Not even extra time could separate Clare and Wexford as the sides played out a thrilling draw in Cusack Park.

Just over three months ago the Clare senior hurling management team started the new season with one aim: to create problems for themselves.

Compliments today to those who prepared Cusack Park for yesterday’s game — I don’t know how it was done but on Friday, even on Saturday, I couldn’t see how this game could be played.

Clare 1-16 Kilkenny 0-18

CLARE

Last September Pat O’Connor lined out with 14 Clare team-mates in a thrilling All-Ireland SHC final replay to claim an unlikely fifth championship title in the county’s long history.

Clare 1-14 Limerick 0-11

“Centre stage ...

In the well-produced programme for the recent Clare county senior hurling final the date of birth for Niall Gilligan was given as 12/8/1986.

Sixmilebridge 1-10 Newmarket-on-Fergus 0-11

Sixmilebridge 1-11 Clonlara 0-11

WHEN Sixmilebridge overcame Cratloe in the Clare senior hurling semi-final, the focus fell on veteran keeper Davy Fitzgerald who, despite being out of the game for a number of years, answered an emergency call and showed he had lost little of the nerve and catlike reactions that had seen him win two All-Irelands with Clare in the mid-90s.

A LAST-MINUTE point from midfielder Tony Kelly, and Clare minor hurlers got their season well and truly back on track last night, a close but well-deserved win over Tipperary in Cusack Park qualifying them for a Munster championship semi-final meeting against Limerick on June 24.