael Nadal wins an epic men’s tennis final in SWL 19 /Wimbledon.

In future quizzes it will be asked, What was  the longest final ever played in the history of the All England Club/Wimbledon  ,the answer is in today was the day when Rafael Nadal(Mallorca ,Spain)defeated the previous  five times winner Roger Federer(Switzerland)  ,the best final i have seen since the 1980 epic between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe (who i idolised back then and used my savings to invest in a wooden Donnay Raquet signed by him when i played the game as a teenager in the Lattin/Cullen Lawn Tennis Club in Co.Tipperary).

I have been a great supporter of Nadal since he came on the scene,he has brought a new life to the game. We have been treated to some very boring sombre tennis characters since the exciting ,thrills a minute antics on court of  Nastasie,Cash,McEnroe .Thanfully my faith has been restored again in the game after a decade of boring power play watching the likes of sampras,lendl ….need i go on…Today produced an absorbing rain interrupted epic saga as Nadal finally achieved his goal in winning his first ever Wimbledon Final ,but praise has to be given to Federer and what a competitor he is as he was trying to beat the record set by Bjorn Borg of 5 in a row.An Epic to savour .

It ended with scores of   6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7  .

Cork win Munster Football Final

Graham Canty with the Munster Football Final Trophy,in the background is Minister Michael Martin also in attendance Minister Batt O ‘Keefe.Martin O ‘Donoghue represented the Kerry contingent .

Moment of the Day 1.

Cork 1-16 Kerry 1-11

Seeing Kerry been beaten by Cork was a joy to behold, it is good for the game rather than seeing the same teams dominate all the time. The first half well was one sided Kerry 1-8 to Cork’s 0-3 that it was case of how much Kerry would win by .Worse was to follow in the second half as Cork had Nicholas Murphy sent off, curtains it seemed but it led to an inspired rebel (blood and bandages known to their cohorts) comeback. An inspired substitution by the Cork Manager Conor Counihan of Michael Cussen ,Kerry could not cope at all with this  6′ 6″ giant and he duly obliged and scored a delightful Cork Goal to leave Cork trailing by 2 points. Kerry’s Marc O Se saw red as did his brother Darragh later in the game .Cork ran riot in the second half and ended up deserving winners. Bad news for Cork though is that Graham Canty has a serious knee injury that may rule him out of the Championship .It was delight to see that famous Cork Supporter Cyril “The Sombrero ” Harrington make his way on the winning podium and grab the mike to give a rousing rendition of the “The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee ” the sad part was that there were only 22,000 supporters at this Munster Final,down 50% . Where are all those sell out day’s gone it is a major problem that needs to be addressed at GAA headquarters…..Is it too expensive a family day out?,over saturation ,TV Coverage ,the format of lopsided Provincial Championship’s or an Open Draw  and now we are in a recession .!

For the Limerick Football supporters they are left to ponder what could have been after their narrow defeat to Cork in the semi final.