Newtownshandrum 2-27 Ballymartle 2-23 (after extra time)

Huge relief for Newtownshandrum at Kilworth on Saturday, heartache though for Killeagh, their Trojan effort to cause a huge Cork SHC upset thwarted in extra-time by two cracking Cathal Naughton goals, leaving them with a tricky backdoor clash with Cloyne.

Huge relief for Newtownshandrum at Kilworth on Saturday, heartache though for Killeagh, their Trojan effort to cause a huge Cork SHC upset thwarted in extra-time by two cracking Cathal Naughton goals, leaving them with a tricky backdoor clash with Cloyne.

WHEN Cork IT GAA officer Keith Ricken went searching 12 months ago for a coach for their Fitzgibbon Cup team, Pat Mulcahy ticked all the boxes.

Cork IT 1-16 Bride Rovers 2-10

ANOTHER stirring Newtownshandrum victory at balmy Fermoy on Saturday, simply business a usual, as the Avondhu kingpins eased past Killeagh to book a place in the next round of the Cork SHC.

UL and Limerick IT have ensured that tomorrow's Ulster Bank Fitzgibbon Cup final will be an all-Limerick affair for the second time in seven years after the completion of today's semi-finals at Waterford IT.

UL captain Kieran Joyce is well aware that he is sipping in the last chance saloon at he heads to Waterford for this afternoon’s Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final action.

THEY may have been safely ensconced in the Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-finals before throw-in, but that did not impinge on Cork IT’s focus against Dublin IT yesterday.

A DRAMATIC late, late goal for Erin’s Own, Kieran ‘Hero’ Murphy – living up to his nickname with a superb ‘double’ on a long Killian Murphy centre – one minute into injury-time, was enough to deny reigning champions Newtownshandrum victory in this Cork SHC quarter-final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday.

A COMPREHENSIVE win for champions Newtownshandrum in this fourth-round Cork county senior hurling clash in front of a good crowd in Fermoy on Saturday evening.

THREE days after the county senior side had departed Páirc Uí Chaoimh with an emphatic championship victory, Cork’s U21 outfit replicated that effort at the same venue in last night’s Bord Gáis Energy Munster U21HC quarter-final against Waterford.

Tomorrow: All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final: Newtownshandrum (Cork) v Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny), Thurles, 2.30pm.

UNLESS you’re in a situation where the protagonists are regular winners of their own county titles, and thus meet thereafter on a fairly regular basis, trying to predict what’s going to happen in a provincial club final is pretty much an impossible business.

THOSE hurling pundits out there who see Sunday’s Munster Club SHC final at Semple Stadium between Newtownshandrum and Ballygunner as a bit of a foregone conclusion baffles the bejaysus out of Newtown manager Phil Noonan.

A SUPERB contest in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday as Limerick three-in-a-row champions Adare defied predictions and really put it up to heavy favourites Newtownshandrum in this Munster Club SHC semi-final.

CHRIS MORRISSEY was there back in the days when Newtownshandrum were fighting for respectability at junior level in North Cork.

ON A day when winter finally came to town, with cold driving rain under stormy darkening skies, two outstanding club sides nevertheless combined to give us a club hurling match of the uppermost quality in this, the opening round of the Munster Club SHC.

Newtownshandrum (Cork) 0-19 Thurles Sarsfields (Tipperary) 1-15

CORK 2-11 TIPPERARY 3-14

A HAT-TRICK of goals by Ryan Clifford powered Cork to an emphatic victory over Waterford in a disappointing ESB Munster MHC first round tie at sun-drenched Pairc Ui Chaoimh last night.

IT’S make-or-break time for the eight teams left in the Credit Union Harty Cup quarter-finals today.

Rathluirc CBS 3-8 Doon CBS 2-6

Charleville CBS 3-10 De La Salle, Waterford 2-9