NO matter who wins this game tomorrow a new name will be etched on the Billy O’Neill Cup, one dream still running, another dashed.

THIS was a day that highlighted the beauty of the club championship.

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.

CHAMPIONS Crusheen booked a date against Sixmilebridge in the Clare SHC final following an impressive semi-final display at Cusack Park, Ennis yesterday.

REIGNING champions Crusheen came from behind in the second-half to steal a win, 3-10 to 1-11, from Newmarket-on-Fergus in the group stages of the SHC at Cusack Park, Ennis on Saturday.

MICHAEL BROWNE knows plenty about bringing teams to the Promised Land.

CRUSHEEN made history yesterday in Cusack Park, collecting their first Clare SHC title at the expense of Cratloe, a late goal from Paddy Meaney finally killing off their opponents.

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.

CLARE’S All-Ireland U-21 winning manager John Minogue claims some of the gloss has been taken off a landmark season because of the bitter dispute that led to Mike McNamara’s resignation as senior boss.

THE GAA’s pleas to supporters to stay off the Croke Park pitch fell on deaf ears once again on Sunday after Clare’s emotional victory over Kilkenny in the All-Ireland U21 hurling final.

JOHN MINOGUE was in a hurry by the time he finally made it to the press centre.

WHEN the action drew to a close in Croke Park yesterday, the Big House reeked of sights and sounds from another era.

THE FIRST thing to say was how fantastic to see Plan B going up in lights at Croke Park again yesterday.

LONG before Joe Canning, John Fenton and other hurling artists acquired cult status for their skill in taking line balls, a certain Michael Moroney from Crusheen was an expert at it.

THERE have been three outstanding hurling games this year.

AMIDST all the hoopla in Clare hurling circles about tomorrow’s All-Ireland U21 final, the focus on the bigger picture cannot be lost.

AH, friends, after a match such as this – nay, after living, breathing life theatre such as this, pity us poor scribes!

LONG after the final whistle, Clare manager John Minogue was still struggling for words.

IT HAS been a year filled with shattering lows for Clare hurling, but last night in Fraher Field Dungarvan their fortunes enjoyed a soaring high.

TONIGHT it’s a Munster U21 hurling decider with a twist. The heavyweights of Cork and Tipperary are both marked absent ensuring the first final without either of the Old Firm in fifteen years. It promises to be a unique evening in Dungarvan.

IT’S twelve months since the puckout that prompted a raging storm from the Clare hurling fraternity, but Ciaran O’Doherty is in no mood to dwell on the past.

JAMESIE O’CONNOR bids to complete his term as coach to St. Flannan’s senior hurling team by landing All-Ireland colleges glory on Monday.

HOLDERS Cork will field seven of the squad which trounced Limerick in last year’s provincial final in tomorrow night’s opening round of the ESB Munster Minor Hurling Championship at the Gaelic Grounds (6.30).

SO close they can almost touch it. Midleton face St Flannan’s at Ennis tomorrow in the Harty Cup final and want to end 11 years of waiting.

St Flannan’s 1-14 Waterford Colleges 0-10

ST. FLANNAN’S captain James McInerney is in line for a shock recall for today’s All-Ireland Colleges SHC A Final against St. Kieran’s in Thurles.

THE introduction of a back-door system sees the provincial losers of Leinster and Munster get a second chance of All-Ireland colleges hurling glory.