Some of the greatest hurlers never to win an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship medal will have their contributions to the game acknowledged on All-Ireland finals day at Croke Park on Sunday week (September 8).

Limerick manager John Allen has selected an unchanged team for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final showdown with Clare at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).

Limerick 1-18 Tipperary 1-15

Cork IT 2-14 Erin’s Own 1-13

CIT 1-26 St Finbarr’s 1-12

Last year’s defeated Cork County SHC finalists CIT advanced to the fourth round of this year’s competition as they saw off Carbery at Páirc Uí Rinn last night.

Limerick 6-21 Laois 1-11

Cork IT’s powerful second-half start laid the foundations for victory over Imokilly in round three of the divisions and colleges section of the Cork SHC at Riverstown last night.

Joe Canning led the way as a youthful Galway side edged out Limerick in a senior hurling challenge match at Athenry on Saturday evening.

Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald and his Limerick counterpart John Allen had a hot little ‘tete-a-tete’ on the sidelines of this Allianz Hurling League Division 1B final at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening.

I’VE been saying in recent weeks that this league was almost a non-contact sport but that all changed in the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night.

Limerick 1-16 Clare 0-21

There was drama at the end of this high-scoring Allianz Hurling League game in the floodlit Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening with Shane Dooley converting a controversial late penalty to secure a share of spoils for Offaly.

Last year they had nine points to spare in their Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final triumph over Dublin IT and yesterday Cork IT replicated that commanding performance at the same stage against NUIG in Bishopstown.

Cork IT served notice they’ll challenge strongly for Fitzgibbon Cup honours by outclassing a strong UCD outfit in a high quality game at Belfield last night.

They were a subdued force in the first-half and trailed by five at the interval yet Cork IT produced a dynamic second-half display to claim a critical victory over Waterford IT in Group A of the Fitzgibbon Cup at their grounds in Bishopstown last night.

THE end of the dream for gallant Effin in Birr yesterday in this entertaining All-Ireland club intermediate hurling-final.

“ALL for one and one for all,” the motto coined by Alexandre Dumas for his fictional Three Musketeers; it could instead have been coined for the very real hurling warriors of Effin.

THE hurlers of Effin have come a very long way in a very short time. Last year the small rural Limerick outfit claimed their first adult county title with junior hurling championship success.

LORCAN McLOUGHLIN has grown accustomed at this time of the season to easing himself back into another third-level hurling campaign with Cork IT.

REACHING your first county senior hurling final is a day to cherish and Cork IT did that in style in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.

Cork IT 1-16 Bride Rovers 2-10

FOLLOWING the success of the minors on Sunday, Clare capture their second Munster hurling title in three days when their intermediate side captured a first provincial crown at Cusack Park in Ennis last night.

LIMERICK will contest the Munster IHC final on July 6 against either Cork or Clare after beating Waterford in yesterday’s semi-final in Semple Stadium.

Some of the most promising footballers and hurlers in the country will be honoured at the Ulster Bank Rising Stars awards ceremony at the bank's headquarters in Dublin tonight.

2010 was a year to forget for Limerick hurling, the county convulsed by the controversy that saw its senior hurling team drastically diminished by cuts and withdrawals.

THEY have neither the high profile nor the heavy-hitting personnel of the big guns, but CIT maintained their interest in the Fitzgibbon Cup with a narrow quarter-final win at their impressive Bishopstown complex yesterday.

Cork IT 2-12 NUI Galway0-17

Cork needed extra-time to knock UCC out of this season's Waterford Crystal Cup, with a penalty from goalkeeper Anthony Nash handing the Rebels a 3-17 to 1-22 quarter-final win.

“IT’S not enjoyment, it’s relief!”

LIMERICK’S former All Star goalkeeper Joe Quaid has accused county board officials of “burying their heads in the sand” as the hurling crisis that has gripped the county shows no signs of resolution.

IT might have been a little too close for comfort at the finish, but nothing could detract from Na Piarsaigh’s achievement in winning through to their first Live95fm Limerick Senior Hurling Championship final at the fourth attempt in the Gaelic Grounds yesterday.

THERE’S a book going to hit your shelves in a few weeks’ time, ‘Unlimited Heartbreak’, by Henry Martin — it should be made compulsory reading for every Limerick hurling supporter.

When it comes to hurling, tears, near misses and misfortune have become a way of life for Limerick — a tragic story now chronicled in a new book, writes Michael Moynihan.

AN ELDERLY Co Limerick priest did not perish in an arson attack early yesterday because he was afraid to stay overnight in his parochial residence after a previous night of terror.

JOE Canning’s cracking penalty nine days ago in Thurles against Cork set us to considering a basic argument: who has the hardest shot in hurling?

Goalkeepers are a rare breed, hurling No 1’s especially. Diarmuid O’Flynn met two legendary netminders from Cork and Tipperary ahead of tomorrow’s provincial semi final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

IT’S hard to believe that a decade has passed since the death, in a construction accident, of Limerick hurling great Tommy Quaid.

HOLDERS Cork will field seven of the squad which trounced Limerick in last year’s provincial final in tomorrow night’s opening round of the ESB Munster Minor Hurling Championship at the Gaelic Grounds (6.30).

A GARDA was last night hailed a hero after he saved the life of a 79-year-old man trapped in a house fire.