A powerful display from TJ Reid helped Ballyhale Shamrocks end Dicksboro’s reign as Kilkenny senior hurling champions.

Henry Shefflin enjoyed a winning start to life in management as Ballyhale Shamrocks blitzed their way to the points in the Kilkenny senior hurling league.

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 1-18 v Kilmallock (Limerick) 1-18:

Ballyshale Shamrocks(Kilkenny)v Kilmallock(Limerick):

AIB All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final: Gort (Galway) 1-15 Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 2-17

Henry Shefflin rolled back the years with a vintage display as Ballyhale Shamrocks sealed a place in the AIB All-Ireland senior club hurling final this afternoon.

Ballyhale Shamrocks 0-21 Kilcormac-Killoughey 1-14 (AET)

Oulart-Ballagh 1-11 Ballyhale Shamrocks 1-10

Ballyhale Shamrocks 0-16 Dicksboro 0-12

Thurles will face Waterford champions De La Salle in the provincial decider on Sunday, November 25.

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

JAMES STEPHENS collected the Kilkenny SHC title at a damp Nowlan Park yesterday, where 8,742 spectators saw an entertaining replay after last week’s draw disputed by two fully committed sides – sometimes too committed, as evidenced by the second-half sendings off of Jackie Tyrrell, captain of the new champions, and Ballyhale’s Colin Fennelly.

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.

JACKIE TYRRELL is too honest to dress up James Stephens’ performance in the Kilkenny SHC semi-final.

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

BALLYHALE Shamrocks had to give free expression to all their multiple talents when beating neighbours and fierce rivals, Carrickshock, in the replay of the Kilkenny SHC quarter-final in Nowlan Park yesterday.

ST MARTIN’S (Muckalee) and James Stephens eased into the Kilkenny SHC semi-finals yesterday, but league kings and championship favourites Ballyhale Shamrocks and neighbours and fierce rivals Carrickshock must meet again after a thrilling draw.

FIVE turned out to be an unlucky number in Kilkenny again as reigning champions Ballyhale Shamrocks were dumped out of the championship courtesy of a late goal by Niall McEvoy in a thrilling second semi-final at Nowlan Park yesterday.

HOW good must it feel in the skin of Henry Shefflin these days? Forget, for a moment, all the honours won, the nine All-Star awards, seven All-Ireland senior inter-county medals, five National Hurling Leagues, three Railway Cups, two All-Ireland club senior titles, twice named hurler of the year (on the treble – Vodafone, GPA and Texaco), and Sports Person Of The Year In 2006.

WHATEVER about the quality of the match – and it wasn’t the classic generally forecast – let no-one be in any doubt about the quality of this Ballyhale Shamrocks team, nor their right today to call themselves the best hurling club in Ireland.

Young forward TJ Reid will have his appointment as Kilkenny's new captain ratified next week, following his nomination by county and provincial champions Ballyhale Shamrocks.

ANOTHER Leinster final, another trophy for Kilkenny.

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 1-16 Tullamore (Offaly) 1-8

Ballyhale Shamrocks 4-18 Ballyboden St Enda's 0-18

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 2-20 Oulart-the-Ballagh (Wexford) 1-21, Wexford Park (aet)

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

Ballyhale Shamrocks 1-14 James Stephens 1-11

EVEN as Kilkenny completed their four-in-a-row All-Ireland SHC success last month, another Kilkenny team was preparing to do the same thing, albeit on a different level.

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.

THE all-conquering Portumna hurlers could be back in action for Galway as early as next Sunday when John McIntyre’s men take on Limerick badly in need of league points.

Portumna 5-11 Ballyhale Shamrocks 1-16, Semple Stadium

WHATEVER about the holders ‘leaving it behind them’, as manager Pat Joe Whelahan suggested afterwards, the relative ease with which Ballyhale Shamrocks built up an eight points lead in the first-half undoubtedly inspired their sixth AIB Leinster Club hurling title win in Nowlan Park yesterday.

BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS (Kilkenny) 2-13 BIRR (Offaly) 1-11, Nowlan Park

Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) 1-18 Rathdowney/Errill (Laois) 1-11, Nowlan Park

Club senior hurling titles in Kilkenny, Clare, Meath, Kildare, Mayo, Wicklow and London were up for grabs this afternoon, with Ballyhale Shamrocks amongst those tasting victory as they captured their third successive Kilkenny crown.

IT’S funny how the wheel turns. On St Patrick’s Day 2005, James Stephens were Kilkenny, Leinster and All-Ireland club senior hurling champions.

FIVE minutes into the second-half of the second Kilkenny SHC semi-final in yesterday’s double-header at Nowlan Park, it looked like a shock (pardon the pun) was on the cards as Carrickshock took a surprise if well-merited one-point lead.

Excitement is nearing fever pitch in Waterford ahead of Sunday’s crunch clash with the Cats and many workplaces will be eerily quiet on Monday with most fans taking the day off — win or lose, writes Conor Kane.

Kilkenny 1-10 Tipperary 1-15

Waterford IT 1-29 Limerick IT 1-24, Cork IT (after two periods of extra-time)