Our good friends in the 'Irish Farmers Journal' have a pair of All-Ireland hurling and football final tickets to give away to two lucky readers. To be in with a chance of winning the tickets, simply send your answers to this quiz, numbered 1-50, by email to cl@farmersjournal.ie or by post to Country Living Sports Quiz, Irish Farmers Journal, Irish Farm Centre, Bluebell, Dublin 12 by Tuesday, 11 January 2011

We’ve upped the standard again this year with our toughest set of questions yet. Hopefully they’ll keep you and yours entertained over the Christmas. All-Ireland final tickets to the winners!

CAPTAINS
1 Who captained the Irish team in this year’s International Rules series against Australia?
2 Which Connolly brother gave the famous speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand when Galway won their breakthrough All-Ireland back in 1980?
3 Pat Spillane lifted the Sam Maguire trophy in 1975, but only because the actual captain of the team was in hospital after being knocked unconscious during the final. Name the absent captain.
4 “For the last six years this cup has wandered around and didn’t know where ’twas going. Now it knows it’s going home.” And how right he was. Those were the words of a hurling captain who was accepting the Liam McCarthy cup seven years after his brother had done the same. Name him.

GAA STARS IN DÁIL ÉIREANN
5 Name the only Taoiseach to have won All-Ireland senior medals in football and hurling.
6 Name the former Minister for Sport who has also won five All-Ireland senior football medals.
7 Name the former Tánaiste who played for Cavan in the only All-Ireland final to be played outside of Ireland.
8 Name the former Tánaiste who played hurling and football for Kerry as well as playing rugby for Munster and Ireland.
9 Name the current Dáil TD who has managed three different counties to Connacht football championships.

REELING IN THE YEARS
10 In what year did Jimmy Cooney blow up early, Kildare make the breakthrough in Leinster with Micko and Brian Whelehan go to full-forward to win an All-Ireland?
11 In what year was Páirc Uí Chaoimh officially opened? (Note: not the Cork Athletic Grounds, but Páirc Uí Chaoimh as it was then named.)
12 In what year was the All-Ireland football final played in The Polo Grounds in New York?
13 In what year did Jimmy Keaveney score 2-6 in an All-Ireland final against Armagh and some £24,000 was stolen in gate receipts at the Munster Hurling final between Clare and Cork?
14 In what year did the thunder and lightning All-Ireland hurling final take place between Kilkenny and Cork?

CHERISH THE LADIES
15 She won 12 All-Ireland senior medals. Her twin sister won 11. Name the legendary player.
16 Wexford won the ladies National Football League title in 1986, a tidy achievement when you consider that if they hadn’t, another county would have won 11 league titles in a row, from 1980-1991. Name that record-breaking Ladies footballing county whose remarkable run Wexford interrupted.
17 Who are the 2010 All-Ireland ladies senior football champions?
18 Which cup are the winners of the All-Ireland ladies SFC presented with?
19 The 1990s were dominated by one county, which won five All-Ireland ladies senior football titles. Name that county.

THE CLUB MEN
20 Martin Storey lifted the Liam McCarthy Cup in 1996. Which club did he play for in Wexford?
21 Who are the current All-Ireland senior football club champions?
22 Name the last Munster club to win the All-Ireland senior club football championship (they are also the record holders in the event).
23 Back in 1977-1978, a Limerick club captured the All-Ireland senior club football championship. They were also a college. Name the club.
24 Who is the All-Ireland senior club hurling championship cup named after?

PENALTIES
25 Tyrone led the then All-Ireland champions Kerry 1-7 to 0-4 a few minutes into the second half of the 1986 All-Ireland final when they were awarded a penalty. It was sent over the bar and they would go on to lose the game 2-15 to 1-10. Who blazed the penalty over?
26 Who saved Mikey Sheehy’s penalty in the 1982 All-Ireland football final?
27 Paddy Cullen saved a penalty in the 1974 All-Ireland football final. Who took it?
28 Who scored Mayo’s only goal, from a penalty, in the 1997 All-Ireland football final?
29 In the 2009 All-Ireland hurling final, the game turned on a penalty awarded to Kilkenny. Henry Shefflin buried it. But who was fouled for the controversial penalty?

STRANGE DAYS
30 In 2010, which senior provincial final became the first ever to be deliberately played under lights?
31 When Waterford played against Clare in the semi-final of the Munster senior hurling championship back on 7 June this year, what was so unusual about the substitutions made by Waterford and Clare? Three sets of what were introduced?
32 Cork led by 5-11 to 1-15 with 13 minutes to go in an All-Ireland senior hurling final. They lost that match by seven points, 3-24 to 5-11. The winners were thankful that it was one of the short-lived 80-minute finals. What year did it take place?
33 Mikey Sheehy’s legendary goal in the 1978 All-Ireland football final turned the game in Kerry’s favour. Cullen clashed with Ger Power, Kerry were given a free and Mikey lobbed Paddy Cullen as he scurried back towards his goal. But which Dublin defender kindly handed the ball to Mikey before he took the free?

ALL-STARS
34 Here’s a hard one. Only one current National Hunt trainer in Ireland is also a three-time All-Star full-forward. Name him.
35 David Kilcoyne won a hurling All-Star in 1986. For which non-traditional hurling county did he play?
36 Pat Lindsay won a football All-Star in 1977. For which county?
37 Laois have only ever had one goalkeeping All-Star. Name him.
38 How many All-Stars has Colm Cooper (the Gooch) won?
39 Tipperary have one footballing All-Star. Name him.

MÍCHEÁL
40 What two teams was Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh commentating on when he said: “Here’s something I have never seen before. There is now a Rabbitte chasing a Fox around Croke Park!”
41 What is the surname missing from this piece of commentary about two Cork players, who aren’t cousins. “Teddy to John, no relation. Back to Teddy, still no relation!”
42 Name the player to whom Mícheál is referring. “His father is from Fermanagh, his mother from Fiji, neither a hurling stronghold.”
43 According to Mícheál, Cork corner back Anthony Lynch will be the last person to let you down. Why?
44 Last September, Mícheál commentated on his last ever All-Ireland senior hurling final. What current inter-county manager was his co-commentator that day?

ALL-IRELAND GOALS
45 Lar Corbett scored three goals in the All-Ireland senior hurling final. Who was the last man to score three goals in a senior football final?
46 Who scored two goals for Armagh in the 1977 All-Ireland football final?
47 Name the last non-Kilkenny or Tipperary hurler to score a goal in the All-Ireland senior hurling final.
48 Over the last 30 years, two Limerick hurlers have each scored two goals in All-Ireland senior hurling finals. Both have ended up on the winning side. Eamon Cregan was one (1980), name the other.
49 Name the last Galway senior footballer to score a goal in an All-Ireland senior football final.
50 Who scored two goals for Mayo in the 2006 All-Ireland senior football final?
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