The scene is set in Fraher Park for the battle of the Ballyduffs

Ballyduff Players Celebrate after a sudden death penalty shootout against Clashmore/Kinsalebeg in the Waterford Western Intermediate hurling final in Fraher Field.Photo Sean Byrne

Same place names, same jersey colours, Ballyduff Upper and Lower will bring novelty to Sunday’s Waterford intermediate hurling final in Fraher Field.

One based 11 kilometres west of Lismore, the other 16km west of Waterford city, they are hardly neighbours but the perception couldn’t be more different.

“Often people have asked me if we are two halves of the one parish,” smiles Lower chairman and former county secretary John O’Leary. “We’re 50 miles away from each other yet there’d be people turning up here for weddings and funerals when they were supposed to be in Ballyduff Upper.”

Upper chairman John Barry adds: “It can be teams too. A couple of years ago, an U16 football team from the city ended up at our pitch 50 miles from where they were supposed to be. We were training at the time and I had to go and tell them they had got their Ballyduffs wrong.”

Lower were established a year after Upper but then Ballyduff Lower’s inaugural year was a special one. “We were formed in 1887 and as county senior football champions we went on to represent Waterford in the All-Ireland as was done at the time,” says O’Leary. “We also wore pale green and orange and we’ll wear something like that on Sunday (Upper are set to wear black).”

Incidentally, Ballyduff Lower received a walkover from Upper on their way to winning that championship, the final against Kilrossanty having to be replayed because of a controversy over the legitimacy of a converted 45 being counted the same as a point from play.

Sunday is the first final between the clubs since the intermediate clash of 1964 when the Upper hand belonged to the men from the Blackwater as they edged out the Lower side featuring Tom Cheasty. As the late, great John A Murphy reported on it: “The Lower Ballyduff threw everything they had into the fray and soon the winners’ citadel was literally under a hurling siege. But magnificently goalkeeper Jim Quirke and his six defenders faced up to the torrent of pressure.”

Both clubs have experienced resurgences in recent years. Upper still lean on the 2007 team that won the senior title but many of them experienced a surprise last month when Ballyduff Upper beat Ballyduff Upper.

As Barry explains: “All 35 lads between the junior and intermediate teams have been training together and before the championship started the juniors beat them - the juniors have their own county final on Friday night. The older fellas got a bit of a fright. Some might be considering their positions in January. At least the young fellas hope so.”

O’Leary remarks: “We had been on the slippery slope for a bit but we’re rejuvenating with young fellas. The timing of this couldn’t be better. It’s given people a lift. Every parish would want the same right now.”

Piquing the interest of the county, Murphy reported the gate receipts from the intermediate final 56 years ago amounted to a handsome £275 and 10 shillings. Sunday’s final, which will incidentally be streamed, will accrue nothing at the stiles but a bounty in history.