Another week rolls around, it’s Monday morning, so let’s take a look at the headlines of the day for KCLR and Scoreline.ie.
Weekend recap
Beginning with Gaelic games and it turned out to be quite the weekend of live sport for our team here at KCLR. With no fewer than five live games on Saturday, we saw Kilkenny bow out of the minor All-Ireland hurling series at the semi-final stages against Munster champions Clare who will now face Galway in this year’s decider.
In a repeat of 2019’s closer, Carlow and Kilkenny met in the Leinster intermediate camogie final at the SETU main campus, Kilkenny adding a third provincial title since 2015 with 11 points to spare over Carlow at the end. The senior footballers were out of luck too, falling to a 1-19 to 0-14 defeat to Limerick in round 2 of the Tailteann Cup. With Longford taking a 3-17 to 2-9 win over Wicklow, Carlow drop to third in the group standings meaning they’ll need to beat Longford in two weeks’ time in order to progress to the knockout stages. Anything less and it’s all over until next spring.
Speaking to KCLR, Carlow senior manager Niall Carew was quite pragmatic in defeat. Hear his interview during this week’s edition of the Scoreline Extra podcast, out now. Niall can be heard from the 1 hour 44 minute mark.
We were in the Aviva too as Leinster blew an early lead to fall to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle for the second time in consecutive finals, the French side running out 27-26 winners. And in the last game of the weekend, Kilkenny found a good test early on in Dublin in round 4 of the Leinster senior hurling championship but ultimately had too much in the tank to finish 0-27 to 0-21 winners. They’ll head to Wexford on Sunday knowing avoiding defeat is enough to punch a ticket to Croke Park next month. Get senior manager Derek Lyng’s reaction on Scoreline Extra too from the 23 minute mark.
Championship Hurling
Sunday produced some cracking games though, a thriller in Thurles, a shock in Mullingar and business as usual in Salthill. Galway scored 5-29 from 50 shots, seeing off Antrim with relative ease. The goals should be concerning for Kilkenny should they end up in the Leinster final against each other. While the Cats hit the same against Antrim when they met at the start of the month, opportunities have been few and far between
Wexford are in trouble. With a half hour on the clock, they were 2-14 to 0-3 ahead, 17 points of a gap, and they lost. Two late goals from Niall Mitchell off the bench mean that Wexford will be going all out to stop Kilkenny in their tracks next week or they risk relegation to the Joe McDonagh Cup which could spell a long way back for Derek Egan’s side. A trip to Wexford Park is never easy though and Kilkenny will do well to come away with maximum points. Either way, the Cats have a place in the All-Ireland series assured.
Limerick and Tipperary turned out to be a wild affair – Barry Nash sent off, Tom Morrissey with the go-ahead point in injury time but for Tipp to rescue the draw at the death, that one finishing 0-25 apiece. Clare and Cork was equally as enthralling, neck and neck down the stretch and deep into injury time but for Diarmuid Ryan, with 10 seconds to go, to hit one from downtown and send Clare to the Munster final.
If Tipperary beat Waterford next weekend, they head to the final against Clare and it’s up to Cork and Limerick to battle it out for third place with the loser bowing out of the All-Ireland series.
Camogie League Finals
In Carlow, Naomh Brid are this year’s senior league champions thanks to a win last night over St. Mullins in last night’s final. Burren Rangers have taken this year’s junior league title too with a 3-10 to 2-7 win over Mount Leinster Rangers.
The KCLR Cumann na mBunscoil finals in Kilkenny take place this week with the Roinn A through D deciders scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Young Ireland’s grounds in Gowran. The Roinn E meeting between Danesfort and Bennettsbridge takes place this evening at 6.30pm in Danesfort.
Soccer roundup
Locally, Kilkenny & District League took a 3-2 win over Kildare in the FAI Women’s Interleague yesterday while Freebooters grabbed a 3-2 win over Evergreen A in the quarter-finals of the Mock Lawlor Premier Cup. ‘Booters will play Callan United on Wednesday week in the semi-finals, the winner going on to face Bridge United in the final on June 4th.
In the Seanie O’Connor Memorial Shield, it’s going to be Castlewarren Celtic and Tullaroan in this year’s final. Castlewarren had a 6-0 win over Stoneyford United while Tullaroan ran out 5-2 winners over River Rangers A in yesterday’s semi-finals. The Jim Maher Memorial Final for Division 3 was the last game of the day yesterday, Newpark stopping Evergreen 46 in their tracks to take the cup.
There’s also been a change of time for this weekend’s KCLR McCalmont Cup. Originally fixed for 2pm, given Kilkenny are playing Wexford in the last leg of the Leinster senior hurling championship at the same time, kick-off is now set for 3.30pm at Derdimus Park.
Man City are Premier League champions. With Arsenal losing to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, City were named champions with two games to play, going on to beat Chelsea 1-0 yesterday at home and lift the trophy for the fifth time in six seasons. Forest’s win also means they’re safe for another season leaving the final two relegation places up for grabs with Everton, Leeds and Leicester all fighting to avoid the drop. Leicester take on Newcastle tonight knowing a win would lift them to 17th by virtue of a better goal difference than Everton.
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