All-white on the night for Castlehaven as change jerseys work a charm

Had you been told that last Friday’s McCarthy Insurance Group FL Division 1 final would be won by a team in white jerseys with blue trim, you’d probably have thought that Knocknagree’s fairytale was continuing.

However, the Duhallow side – having reached the top-flight decider at the first time of asking – were up against reigning premier senior champions Castlehaven, whose usual blue and white hoops caused a clash.

So it was that, in Macroom on Friday, Knocknagree were in the navy shirts worn when getting the better of Cill na Martra in last year’s SAFC final, while the Haven wore all-white as they showed they remain the team to beat, winning by 3-18 to 1-23.

White is nothing new for the Haven – in fact, when the club was founded in 1940, Paddy O’Leary purchased a football and Rich Harmody was sent to Cork to buy a set of jerseys, with the instructions that they be cheap and suitable for everyday activity if the football idea fell through.

White was therefore the natural choice and the team became known as the Lilywhites.

By 1957, a new set of jerseys was needed and local butcher Tom Walsh was the man given the task of sourcing them on this occasion. The order was white again, or something cheap if white wasn’t available — that’s what transpired and Tom returned west with a blue and white hooped set.

The ‘Queens Park Rangers’ look served them well as they rose from junior B to senior in the space of a decade, going on to win the county title in 1989, 1994 and 2003.

When a clash arose, white was still called upon – most often against St Nick’s, who swapped their black and white hoops for the green, black and gold of sister club Glen Rovers when the clubs met – and then in 2011, their run to the county final featured a hybrid style.

While there were some hoops of varying width, it was a largely white jersey but the defeat to UCC in that year’s decider was their last outing and the traditional look was back for 2012, when Duhallow were beaten in the final, with the title retained in 2013.

The usual blue and white will of course be on show for the opening championship ties against Ballincollig and Clonakilty but the third fixture, what could be a pivotal clash, takes place in Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday, September 13, with Knocknagree the opposition – the Haven will hope that the good memories of playing in white stand to them.a