Let’s take a look at some of the stories making the news headlines at Scoreline.ie and KCLR for Monday morning, 14 November.
Saints, Shamrocks advance
Ballyhale Shamrocks and St. Mullins are safely through to this year’s Leinster club senior hurling championship semi-finals in a fortnight’s time.
Shamrocks were expected to pick up the win against Castletown Geoghan of Westmeath but not too many would have put them down for a 25-point victory as they beat the visitors to UPMC Nowlan Park 5-25 to 15 points to set up a semi-final clash with Naas.
Speaking to Scoreline after the game, Ballyhale’s Richie Reid outlined how they may have learned from pasts mistakes in Leinster competition.
“We wanted to come and put in a performance really”, said Reid after Sunday’s win at Kilkenny GAA headquarters. “It wasn’t [about] going out to beat them by so many points.We can’t really take anything for granted. We saw last year we came close to getting knocked out in a Leinster semi-final (Shamrocks beat Rynagh 3-24 to 2-18 after extra time). This year it’s really concentrating on every team that we’re playing in Leinster and we’re looking forward to a semi-final in two weeks.”
It marks the start of a good week for the club as they’ll be launching a new book, The Shamrocks Story, this coming Saturday in Carrolls of Knocktopher at half past seven, all as part of the club’s 50th-anniversary celebrations.
St. Mullins will be joining Ballyhale in Croke Park after their home clash with Ferns St. Aidans of Wexford went right down to the wire, finishing 1-19 to 1-17
Maurice Aylward has been telling Scoreline that given the nature of the split season in Carlow, this game was exactly what his side needed.
“It was a terrific game to be involved with”, said Aylward at the final whistle. “It was a terrific game to win and I love winning those kind of games where you have to dig deep and try to hold on to a lead or dig it out. That’s what we’ve done and that’s what St. Mullins need. As you know yourself, it’s 14 weeks since we played the championship and the same for Ferns. It’s hard to gauge how you’re going in challenge matches.”
The Saints will face Dublin champions Kilmacud Crokes in the semi-finals, those games part of a doubleheader at Croke Park on Sunday the 27th of this month with throw-in times TBC at time of writing.
Also over the weekend, we saw Blacks and Whites force extra time to book a Leinster junior club hurling semi-final against Dublin’s Commercials, that game likely heading to UPMC Nowlan Park on the 26th of this month with Trim having beaten Danesfort in the intermediate championship on Saturday.
And it’s a case of commiserations to Muckalee Ladies who were beaten by O’Dwyers in their Leinster junior football championship final, also on Saturday, while Thomastown were left with too much of a mountain to climb in the second half of their Leinster senior semi-final against St. Vincent’s on Saturday with the Dublin side heading to face Oulart The Ballagh in the provincial final this coming Sunday.
No slowing down
Kilkenny City Harriers Brian Maher was among the winners at the Irish & British Masters International in Santry over the weekend. He claimed the Over 45’s rice and finished second overall in the combined 35s/40s/45 race. He’ll now contest the national seniors in Donegal next Saturday.
There was also a great turnout for the Stook in Gowran as well yesterday which included this year’s county 10-mile event, St. Senan’s Darragh Buckley winner of the men’s race and overall winner with Kilkenny City Harriers’ Claire Dearmody winner in the women’s race.
Vale bow out
St. Canice’s are through to the fourth round of the FAI Junior Cup as they picked up a win over Vale Wanderers yesterday.
It was a busy weekend in all for the Kilkenny and Carlow soccer leagues, with all results from Friday through Sunday available here.
The Premier League has wrapped up for the World Cup break as action in Qatar gets underway this weekend – that means no more Premier League games until St. Stephens’ Day. We’ll be previewing the World Cup action of the week from tomorrow though you can get our full fixtures breakdown here.
As it stands, Man United will go into the World Cup break three points off the Premier League’s top four. Alejandro Garnacho scored a stoppage-time winner in their 2-1 victory over Fulham yesterday while Aston Villa came from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 at the Ame to continue a positive start under new boss Unai Emery.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo has accused ‘United manager Erik ten Hag of showing him a lack of respect. The Portuguese heavily criticised the club in a recorded interview with TalkTV, which will be broadcast in full later this week. Ronaldo says he believes certain figures at Old Trafford are attempting to force him out of the club.
Sneaky scores?
Finally for the morning run, one in five football fans have seemingly checked match scores during a work meeting. The survey by LiveScore, reveals football fans also check scores while sitting on the toilet, and while they’re helping their children with homework. One fan admitted to being dragged out of his car after he was found hiding there, while checking match scores during his own wedding.
They’ve described people as suffering from – FOMMS – a fear of missing match scores.
