Wexford manager ready for another three years of hard work in county.

Gerry Fitzpatrick has been one of Ireland’s leading, if unsung, sports operators for over four decades. From hoops to hurling, from training Henry and Mullane to watching Shaq in the flesh, he’s seen a lot, if not it all. Now, he’s playing his part in the Wexford hurling revival.

His father Dave was on the bench, his uncle Rod on the 40, and sure enough three-year-old Jack Guiney was in the stand that fateful September 1, 18 years ago.

Liam Dunne insisted that there was no panic in the Wexford ranks when Waterford came from seven points down to lead during the second half of this evening’s All-Ireland senior hurling championship qualifier at Nowlan Park.

Sometimes like in boxing there are matchups that the hurling public craves but doesn’t get.

ALL-IRELAND SHC ROUND 1 REPLAY:

You could hardly call the face-off between Westmeath and Kildare the £100 million game like they tend to call the English Championship play-off final in Wembley, but it’s actually hurling’s equivalent.

Liam Dunne didn’t want to make a huge issue of it — noting Diarmuid Kirwan performed decently — but he admitted the referee’s decision not to stop play for attention to Tomás Waters was damaging for Wexford.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will follow up his appearance at the Taste of Dublin festival by opening his own restaurant in the capital, it emerged yesterday.

Around 75 new jobs are to be created with the opening of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's first restaurant in Ireland, it has been announced.

LAST Saturday, in the magnificent Mallow GAA complex just outside the town, around 200 club coaches gathered for an all-day coaching seminar sponsored by the Munster Council.

KEVIN RYAN has sampled the big day atmosphere in Croke Park before with his native Waterford but today’s experience as he manages Carlow in the Christy Ring Cup final (4pm) will be far removed from that.

HE WAS in posh surroundings recently, was Waterford’s Dan Shanahan, in the lap of luxury as the Munster senior hurling championship was given an impressive and formal lift-off.

GERRY FITZPATRICK, Waterford’s hurling trainer for the past five years, has no doubt Davy Fitzgerald’s appointment was the catalyst for the team’s steady recovery of form.

WATERFORD star Dan Shanahan said yesterday he did not deliberately avoid former manager Justin McCarthy’s handshake as he was substituted against Clare two weeks ago.

Just five days after Justin McCarthy stepped down as Waterford senior hurling manager, former Clare goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald has been appointed to take over the Deise hurlers for the remainder of their championship campaign.

TWO teenagers who drowned in Dublin’s Grand Canal during a night out with friends were intoxicated with ecstasy and cocaine and had gone swimming to cool down, an inquest heard yesterday.

Business advisory firm Deloitte has said the reliance of the technology, media and telecoms

Denmark 86 (152) Ireland 70 (150)

CAL BOWDLER believes Ireland has what it takes to reach European basketball’s elite with victory in Denmark tomorrow.

Ireland’s Senior Men take on Denmark on Saturday in the final series of the play-offs for Division A.

Dublin-born NBA star Pat Burke helped Ireland's men team stay in the hunt for European championship qualification by top-scoring in tonight's 82-68 Division B win over the Slovak Republic.

Ireland’s senior men departed for Geneva yesterday in preparation for their European Championship encounter with Switzerland tomorrow night.

THE Irish men’s basketball team arrived in Geneva yesterday for their European championship clash with Switzerland, and while they were boosted by their big win over Malta in Dublin on Saturday, team manager Sean O’Reilly stressed that this was a whole new ball game against much stronger opposition.

Ireland’s basketball team will play Italy, Latvia and Lithuania, three of the top 10 teams in the world, as part of their preparation tournament for the 2005 European Championships.

Ireland’s men and women’s international basketball teams both suffered defeats today in their European Championship matches against Slovakia and Sweden respectively.

Following a winning start to their European Championship campaign against Malta last Saturday, Ireland’s men will take on the Swiss on Wednesday, September 15 at the ESB Basketball Arena, Dublin at 7.30pm.

ANYONE looking for a mission statement from Waterford’s hurlers had it moments after the Munster final on Sunday in Thurles from captain Ken McGrath.

LET’S get a misconception out of the way first. Nicky Cashin is not a Kilkenny native.

GLENEAGLE Lakers coach Mark Scannell has called on basketball authorities to explain the eligibility confusion over Dart Killester’s Keith Friel.

Mardyke UCC Demons 86 TTH Neptune 83

UNIVERSITY of Limerick go into the semi-finals of the ESB Women’s National Cup this evening as the red hot favourites to retain the title they won last year. Since then they have won just about everything and are already defending their SuperLeague title from the front

TRALEE coach Rus Bradburd had more on his mind than a Sunday drive to Cork when he took in last week’s ESB Cup victory for Mardyke UCC Demons over St. Vincent’s.

BALLINA caused the biggest upset in a sensational weekend’s basketball by dumping Dart Killester out of the ESB National Cup as the semi-finalists were decided.

The ESB Senior Men’s and Women’s National Cup, will be reduced to four semi-finalists after the weekend, with eight men’s and eight women’s teams to battle it out for a place in the coveted finals weekend.

MARDYKE UCC Demons salvaged some southern Superleague pride with a 22-point blitz of Hibernian UCD Marian (97-75), on a weekend when cross-conferences bragging rights went north.

FOLLOWING their demolition of Horan’s Health Foods Tigers in Tralee on Saturday night nobody wanted to draw Neptune in the quarter-finals of the ESB National Cup, but Waterford Crystal drew the short straw and must travel to Cork on the weekend of January 3-4.

DESPITE a 14-point victory over Neptune in the SuperLeague on Wednesday, Tigers Tralee coach Rus Bradburd is cautious ahead of tomorrow’s ESB National Cup re-match.

UNBEATEN at the top of the ESB SuperLeague table, Horan’s Healthstores Tigers’ next joust is against Mardyke UCC Demons who travel to the Tralee Sports Centre tomorrow night.

Table toppers, Horan’s Health Stores Tigers, face a tough assignment in their opening game in the ESB National Cup when they host the SuperLeague champions, Neptune, at the Tralee Sports Centre on the weekend of December 5-7.

DEFENDING champions Neptune and the reigning Cup champions, Mardyke UCC Demons, got their respective ESB Men’s SuperLeague campaigns off to the perfect start yesterday when Basketball Ireland introduced the new conference format under which this season’s competition will be decided.