CORK WILL BE represented on the double in Croke Park on 13 January after Castlelyons and St Catherine’s came through two tight and tense battles in the semi-finals of the AIB All-Ireland club hurling championships.

Castlelyons faced off against Tooreen in the intermediate semis at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore, and the freescoring Munster champions, who registered 3-16 and 2-22 in their two Munster championship wins, simply didn’t find the same rhythm, in no small part due to the ferocious intensity the Mayo side brought to the midlands.

Colm Spillane fired over two points from play in the opening minutes for Castlelyons, but in a game where every ball was fought for with rabid desire, that was to be their only score from play until the 47th minute.

It wasn’t that Tooreen were racking up the scores at any great rate either, but points from Fergal Boland, Eoin Delaney and Kenny Feeney were among the highlights as they moved 0-7 to 0-5 in front by half-time, and then 0-9 to 0-7 entering the final quarter.

A kicked goal from Anthony Spillane, who scored all three of his club’s goals in the Munster decider, nudged Castlelyons into a lead that they scarcely deserved, but perhaps even more significant was how they backed up that goal with the next two points from Alan Fenton and Oscar Hallihan, forcing Tooreen to chase the game.

The westerners, facing into the likelihood of losing a fourth All-Ireland semi-final in six years, did exactly that but up against some desperation defending from Castlelyons, they could only engineer frees, and were still narrowly adrift – 1-12 to 0-13 – when the final whistle sounded.

In the junior semi-final forty-five minutes down the M6 in Ballinasloe, Easkey — who lost out to Ballygiblin in last year’s decider — couldn’t have done a whole lot more against St Catherine’s but ultimately ended up one point short, 0-12 to 0-11.

Inaccuracy and inefficiency in front of the posts was Easkey’s downfall today, though St. Catherine’s were also well-served by Kyle Wallace, who picked off three excellent scores from play in a contest where such moments were not easy to engineer.

With Easkey struggling to find their range, dropping shots short and wide, they still led by 0-6 to 0-5 at the break, with the wind to come.

Brian Mulcahy and Seán O’Donoghue notched good points to keep St Catherine’s in the game but a glorious point on the run from Rory HcHugh was at the heart of a run of three consecutive scores for the West Sligo club, and seemed to put them on the cusp of victory.

Enter Kyle Wallace, who landed two points to change the momentum of the tie, allowing goalkeeper Eoin Davis and Eoin Condon to land the scores that ultimately saw St. Catherine’s through to the final against either Tullogher-Rosbercon or Castleblayney.