Murphy brothers sparkle

THE Murphy tide is on the rise again as brothers David and Aidan Murphy gave five-star displays in the Munster Senior Championship at the weekend.

Aidan overwhelmed last year’s beaten finalist James O’Donovan at Ballygurteen to secure the first semi-final place of 2011. David was equally convincing in the three-way play-off in Pool D at Rylane, where he beat Pat Butler by almost a bowl.

That results puts Murphy and Butler into the hat tonight at the National Executive to decide the last two quarter-final pairings. One will face reigning champion Martin Coppinger and the other will be against Christy Mullins. Edmund Sexton gained a quarter-final meeting with Eamon Bowen Jnr following his comfortable win over James Buckley at Clondrohid.