It’s probably a good thing that new Dublin hurling boss Pat Gilroy was in Boston and missed county champions Cuala’s latest outing.

Ballyhale Shamrocks showed a never-say-die spirit to fight their way to a share of the points against Danesfort in the Kilkenny senior hurling league on Saturday.

Wexford 1-20 Antrim 1-8: Wexford have developed immunity to Kevin Ryan’s mind games.

Thurles CBS 0-18 St Peter’s College 1-12:

Waterford delegates are set to support the one-on-one penalty motion put forward by the Hurling 2020 committee at GAA Congress in Cavan later this month.

Blonde attacker Diarmuid O’Keeffe kicked a stunning additional time point to hand St Anne’s the narrowest of victories, 2-12 to 2-11, over reigning champions St Martin’s in this Group A Wexford SFC game at Taghmon.

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

Kilkenny, who play Offaly in the Leinster SHC at Nowlan Park tomorrow (7pm), have made three changes from the league final win over Tipperary.

Approximately half of all Allianz League games in hurling and football operate at a loss, it has been revealed.

Newly appointed Wexford minor hurling boss Larry Coleman says he will adhere to the training guidelines broken by predecessor Eddie Walsh booted out before Christmas.

There are just four survivors from last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Dublin in the Kerry side to face IT Tralee in the McGrath Cup tomorrow.

St Martin’s 1-08 Fethard 0-05

All-Ireland intermediate club champions Clara have marked their return to the Kilkenny senior hurling grade in spectacular fashion by winning the league.

Wexford manager Liam Dunne has left dual star Lee Chin out of his side for Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC qualifier Phase 3 clash with Clare in Thurles on Saturday (5pm).

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte will give debuts to three players in tomorrow’s All-Ireland SFC qualifier clash with Offaly in O’Connor Park in Tullamore (3pm).

Kilkenny received a massive boost over the weekend with news that TJ Reid is ready to resume his inter-county career.

It was coming.

Carrickshock, captained by Offaly star, David Franks, claimed their first major title at senior hurling level in Kilkenny since their championship glory of 1951 when they won the senior league final at Nowlan Park yesterday.

Henry Shefflin has expressed delight at his return to competitive hurling but insists he would be “foolish to start thinking that I’m grand and ready to go back playing with Kilkenny”.

TODAY

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.

EDDIE BRENNAN has been recalled to the Kilkenny team for tomorrow’s All-Ireland final, with TJ Reid losing out.

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.

FÉILE 2011 began with a bang yesterday as young footballers from around the country strutted their stuff at a host of venues in county Cork.

CORK produced possibly the most complete performance of the season so far when they blitzed previously unbeaten Galway 2-14 to 0-8 in the All-Ireland senior camogie championship third round at Salthill.

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.

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.

THEY may have been impossible to separate last Sunday, but Cork and Kerry have enjoyed very different fortunes this week with Jack O’Connor forced to delay naming his starting 15 until hours before Sunday’s game.

FOR most counties, an All-Ireland final involvement enhances public interest in the domestic championships and it will be no different in Nowlan Park when the Kilkenny hurling semi-finals are decided tomorrow.

IT was 1984, centenary year of the GAA, and in Kilkenny, the land where hurling is the major religion, Ballyhale Shamrocks reigned supreme. Just once in the previous six years (1981), was their authority broken, beaten by The Village, the legendary James Stephens club in the city.

IN the South-East, they live and die by the championship sword. Wexford hurling and the National League have never been comfortable bedfellows, as evidenced by the lack of a league title since 1973.