Ballyhale and Clara shoot-out

Ballyhale Shamrocks secured their place in an eighth Kilkenny senior hurling decider in 10 years (against reigning champions Clara) with a routine 1-19 to 0-14 victory over St Martin’s at a sunblessed Nowlan Park yesterday.

Andy Moloney’s side were more or less unbackable favourites approaching the first of the day’s semis, thanks in no small part to their evisceration of a decent Danesfort side in the last eight in which they put up a score of 5-23.

Those figures certainly seemed to inform this game, with Martin’s manager Charlie Carter sending out a side designed to contain Ballyhale’s fearsome forward line — one boasting five inter-county All-Ireland winners — but the policy of containment only worked for so long.