The true legends, in many sporting codes, are known simply by their first names. Horseracing had Lester, soccer had Roy and, in athletics, there was Sonia. In handball, for three decades, Ducksy was the one that rang out. He was the greatest champion the sport has produced, a household name, a by-word for excellence on the court.
In boxing, they say the greats never come back but Ducksy did. His career can be broken into two parts. There was the boy wonder who emerged as a top senior while still eligible for minor ranks and went on to dominate at the elite level – and then there was the second chapter, when he returned to the summit, winning the Irish Nationals at 49 years of age just weeks before his untimely and sudden passing.
In 2000, still at the peak of his powers and with 14 All- Ireland 60x30 Senior Singles medals in his pocket, he told the Irish Examiner that he was hanging up his gloves.
“I have been retiring since last year, ended up coming back this year but this is definitely my last,” he insisted.
But the sport of the chase is hard to resist and there followed an extraordinary postscript to his career.
He would be crowned king of the big alley on two more occasions and after overcoming his own personal struggles he returned to hoover up Masters titles, run marathons to raise funds (he was devoted to charity work in later years) and re-assert himself as one of the very best 60x30 players.
Michael Walsh was born in May, 1966, in ‘The Butts’ in Kilkenny City, in the shadow of St Canice’s Church. His father, Sean, was a security guard; his mother, Vera, who died earlier last year, raising ‘Ducksy’ and his seven siblings.
Inspired by his first cousin, well-known handballer Billy Bourke, Ducksy started playing the game on the old outdoor, corporation courts near his home as a nine-year-old rogue who had followed the familiar Noreside path to hurling, only be sent off in his first juvenile game and hang up the camán.
"Hurling’s loss was handball’s gain; soon, he had joined the famed Talbot’s Inch club and, under the tutelage of local schoolteacher Tommy O’Brien, he began to hoover up every title in the sport"
O’Brien famously bought a little cup and his protogés would play off for it each week. The winner got the silverware for a few days and, more importantly, their name in the local paper. Soon, then, whispers about Ducksy – the sobriquet, often misspelled, was inherited from his father and older brothers – spread, first around Kilkenny and then to the various handballing outposts around the country.
There had never been a talent as precocious. In 1984, he won the minor All-Ireland, won the junior to earn his passage to the Promised Land of senior ranks and, for good measure, reached the last four of the Senior Singles. This was in an extremely competitive era, too.
The following year, he won his first senior title and he would go unbeaten for the next 13. When he was finally toppled in 1998, he came back and won three more in succession. In doubles, usually with Eugene Downey or hurling star DJ Carey riding shotgun, he won every honour and he finished with 38 senior All- Ireland medals, countless American titles as well as a handful of world gongs.
And this alley Cat’s claws were sharp. He once explained in an interview that he hadn't much time for medals and trophies - “to win would be the thing”. Very few have that inner drive and combined with extraordinary talent and athleticism, it made for an incredible sportsman. A fitted kitchen maker who ran a very successful business, he was also a master craftsman on the court, a slave to the lonely hours, perfecting his touch.
“It’s not about strength or how fast you get around, it’s about technique,” he once explained. “I write with my left hand and I brush my teeth with my left hand and hit a hammer with my left hand but I serve a ball with my right – I made sure my right was as good as my left.”
Having foregone the drink 15 years ago, he trained harder than ever with the result that, at 50, he could still hang with the big guns, and more.
In late July, at the inaugural Irish 60x30 Singles Nationals - a sort of warm-up for the championship - in his home court, he defeated number one- ranked Eoin Kennedy of Dublin in the final. It was a result which stunned the close-knit handball world. When the official Irish 60x30 rankings were released just days before he passed, he was in at number two. It beggared belief.
“Ducksy was the ultimate combination of incredible skill and incredible determination and will to win,” Kennedy would say later.
The close-knit handball world was thrown into a tailspin when news emerged that Ducksy had been suddenly taken ill while returning from a tournament in Cavan last August. A few days later, there was an outpouring of grief when he passed away.
The esteem in which he was held was in evidence at the remarkable turnout. A enormous crowd, including hurling greats like Brian Cody, Eddie Keher, James McGarry et al, descended on Bennettsbridge for his funeral, with Carey delivering a touching eulogy.
The presentation of the new cup, kindly donated by Ducksy’s family, is a fitting tribute to a once-in-a-lifetime sports star who touched the lives of so many. No doubt he will be smiling down from above when the first ball is served out – and grinning as he figured out how he would win that title back one more time himself.
Sadly, that will not now come to pass but with the Ducksy Walsh Memorial Cup, the great man lives on.
