It’s another sun-soaked start to the day across Kilkenny and Carlow, so let’s see what’s stirring on the sporting front for KCLR and Scoreline.ie today.
Beginning with Gaelic games and while it was a busy bank holiday weekend, it’s shaping up to be even busier this coming weekend for Kilkenny and Carlow county sides.
Getting you up to speed, Carlow’s late win in the Tailteann Cup over Longford on Sunday afternoon means that they’ve been given a home preliminary quarter-final tie against New York this coming Saturday which will draw a crowd. It will be the first-ever championship meeting between Carlow and New York and a game Kilkenny football fans might take an interest in too with a meeting in the All-Ireland junior championship next month a possibility.
New York have managed to spring a surprise or two of late and speaking on last night’s Full Time, our analyst Willie Quinlan says they won’t be underestimated. Hear Willie’s thoughts on Carlow v Longford and the pending visit of New York on this morning’s Full Time podcast, now streaming.
The preliminary quarter-finals also see Offaly host Wexford, Laois travel to Fermanagh and Longford take on Down.
Camogie momentum
On the camogie front, Kilkenny’s intermediate head west this coming week where they’ll face another big test in Galway on Saturday. Trailing at halftime against Cork at the weekend, Kilkenny turned things around with two second-half goals to take a huge scalp in the All-Ireland series. They’ve been on the go for a couple of weeks straight now and manager Seamus Kelly says he wouldn’t have it any other way. You can hear from Seamus on the latest edition of the Scoreline Extra podcast, out now.
You can hear more from the world of camogie on tonight’s edition of the award-winning Caman Caint podcast.
Tickets and training
Also on the Gaelic front, hurling fans are being reminded that this coming Sunday’s Leinster senior final between Kilkenny and Galway in Croke Park requires tickets to be bought in advance, either from local outlets or online via Ticketmaster. There will be no ticket sales at Croke Park on the day. Kilkenny and Galway throw in at 4pm, a game you can catch live on air here with buildup from 3pm.
Tonight then, there’s an open training session with the Carlow senior hurlers being held at the Netwatch Training Centre in Fenagh. Carlow GAA are encouraging fans to come along, get photographs taken, have jerseys, hurls and sliotars signed and meet some of the Joe McDonagh Cup winning team as they prepare for next weekend’s clash with Dublin. Proceedings get underway from 7pm.
Gaynor Cup
The 2023 Girls’ Gaynor Cup competitions for Kilkenny and Carlow sides got underway in UL yesterday. Most of the district leagues around the country are represented in Limerick this week with games running up to this weekend. Among the first-round results were Kilkenny’s 2-0 defeat to Midlands in Group 1 while Carlow were 4-2 winners over Limerick in Group 3. We’ll have more on those across the day.
Have Spurs got their man at last?
Spurs look like they might finally have their new manager lined up, though if it all falls through, we don’t know where they’re going to next. Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has reportedly agreed personal terms to take over the London club on a two-year deal with an option of a third. He’s won the last two Scottish league titles with Celtic, the club doing another domestic treble this year. All that remains is the compensation arrangements with Celtic.
Should he land in London, it looks like either Jesse Marsh or Brendan Rodgers heading to Celtic.
Liverpool are expected to sign Brighton’s World Cup-winning midfield Alexis Mac Allister this week on a deal that runs through 2028. According to morning reports, he’ll have a medical with Liverpool today with a view to being announced by the club later in a week for a deal said to be between £45-£55m.
French Open continues
There’s quarter-final action today at the French Open in Paris. This morning, Karolina Muchova goes up against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last eight of the women’s draw. Second seed Aryna Sabalenka takes on Elina Svitolina.
Later, both Novak Djokovic and world number one Carlos Alcaraz take to the court in the men’s quarter-finals. Djokovic plays Karen Khachanov, while Alcaraz faces Stefanos Tsitsipas.
McKibbin flying high
Tom McKibbin’s win at the European Open at the weekend has propelled the 20-year-old from Holywood in County Down 173 places up the world rankings.
He’s now 162nd in the world after his maiden success on the DP World Tour.
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