Down and Wicklow booked Christy Ring Cup semi-final berths, while Derry and London, and Meath and Kildare will contest quarter-final ties next weekend.

Kerry secured their place in Allianz Hurling League Division 2A after this victory at Fitzgerald Stadium yesterday.

TEAGASC food researcher Eimear Gallagher will discuss ways of adding value to grain at the Teagasc National Tillage Crops Forum will take place in the Keadeen Hotel, Newbridge, Co Kildare, on Wednesday next, September 7.

Down 1-14 Antrim 5-08

Down 4-24 Armagh 0-9

Antrim 3-20 Down 4-15, Casement Park

Down 2-17 Derry 1-15

DRINKS giant Diageo has rejected a claim by farmers that just one cent for every pint of Guinness sold in Ireland goes back to barley growers.

IN theory, as Antrim would be hotly favoured to beat Derry, Down should win this Ulster SHC semi-final, but Jim McKernan, the former Saffrons player and manager, now in charge of the Mourne-men, preaches caution.

Down manager Gerard Coulter has been forced to make two changes to his side for Sunday's NHL Division 1A encounter with Offaly (Birr, throw-in 2.30pm).

Farmers today credited good weather for the 9% increase in cereal production over the last two years.

THERE’S a new Big Six in the grain market, after the Irish Competition Authority’s successful court case against half a dozen farmers, following an investigation into the IFA’s alleged “cartel” activities.