Larry’s final ‘humdinger’

Larry Tompkins can still feel the hairs on his neck spike as sunlight bathed the tunnel leading to the pitch and a wall of noise was just seconds away.

It wasn’t an All-Ireland final, nor was it a Munster final. Castlehaven against Skibbereen attracted over 25,000 people to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on October 9 for the 1994 Cork SFC final and Tompkins felt his knees go weak.

“Those are the types of games you’d always remember,” he laughs. “Playing with the Haven was nearly more pressure than playing with Cork and people would be looking at me when I’d say that but that county final had as much pressure as any game I’ve played. The rivalry was seriously intense between Skibbereen and Castlehaven at that time, I mean seriously intense. That would be from not alone the players’ point of view but the people that had lived in the area for so long, going into Skibb for shopping, that’s where the Castlehaven people had to go and the thing would have built from there.

“We were the small little fellas out in the sticks and they were the big fellas inside in the town.”

Indeed, that game saw two teams at the peak of their powers — enough to have GAA president Jack Bootman in attendance, alongside the then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

The game, in Tompkins’ words, was a “humdinger”.

“It was a very emotional day and there was a lot of pressure. I think we would have been slight favourites going into it and the game was a humdinger from the word go. The tackling was ferocious, really strong hits going in and scores were hard to come by but I felt a draw was the right result.

“We were fairly broken down after it but I recall coming in after with a lot more bandages on us than Skibb did! John Cleary had to go off and I broke my collar bone. I played through it in the second half but both of us had to be carted off in ambulances afterwards. The Skibb people were delighted, obviously, because it meant they would’ve had the upper hand the next day.

“We had our heads down afterwards. I was told by a doctor up in CUH I wouldn’t play again for six months...thank God my hearing wasn’t great! John [Cleary] had to go off too and wouldn’t start the replay but we made a pact that we wouldn’t leave the next day without the Andy Scannell Cup.

“It was such a special occasion and we knew we’d probably never see a day like it again. To play against your neighbours in such a high intensity game and with such interest — not alone in Cork but beyond it. I don’t think there’s too many county finals that would bring people like the Taoiseach to it. That was the type of interest it had. When we all move on from this life, that game will still be talked about as the marvellous occasion that it was. Skibb might say differently but both sets of players made it to be a great occasion. I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like it again”

Haven would win the replay and, of course, ignoring medical advice, Tompkins played — bent over two inspirational scores to help them shade it, 0-12 to 0-10.

“I keep saying it, Castlehaven are blessed with a unique thing. They’re a type of team that when you go down there and you’re involved in training and playing, it’s just a massive community spirit. It’s massive from man, woman and child, everybody’s involved and no matter what types of run-ins or things you might have off the field, it doesn’t seem to matter. Football is the main thing and the support and the loyalty and the friendship and the respect, it’s just insurmountable.

“You go in the pokey roads to Union Hall and the side roads down to Castletownsend and around those little areas, go in the narrow roads barely wide enough for two cars to pass and the grass growing in the middle of the road. These are very special places and football means so much to them.

“When you get the opportunity to wear that jersey you try to give everything inside of you. And if you missed a training session — myself, Niall Cahalane, John [Cleary] and Mike Maguire were on county teams throughout the years, you didn’t feel right and it was like you’d let an awful lot of people down. The same principles lie there today, there’s no excuses made and that’s why the bond is so strong and why the football is so strong.”

Tomorrow, Tompkins will take his place in the crowd and he knows no matter what happens, Haven won’t point fingers or make excuses if they lose.

“It’s a marvellous tribute to the players that they can get back to a county final after last year. It just tells you about their determination and their commitment. We were all so low last year after losing to UCC. Castlehaven players feel, and always have felt, that when they step over the white line, nobody is to blame but themselves. They’ll never look for excuses. I think that’s the manner in which they play. They take their wins, they take their losses.

“Teams are prepared well down there and James McCarthy has done a great job and they’ll step into that cauldron tomorrow and they’ll be in between the white lines and they won’t be offering any excuses afterwards if they’re not good enough. They’ll put their hands up and blame themselves and that’s the way it should be.

“But they’ve grown as men this year and you can see that in their play. They’ve matured, they’re stronger and they’re going into this county with an awful lot of experience from last year and an awful lot behind them.

“That will be a big difference tomorrow.”