Kildare 1-12 Longford 0-12

Diarmuid Murtagh was the hero for champions Roscommon as they booked a place in the Connacht minor football championship final.

IT’S taken four attempts in the last seven years, but Wexford champions Oulart-The Ballagh have finally turned over a Kilkenny team in the Leinster Club senior hurling championship.

ALL SQUARE at Nowlan Park yesterday, with 6,974 spectators seeing favourites Ballyhale Shamrocks level the Kilkenny SHC final deep in injury-time, depriving underdogs James Stephens a famous victory.

TWO late goals gave James Stephens a flattering victory margin in yesterday’s Kilkenny SHC semi-final, the city club ending with a nine-point win over St. Martin’s after an entertaining battle which could have gone either way until Eoin Larkin’s crucial 57th-minute strike.

THE first Ironman event to be held in Ireland is expected to be worth €25m to Galway’s economy over five years, organisers claimed 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.

THE Kilkenny SHC final certainly didn’t live up to its top billing before 8,000 spectators at Nowlan Park yesterday.

IT hasn’t been a great year so far for county senior hurling finals, one-sided editions in several marquee hurling counties, with Newtownshandrum (Cork), Thurles Sarsfields (Tipperary), Adare (Limerick) all crowned champions without ever really being tested.

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.

All-Ireland champions and four-in-a-row Walsh Cup chasers Kilkenny were sensationally knocked out of the 2008 Walsh Cup today as they went down to a 2-15 to 1-17 defeat to Antrim.

Kilkenny will begin their 2007 championship campaign without the services of Richie Power as the Carrickshock clubman is currently nursing a hamstring injury.

Kilkenny 1-19 Galway 0-18

Kilkenny chalked up their second NHL win in the space of a week as they overcame a plucky Antrim side at Ballycastle.

Kilkenny 2-17 Limerick 0-12

Kilkenny 2-13 Tipperary 3-13

Wexford 0-10 Kilkenny 1-13

JJ Delaney will make his first competitive appearance for Kilkenny since last August when the Cats take on Dublin in the National Hurling League tomorrow (Parnell Park, throw-in 2.30pm).

Henry Shefflin guided Kilkenny to a 2-21 to 1-16 win and another All-Ireland SHC final appearance as his personal tally of 1-13 left Clare crestfallen at Croke Park this afternoon.

Team captain Jackie Tyrell has been recalled to the Kilkenny side for tomorrow's All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Clare (Croke Park, throw-in 4pm).

NATIONAL LEAGUE champions Kilkenny have made wholesale changes on their team to play Galway in the All Ireland Hurling quarter-final in Thurles on Saturday.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has wielded the axe for Saturday's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Galway, dropping his own son Donnacha and team captain Jackie Tyrell (Semple Stadium, throw-in 6pm).

IT’S not often you see a manager smiling after his team has just been beaten by more than double scores, but that was the case in Mullingar on Saturday evening.

Westmeath 1-09 Kilkenny 1-23

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has been forced to make three changes to his side for tomorrow evening's Leinster SHC semi-final against Westmeath at Cusack Park (throw-in 7.00pm).

DARREN O’SULLIVAN, the 20-year-old whiz kid from Glenbeigh, will make his provincial senior championship debut when Kerry take on Tipperary in the Bank of Ireland Munster SFC semi-final at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney on Sunday.

Noel Hickey and Henry Shefflin have both been included in the Kilkenny team for tomorrow's (Sunday's) NHL Division One semi-final clash with Tipperary (Semple Stadium, throw-in 3.15pm).

Team captain Jackie Tyrrell has recovered from a hand injury to take his place in the Kilkenny side for tomorrow's NHL Division 1B showdown with Galway (Pearse Stadium, throw-in 3.30pm).

THE Galway hurling management have no intention at this stage of calling teenage prodigy Joe Canning into their squad, despite the perceived benefit to the team’s coring potential.

County champions James Stephens have nominated Jackie Tyrrell as captain of the Kilkenny senior hurlers for the 2006 season.

DEFENDING champions Kilkenny will have their James Stephens contingent of Eoin Larkin, Jackie Tyrell, Donncha Cody and Eoin McCormack available when they travel to Semple Stadium, Thurles on Sunday.

MULLINGAR clubmates Martin Fagan and Mark Christie could be reunited on the Irish cross-country team for the first time since 2001 when the squad for next month’s SPAR European Cross-Country Championships in Tilburg is announced.

James Stephens 1-18 Ballyhale Shamrocks 2-12

AFTER years playing down Kilkenny’s famed strength in depth, Brian Cody freely admits it could be put to the test in Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Limerick.

Kilkenny 0-22 Wexford 1-16

Brian Cody's Kilkenny have reclaimed the Leinster SHC title - beating holders Wexford in an action-packed final played out in front of 35,010 spectators at Croke Park.

Kilkenny 6-28 Offaly 0-15

The Cats demolished Dublin in this one-sided National Hurling League Division 1A encounter at Parnell Park today

TIPPERARY have named an unchanged team for Sunday’s National Hurling League clash with Cork at Semple Stadium, but the All-Ireland champions have made several changes from the side that defeated Down last weekend.

IT’S the calm before the storm.

James Stephens 0-19, Athenry 0-14

Athenry 0-14 James Stephens 0-19

An injury-time point from Eoin McCormack has given Leinster champions James Stephens a slender one-point lead in today's AIB All-Ireland Senior Club hurling final at Croke Park.

ATHENRY are anxiously awaiting the referee’s report into the dismissal of full back Diarmuid Cloonan in the All-Ireland club hurling semi-final victory over Toomevara.