YOU thought conditions at the Clare senior hurling final were bad on Sunday last?

IT won’t bother Crusheen today, their title retained, but the question has to be asked: should this Clare SHC final have been allowed go ahead?

WHEN Sixmilebridge overcame Cratloe in the Clare senior hurling semi-final, the focus fell on veteran keeper Davy Fitzgerald who, despite being out of the game for a number of years, answered an emergency call and showed he had lost little of the nerve and catlike reactions that had seen him win two All-Irelands with Clare in the mid-90s.

LAST year’s beaten finalists Waterford held off a spirited Clare fightback to book their place in the Munster intermediate hurling championship final on July 22.

CHAMPIONS Clare scored a notable early season victory with a hard-fought two-point win over Tipperary in the Waterford Crystal Trophy under lights in Borrisoleigh last night.

A useful exercise for new Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin in this first round Waterford Crystal senior hurling tournament in magnificent Meelick yesterday afternoon, as his charges chiselled out a gritty three-point win over WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology).

PATRICK CRONIN is set to miss Cork’s entire National Hurling League campaign after suffering a serious knee injury. Cronin will be out of action for a minimum period of three months but it is hoped he may be able to make a return before Cork’s Munster SHC opener against Tipperary in Páirc Ui Chaoimh on May 31.

Frank Lohan has been selected as captain of the Clare senior hurling team for 2007.