THE Hurling for Cancer provided entertainment on many levels as well as it being brilliant fun and in raising so much for the research into the disease.

One man who had the most thrilling experience on Monday, when getting on to the field of play, was Corkman Benjie O’Donoghue. His family too had been hit by the disease.

An owner on “a small scale” he had his best moment on the racetrack when his Knockraha Pylon won at Cork in December 2016, the same meeting that Willie Mullins’ then star chaser Douvan won the Grade 2 Hilly Way.

“It was in The Irish Field that we got a better reception than Douvan!” he remembers with pleasure.

After losing his mother and having a cancer diagnosis of his own, the charity hurling match was of particular relevance to Benji. “I had met Brian Gleeson and asked if there would be any chance, that I’d love to throw in the ball.”

The dream came to pass on Monday night. “I was walking out the pitch with Joanne O’Riordan in her wheelchair and I said, ‘Which of us is going to throw in the ball? Christ, I can’t throw in the ball!’ she said!” [See page 45]

“I met Jim Bolger, Brian Cody, Babs Keating, Cyril Farrell, Colm O’Rourke. To be in the dressing room, and all those All Stars, I was like a child! It was nearly twilight by the time all the selfies and signing had finished.”

And Benjie had a word for those responsible for all the organising.“Una Manning should run for election as well as Nina Carberry! She should run for President!”

The hurling teams were stacked with the stars.

“Pat Horgan and Eoin Downey, they had a small injury but they still did it, it’s a fair drive up from Cork. And Kyle Hayes there too. Carlow is a great place for it.”

Summing up his evening, Benjie said: “I met Willie Mullins and Paul Nolan but I thought the racing fraternity could have done a bit better.

“Since that day in Mallow in 2017, it was the best day of my life. It was like Christmas day, I was absolutely elated.”