Lyng relishing centre stage

FOR many hurling fans, Frank Cummins is, and probably always will be, the finest midfielder the game has ever seen.

Winner of a record seven All-Ireland medals in the same position (he also won an eighth, as a sub in 1967), Hurler of the Year in 1983, the year before he retired, Cummins was the original midfield colossus, a dominant figure in the middle for nearly 20 years.

He wasn’t a natural hurler — far from it, and big Frank spent many hours annually refining, almost re-learning, the skills that came so naturally to most of his Kilkenny team-mates. He would put in those hours, however, so that come the summer, his touch would be good enough to get by. Of far more importance, though, Cummins was a winner. He was a leader, the kind of guy who would — and often did — grab by the scruff of the neck a game that looked like it was slipping away, and almost by pure force of his considerable will, inspire Kilkenny to victory.