Ardscoil Rís and Midleton slug it out in thriller

Ardscoil Rís 1-15 Midleton CBS 2-12 (AET): The mercury reading on the entertainment barometer at Bansha, taking into account we’re but a week and a half into the New Year, was unusually high.

The biting cold weather was certainly in check with the calendar, but the quality of hurling and the manner in which either side picked themselves up off the canvas at various junctures in the 80 minutes was more in keeping with a knockout fixture at the height of summer, much less the second Wednesday in January.

On 11 occasions the sides were level and, all told, this was a quarter-final that neither deserved to lose.