All Ireland Finals 1948 and a Waterford double - by Passage PRO
This time a look back on Sunday September 5 th 1948 when Waterford Hurling had its greatest ever day right up to the present. On that day our Senior Hurlers won their first ever All Ireland Senior title and for good measure the minors also won in Croke Park their second title their first won in 1929 with Paddy Donnelly Passage the captain..For Passage it was a very special occasion in the senior game with our own Vin Baston being one of the stars,the game had an attendance of 61,430. The final score in the senior game being Waterford 6-7 Dublin 4-2 at halftime it was Waterford 2-5 Dublin 0-2. Waterford Scorers; John Keane 2-2, Willie Galvin 2-0,Christy Moylan 1-3,Ned Daly 1-0,Kevin O'Connor 0-1, Vin Baston 0-1 (free) In the minor game Waterford beat Kilkenny 3-8 to 4-2 and at half time in that one it was Waterford 2-7 kilkenny 0-1 The senior team was as follows; Jim Ware captain in goal; Andy.Fleming John Cusack, Jackie. Goode; Mick.Hickey, Vin . Baston, Mick Hayes; Johnny O'Connor, Eddie Carew; Kevin O'Connor, John Keane, Christy Moylan; Wilie Galvin,Ned Daly,Tom Curran.The minor team was; John O'Flynn, Mattie Morrissey, Sean Hayden, Michael Hogan, Vincent Walsh. Michael Kelleher,Tom Cunningham; Seamus Conlon, Tom Gallagher, Wm Conway, Mick Flannelly. Michael O'Connor; Maurice McHugh, Paddy O'Connor, Michael Browne.Waterford scorers Ml O'Connor 2-0,Browne 1-1, Flannelly 0-3 ,Mc Hugh, Conway, Gallagher Pat O'Connor 0-1 each.
This is what the Irish Press wrote about our local hero."Vin Baston played one of his best games, in a field of somewhat below form hurlers he stood out above all, at ground-play, in his tackling, or with his free-pucks he made a great and valuable contribution to the win".The Cork Examiner said " Baston was as sound as ever and is obviously the idol of the Waterford supporters while the Irish Independent said Baston deserves the highest of credit whether marking Hassett ,Prior or Cantwell he was first to the ball and cleared without delay and to good purpose.unlike the opposition who more often than not failed to find a colleague" Vin was on the first Passage team to win a County title -the junior in 1937,his career in the Army opened new horizons for him as he won two Galway County Senior titles with The Army in 1947 and 48 and played in the Fitzgibbon Cup (A rule at the time allowed him to play0 and he also won 4 Railway Cup medals with Munster in 1948,49,50,51 and actually played with Connaght in that competition in 1943 ,he also had the distinction of refereeing an All Ireland Hurling final -the 1945 final. For what it’s worth in this scribes humble opinion he was one of Ireland's greatest ever hurlers and probably the most stylish.
