Waterford beware, Ben’s back in the mood

ON a scale of one to ten, the prospect of Ben O’Connor falling out of love with hurling would surely rate at about the eleven mark.

Still, by last autumn and his club Newtownshandrum’s departure from the Cork senior hurling championship, that was pretty understandable. O’Connor had been on the go non-stop, more or less, since 2003 and they both agreed to a trial separation. Around Valentine’s Day there was a reconciliation.

“In that length of time I had no interest in the hurley. But when it came to February I started getting itchy. The senior hurling league starts again and you want to get back into it, while before that I’d been going through the motions.”