By John Harrington

The passing of 16 years have done little to dull David English’s memories of Ballinkillen’s 2001 Carlow SHC Final victory over Mount Leinster Rangers.

Andrew Gaule’s magisterial display. The sheeting rain that was quickly forgotten once the final whistle blew. The joyous celebrations back in a Ballinkillen community hall decked in blue and gold.

English was ten years old and already dreaming of playing senior club championship hurling and bringing the Cup back to the community hall himself some day.

Now, at the age of 29 and after 13 years of trying, he’ll finally have the opportunity to make that dream a reality when he plays in his first county senior final for Ballinkillen against Mount Leinster Rangers on Sunday.

He didn’t think it would be this long coming, but, as he says himself, better late than never. And after such a long wait to get here, he's determined to seize the day.

“Absoutely, I can't wait for it,” English told GAA.ie. “It's a sort of different feeling. A couple of us have been involved in county teams and played in League Finals and had Joe McDonagh Championships to look forward to.

“But this is what you grow up wanting as a chap when you're pucking a ball off a wall - you want to get to a county final and represent your club. This is the pinnacle of your hurling career in a sense.

“You have multiple All-Ireland winners in TJ Reid and Henry Shefflin saying the same thing. It always comes back to the club. The more success you have with the club the more the club grows and it just means an awful lot more to you.

“The fact we had to wait 16 years to get here (Ballinkillen's last county final was in 2004) just makes it an even bigger occasion for us. Hopefully we can capitalise on that.”

English sounds like a man ready to rise to the occasion and he definitely has the pedigree to do so.

A vastly experienced inter-county hurler with Carlow, it’s a testament to his character as well as ability that he was chosen to captain the Ireland team that played Scotland in the 2018 Hurling-Shinty International.

It’ll surely help too that he comes from a family steeped in the game and with a track record of high achievement.

His father and two uncles won All-Ireland ‘B’ hurling medals with Carlow in 1992, and his Grandfather is the late, great Jim English who won three All-Ireland medals with Wexford, and captained them to their 1956 Final victory over Cork.

“He was a huge influence,” says English of his Grandfather. “He lived only 100 metres down the road so I would have spent every waking moment down there as a chap and managed to break a good few windows out of his house over the years.

“Look, he was a massive influence. I grew up looking at the picture on the wall of him playing hurling and the scrapbook photos of him holding the Liam MacCarthy.

“I have his jersey framed at home on the wall there. You grew up knowing he was a big deal but it wasn't until you hit your teenage years that you really realised that because you'd have auld lads coming up to you and telling you that Jim English was your grandfather and this, that, and the other.

“That's when it kicks it that, yeah, he was a big deal back in the day. It's nice to have that heritage.”

The English family have contributed a lot to Ballinkillen hurling over the years and David admits it’s a regret that his father and uncles and all the other stalwart club families and supporters won’t be there in Netwatch Cullen Park on Sunday to see their club compete in a county final for the first time since 2004.

Perhaps, though, that might make it a little bit easier for Ballinkillen to win the thing.

Apart from a small clutch of seasoned players like English himself, Ruairi Dunbar, and Sean Murphy, this is a very young and inexperienced Ballinkillen team, so perhaps playing the game behind closed doors rather in front of an expectant crowd will suit them on the day.

“Yeah, I suppose other people have said to me the fact that it's going to be an empty stadium, will that help? It probably will in one sense.

“The fact that you won't have the nerves you'd get from the traditional parade around the ground and everything before it starts.

“It will take a level of pressure off. You can make a mistake and you're not going to hear the roar of the crowd up on the bank or in the stand.

“There's not as much pressure, but at the back of your mind you still have to remind yourself that this is a county final and your chance to write yourself into the history books.

“The likes of myself, Sean, and Dunbar have had to wait for years before we could get to the county final.

“I'm just delighted for those young lads that they get to play in a county final at his stage in their playing careers and get a taste of what it's all about.”

Those young Ballinkillen hurlers are very talented and experienced a lot of success at underage level so won’t lack for self-belief.

They also bring considerable momentum into the Final after a dramatic semi-final victory over St. Mullin’s that washed away the disappointment of a heart-breaking defeat to the same opponents in last year’s semi-final.

Standing in their way though is a Mount Leinster Rangers team that haven’t just dominated Carlow hurling in recent years, but have also made their mark on the provincial and national stages.

“When you think of Carlow hurling if you're talking to someone from outside the county the first team they'll mention is Mount Leinster Rangers,” says English.

“They won the intermediate All-Ireland, they've dominated Carlow for the best part of a decade, got to the All-Ireland senior club final as well. They have a short history but it's a very rich history. They're after accomplishing so much in a short space of time.

“And, look, they're after strolling through the championship nearly this year. They haven't really got a test so far.

“If we can get the better of them on Sunday it would make it all the more satisfying to take down a club of that stature, a club that has won so much in the last decade.

“They've been fantastic, so it would make it all the sweeter if we could get the better of them.”