Five Sides Remain In Contention for Dr. Harty Cup Crown

Three of the four sides that will contest the semi-finals of this year’s Munster Senior A Colleges Hurling Championship (Dr. Harty Cup) are known following today’s semi-finals at venues in Cork and Tipperary.

St. Colman’s from Fermoy are through to the last four after a six point win over Christian Brothers College from Cork City at Church Road in Blackrock.

The North Cork outfit scored three first half goals in this game through Barry Murphy, Brian Roche and Conleth Ryan to lead 3-7 to 0-1 at the break.

The Cork City side won the toss and choose to play against the considerable breeze and will be questioning the wisdom to do so, as some could well argue that they would have been better off adding all the scores they could in the opening thirty minutes and then hope that when the Fermoy outfit had the wind at their backs in the second half that they would not hit the required amount of scores needed to get something from the game.

Although the city side won the second half, they had left themselves with too much to do, and the concession of three first half goals proved the difference between the sides.

The City side did hit a second half goal through Eoin Moloney it proved to be but a mere consolation score as the Fermoy side ran out 3-12 to 1-12 winners.

St. Colman’s however will have to wait a little longer to see who they will play in the last four of the competition as Ardscoil Rís and Midleton CBS finished all square after extra time at Bansha.

The Limerick side at the break lead 0-7 to 1-1.

The second half proved to be a very close affair.

With four minutes to go the sides were locked 1-7 to 0-10 on the scoreboard. Liam Gosnell edged the East Cork side in front but as the game entered stoppage time Will Henn split the post for the Limerick side.

Gosnell again pointed for Midleton which seemed good enough to book his sides place in the last four but Diarmuid Ryan struck a fantastic point for the Limerick side to force the game into extra time.

Extra time saw both sides go tit for tat at each other.

James Daly and Liam Gosnell added goals for their respective sides.

The game would end in a 2-12 to 1-15 draw after 80 minutes but the Cork side will feel that they could have won it at the end when they won a free but Liam Gosnell saw his effort tail wide of the uprights. 

Extra time was also needed at Cashel between Nenagh CBS and De La Salle College.

These two sides met at the same stage of the competition last year, a game that the Waterford City side won despite going into the game as underdogs.

The North Tipperary side had first use of the strong wind at Leahy Park and turned around with an 0-11 to 1-3 lead on the scoreboard at the break, the De La Salle goal coming from rising star Thomas Douglas.

Douglas would add a second goal for his side in the second half as the Waterford City side came more into the game as it progressed and took the lead for the first time as it neared the end.

But a late point from Kevin McCarthy forced the game to an extra twenty minutes to see who would advance to the last four.

Both sides in the extra twenty minutes proved to be equally matched with little between the sides throughout but in the end, the North Tipperary side proved to be that just little stronger.

This was De La Salle’s fourth game in the competition, three of which ended in draws after sixty minutes, one of which they won in added time, the other they lost.

In the Semi Finals Nenagh CBS will play Our Lady’s Templemore meaning that Tipperary is assured of having one team in this year’s final.

Last year’s runners up having played against the breeze proved to be marginally the better of the two sides in the opening half as they turned around leading 2-4 to 0-8 at The Ragg, Ray McCormack and David O’Shea raising the green flags. Holycross/Ballycahill Club man Darragh Woods in the opening half proved to be his side only scorer, and added two further points in the second half when playing against the wind.

With the game in its final ten minutes the Templemore side lead by eight points.

Odhrán Quirke pulled a goal back for the Thurles side to give them hope but last year’s runners up finished strong hitting 1-2, the goal coming from Ray McCormack despite the best efforts of Ewan Bourke to keep it out.