A determined performance from Limerick saw them crowned All-Ireland U21 hurling champions for the second time in three years.

Mattie Kenny may have thought he was onto a winner when he enjoyed a hole-in-one in Portumna Golf Club on Saturday. “The hole in one was a fluke – today was more crafted,” smiled the Cuala manager.

Age and a busted groin should be keeping Martin Comerford on the sidelines but Sunday in Wexford Park showed you can’t keep a good man down.

A super goal from Keith Hogan, brother of county star Brian, fired holders Clara to victory over a young James Stephens team in the first round of the Kilkenny senior hurling championship yesterday.

Kilkenny SHL

Kilkenny’s Michael Fennelly returns at centre-forward for tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final clash against Limerick.

ALL-IRELAND SFC ROUND 2A:

Galway footballers have suffered a massive blow with the news that Michael Meehan will not feature in this year’s championship.

Ballyhale Shamrocks 1-17 O’Loughlin Gaels 2-10

A dog-fight was what Kilmallock manager Tony Considine expected, a dog-fight was what he got.

BALLYHALE Shamrocks qualified for the Kilkenny SHC final yesterday with a hugely impressive win over last year’s champions O’Loughlin Gaels.

THERE were several shocks around the country yesterday but perhaps the biggest was in Limerick where Na Piarsaigh claimed their first county title with a 2-18 to 0-13 win over Ahane at the Gaelic Grounds.

THE Kilkenny senior hurling league final, which will be played two weeks after the All-Ireland final, will be contested by champions Ballyhale Shamrocks and old city foes James Stephens.

IT WAS a bad weekend for the 2010 county finalists as both O’Loughlin Gaels and Carrickshock suffered defeat in the fourth round of the Kilkenny senior hurling league.

AJ LEIBLING was right, all those years ago: there is still a kick in style and tradition carries a nasty wallop.

BEATEN All-Ireland finalists O’Loughlin-Gaels are the only team with a 100% record in the two groups of the Kilkenny Senior League after three rounds.

NO time for self-pity for O’Loughlin Gaels defender Brian Hogan in the wake of the St Patrick’s Day All-Ireland Club senior hurling final loss.

CAN you imagine the following two things happening within five days of one another — Kilkenny being ahead in a National League game by nine points and losing by four; their senior hurling club champions, O’Loughlin Gaels, being up by five points with only a few minutes to go in the first half of an All-Ireland final, and losing by 12?

GOALS win matches, that’s what they say,” said Loughgiel’s magnificent centre-back Johnny Campbell after this hard-fought All-Ireland club SHC semi-final in Parnell Park on Saturday afternoon.

O’Loughlin Gaels 3-10 Loughgiel 0-10

O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) 0-14 Oulart-The-Ballagh (Wexford) 1-8

KILKENNY champions, O’Loughlin-Gaels saved themselves from the grave with only seconds remaining in normal time and then made Ballyboden St Enda’s (Dublin) pay the ultimate price when they scored a daring win in this thrilling Leinster Club SFC semi-final in Nowlan Park yesterday.

Ballyhale Shamrocks, the All-Ireland club hurling champions and five in-a-row championship chasers in Kilkenny, got a sharp reminder of how difficult life will be without Henry Shefflin when they crashed to defeat against great rivals James Stephens in the SHL final.

LEADING Kilkenny GAA figures last night rallied around crestfallen star Henry Shefflin and insisted he will return to full fitness from a fresh cruciate injury blow.

THE 2010 instalment of hurling’s Féile na nGael festival takes place in Clare this weekend with hurling, camogie and handball teams from the 32 counties and the UK taking part.

RUGBY’S AIB All-Ireland League Division Two final has been slated as “meaningless” by a Ballynahinch official who has also voiced his disgust at the decision to play the league decider on Saturday in Limerick.

Young Irelands 1-18 Tullaroan 1-9

ANYONE who saw the current Newtownshandrum side in its infancy in the early 1990’s, when they were accumulating North Cork and county underage titles with consummate ease, knew for certain that this was a side destined for greatness.

FOUR days on from the drawn game, both Newtownshandrum and O’Loughlin Gaels will have gone over the tapes of last Sunday’s All-Ireland club hurling semi-final in Thurles in the most minute detail.

O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) 0-19 Newtownshandrum (Cork) 1-16

GIVEN that it was a Kilkenny-man, Dermot Healy, who led Offaly from the hurling wilderness to All-Ireland glory in 1981, it is only fitting that one of the leading members of that side should now be giving something back, down Noreside.

ALL-IRELAND champions Kilkenny hit trouble at the double last night when the local senior hurling league semi-finals were played.

Kilkenny hurling manager Brian Cody has handed a championship debut to Sean Dowling, as the Cats prepare for the Leinster final showdown with Wexford at Croke Park on Sunday.