Timber craftsman Ruddy on a winner with his superior sticks
FOR almost a decade now, Benny Ruddy has been making hurls in his workshop at the back of the family home in Coldwood. It’s the proverbial labour of love, a diligent Ruddy taking as much care in moulding the ash as a poet would in drafting the line of a sonnet.
The art of hurley-making is a craft the 32-year-old has always admired. In his late teens and early twenties, he fixed hurls for his Craughwell club-mates, be they senior or junior hurlers. At the time, Ruddy was hurling for the juniors himself and, most evenings, he would be given a stick to fix.
“Especially with the lads we had playing Junior ‘C’! I was busier than any lad; I nearly had to give up the full-time job. The Junior ‘C’ lads that time, you couldn’t keep hurls out to them,” laughs Ruddy, who won Junior ‘C’ and Junior ‘C1’ medals with Craughwell in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
In 2011, Ruddy decided to try his hand at making hurls – “I thought, maybe, it would not be too hard to make a hurl; I kind of found out after, that it is!” – and with the help of his father John, he purchased a small bandsaw and sander and set about cutting a piece of ash, planing it down and sanding it.
“The first few looked a bit rough but, I suppose, balance wise, they weren’t too bad,” continues Ruddy. “I thought they came out alright until I went up to training one evening and a few of the lads looked at them and said, ‘Jesus, not bad for the first few hurls, but you still wouldn’t drive cattle with them’.”
Training the Craughwell seniors and juniors in 2011 was former Clare All-Ireland winner, David Forde, who said if Ruddy was interested in pursuing the craft, he should talk to his own father, Lar Forde, a hurley-maker in Tuamgraney. Ruddy “jumped” at the opportunity and, a few days later, headed down to Clare, where he was given a mighty welcome – and dinner – by the Forde family.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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