Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard Cups

The President of the GAA Mr Sean Kelly today announced details of the new Tier 2 and Tier 3 Hurling championships which will be played for the first time next year. The trophy for the Tier 2 championship will be called the Christy Ring Cup while teams in the Tier 3 championship will play for the Nicky Rackard Cup.

Ten teams will participate in the Christy Ring championship. They are Roscommon, Mayo, Westmeath, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Carlow, Down, Derry and Kerry. Two groups of five teams will be drawn and each team will play four games at the group stages. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals with the winners meeting in the final on August 14th, as a curtain raiser to the first All Ireland senior hurling championship semi-final.

The teams participating in the Nicky Rackard Cup will be Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh, Louth, Longford and London. The teams will be divided into three groups (two groups of four teams and one group of three). The runners-up of the two groups of four will meet in a quarter final with the winners of this game joining the three group winners in the semi-finals. The final of the Rackard Cup will be played in Croke Park on August 21st as a curtain raiser to the second All Ireland hurling championship semi-final. The President also confirmed that Warwickshire had applied to be included in this competition and that a decision in that regard would be made shortly.

Members of the Ring and Rackard families were present at Croke Park today. Mr Kelly said "We are delighted to be able to name these two new competitions after two legends of the game of hurling. Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard are considered to be among the greatest hurlers of all time and were known throughout the land as wonderful exponents of the game". He continued "In their time, both players gave immeasurable entertainment to supporters of the game and we hope that their spirit will live on in these new competitions and that their memory will inspire a new generation of hurlers from the traditionally less successful counties"

It was also announced that a Team of the Championship would be picked in each competition, along similar lines to the current All Stars scheme. The new competitions will run for a trial period of two years and are a product of the recommendations of the Hurling Development committee.
ENDS.

Biographical Notes:
Christy Ring: From the village of Cloyne on Co Cork, he was born on October 12th 1920. He played for Cloyne and Glen Rovers, with whom he won a record 11 Cork Senior hurling championship medals. He won eight All Ireland senior hurling championship medals between 1941 and 1954 and is the only man to have captained three All Ireland winning sides at that level. He also won a record 18 Railway Cup medals with Munster and was named at on both the Team of the Century and the Team of the Millennium. He died on March 2nd 1979.

Nicky Rackard: Born in Killanne, Co Wexford on April 28th 1922, he played club hurling for Rathnure and won two All Ireland medals with Wexford in 1955 and 1956 alongside his brothers Bobby and Billy. He was hurling’s top scorer in both of those years and had earlier captained Wexford (alongside another brother, Jimmy) in the 1951 final against Tipperary which they lost despite a personal contribution of 3-2. He was also on the Wexford side defeated by Cork in the 1954 final and like Ring was selected on both the Team of the Century and the Team of the Millennium. A noted footballer, he played in Railway cup finals for Leinster in both hurling and football - winning a hurling medal in 1956.