Bookies bank on Cats to take the cream

THE Cork hurlers might be travelling to Croke Park with confidence tomorrow but the bookies installed Kilkenny as red hot favourites last night.

With the Guinness All-Ireland hurling final just hours away, reigning champions Kilkenny had their odds cut to 1/2 while the Rebels are priced at 2/1.

Some 79,500 will file into Croker for this classic clash of two of hurling’s most successful counties.

Come 5pm tomorrow Cork will have made the glorious journey to All-Ireland victory from the inauspicious beginning of a players’ strike; or else Kilkenny will go down in the annals as the great team of modern times by retaining the Liam McCarthy cup.

Looking at the teams’ history they are almost evenly matched with Cork the holders of 28 titles compared to Kilkenny’s 27.

Cork’s slender lead in the history books comes from their toppling of Kilkenny on a rainy September day in 1999.

But Kilkenny legend and nine- time all-star DJ Carey said his team never want to experience those Croker blues again.

“It’s very difficult to learn from a defeat like that except that you don’t want it to happen again,” he said.

There is again a slight threat of rain for tomorrow’s game but the weather people are hoping for a mild dry day with light breezes.

The mad scramble for tickets is continuing in both counties with just over 26,000 allocated in Cork and Kilkenny.

Gardaí yesterday warned that they will be keeping a close eye out for ticket touts in the Croke Park area tomorrow.

However, GAA officials have insisted that their ticket allocation system makes it extremely difficult for touts to get their hands on them.

Stand tickets priced at 50 and terrace passes costing 25 are expected to change hands for over 300 prior to the final.

Demand for rail tickets are also at an all time high and Irish Rail will transport 17,000 passengers this weekend.

This includes 100 lucky passengers who will board the luxury train from at a cost E180 per person.

“Our advice to people taking the train is not to arrive at a rail station unless you have a pre-booked ticket,” an Irish Rail spokesperson said.