IT’S back and it’s bigger than ever.

The annual Hurling for Cancer match returned on Tuesday evening in Newbridge, Co Kildare, and it attracted the biggest crowd yet.

The changing GAA calendar meant that even more intercounty stars were available to line out this year and the public responded in big numbers, all for a great cause.

This year marked the event’s 10th anniversary. It was established by Jim Bolger and Davy Russell as a fundraiser for cancer research and has already raised over €1.2 million before a sliotar was pucked this week.

Key to the game’s success has been the ability of Jim and Davy to pull in big names, not just from hurling and racing, but from other sports as well as well-known media personalities.

St Conleth’s Park has a capacity of between 6,000 and 8,000 and there weren’t many empty seats to be found there last Tuesday, and that’s not including the hundreds of youngsters running wild along the pitch hunting autographs and selfies with the stars.

Looking around the grandstand, you could see plenty of familiar faces from the racecourse watching on. Racecourse managers, racing officials, trainers, breeders and regular racegoers had all come out to show their support.

The game was streamed live online and was also covered by Kildare FM, while camera crews from Sky Sports and RTÉ’s Nationwide were also on the scene.

Behind the scenes

Jim and Davy are the names most easily associated with Hurling for Cancer but behind the scenes there are a lot of people doing Trojan work. Una Manning and James Dowling from the Coolcullen yard are at the top of that list.

MC for the evening Robbie Irwin opened proceedings by introducing the Curragh Pipe Band and they were followed in by the umpires Ted Walsh Jnr, Ger Lyons, Rachael Blackmore, Nina Carberry, David Mullins, Willie McCreery and Kevin Manning.

RTE’s Miriam O’Callaghan and her former colleague Anne Doyle were lineswomen and refereeing duties were shared by Galway’s Cyril Farrell and Cork’s Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

Racehorse owner-breeder and tenor Anthony Kearns performed a rousing rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann and a minute’s silence was observed in memory of Paddy Bolger, Dillon Quirke and Pat Smullen, before the ball was thrown in by journalist Joanne O’Riordan and footballing legend Paul McGrath.

RTE’s Ger Canning and Michael Duignan commentated on the full 60 minutes and they did a brilliant job, considering they had 80 players to watch and they were positioned on top of the changing rooms at one end of the pitch!

Jim Bolger, who looked a bit like a premier league manager in his designer sunglasses, said: “I’d like to thank all the players for coming, some have travelled long distances to be here. It’s very much appreciated. Those who came to watch were well entertained. All the money raised is for a good cause and, please God, we will be back here next year again.”