Lee Chin pictured on the PWC All Stars trip in Singapore.
By John Harrington
Lee Chin’s All-Star trip to Singapore has been something of a family reunion.
The Wexford hurling star took the opportunity to come out a few days earlier than everyone else so he could visit his Grandparents who live over the border in Malaysia.
It was the first time he was able to visit the Chin family home-place since he was eight years old and meant a lot to him to reconnect.
My father keeps in touch with them an awful lot and gets home once a year. It was great to see them the other day. I got to see two cousins of mine that I had never seen before.
One is 15 and the other is 16. It was great when they came around because in the school they would learn a lot of English and they had a lot of it so I was able to communicate with them and they were able to mediate between me and the grandparents.
“It's been difficult to stay in touch with them because there's a language barrier with the communication.
“They don't have much English and I don't have any Chinese. It's very hard to communicate with them so it's hard to keep in touch.”
It was Chin’s first time to meet his younger cousins and with the help of his Grandfather he took the opportunity to educate them on hurling.
“When we went back to their home-place the two cousins came in and they had English and were asking me about the sport that I play,” said Chin.
“It was funny, my grandfather then stood up off the chair and picked up a stick and basically acted out how to strike a ball for them.
“So, he knew because I'd imagine my father tells him an awful lot and he probably gives them stuff to go and research about what it is that I do back home.”
Wexford star Lee Chin congratulated by supporters after the Leinster SHC Semi-Final win over Kilkenny.
Chin hopes his Grandfather will have good reason to do more research into his son’s sporting career in 2018 by helping Wexford build on the very encouraging championship form they showed this year when making it as far as the All-Ireland SHC Final.
“The one thing you want every year is to see improvements and we definitely seen that this year,” said Chin.
“Obviously still, players and management, Davy, weren’t happy still with what we achieved.
“We didn’t really achieve much, but it was great to get back to a Leinster final and get promoted.
“We still didn't win anything. Therefore players and management still wouldn't be happy with that, but it great to see progression.”
Chin admits it was vital for that continued progression of Wexford hurling that manager Davy Fitzgerald has committed to another year in charge of the team.
“Very, very important,” he said. “We didn't know what his situation was at the end of the year. He never really let us know what the story was.
“As a group of players we were hungry to get him back, we know we needed Davy back for us to progress even further and continue on our path.
“Do you know, we are so grateful that he came back to us and hopefully we will go well this year and hopefully bag some silverware.
“There is no doubt we are going to train very, very similar to what we did last year.
“Training is very tough and that’s the way Davy has us. It’s very intense, and I’d imagine if you train a team like that and hey have the desire to go with it, you are always in the hunt.
“Last year you probably seen a hungrier Wexford team, and a team that looked like they were trying to fulfil a goal there. I think this year is going to be similar.”
