High drama as semi-finalists decided in Offaly Senior B Hurling Championship

THERE was no shortage of joy, heartbreak and drama as the semi-finalists of the Offaly Senior Hurling “B” Championship were decided on Sunday.

After an afternoon of incredible excitement and tension, the semi-finalists pairings are: Kilcormac-Killoughey v Tullamore and Clara v Birr.

The relegation play off is between Drumcullen and Lusmagh. The big losers were Drumcullen, who bowed out in desperately unlucky circumstances, with Tullamore the big winners

They did what they had to do by beating in-form Clara, 2-19 to 1-18 and needed Kilcormac-Killoughey to get a result against Tullamore to put them through. Tullamore scraped through with a 2-15 to 0-20 win. Missing their star forward, the suspended Shane Dooley, Tullamore were delighted to win but should have gone out as K-K's Conor Quinn missed an injury time penalty when a levelling point would have changed the qualifiers. 

Goalkeeper Adam Cleary was Tullamore's hero, making the save but had Quinn taken the tap over point and the match ended in a draw, Drumcullen would have been through and Tullamore gone.

Even as it was, Tullamore still just scraped through on score difference as they and Drumcullen tied on 5 points each. They had drawn their earlier game which meant scoring difference was the deciding factor and Tullamore's was marginally better, +5 compared to +3.

In the other game, Birr sealed their semi-final place with a 1-16 to 0-16 win over Lusmagh. It left K-K, Clara and Birr tied on six points at the top of the group but K-K earned top spot by virtue of a superior scoring difference, +10 compared to 0 for both Clara and Birr. They play fourth place Tullamore while the second and third teams meet in the other semi-finals – incidentally Clara and Birr had the exact same scoring difference and points scored so were inseparable but it didn't matter on this occasion.

It was a sensational last round to what is an outstanding, hugely competitive competition. K-K and Clara were assured of qualification before the final round but the other four teams all had to win and in Drumcullen's case even that was't enough as K-K's missed penalty put them out.