Disappointing fare for record crowd

Beautiful weather and a record attendance of 40,106 greeted yesterday's All-Ireland club finals at Croke Park. There the idyll ground to a halt and two desperately disappointing matches took centre-stage.

It wasn't the fault of new hurling champions St Joseph's Doora-Barefield of Clare. They were simply too good for a mostly young Rathnure team who also boasted the presence of 41-year-old veteran full back John Conran and later in the day, his senior by a year Jimmy Holohan who came on as a substitute.

St Joseph's captain Lorcan Hassett took the scoring honours with 1-5 from play as the Wexford champions struggled in every department. Four points late in the first half set up the victory and by the end, the Munster champions won pulling up, 2-14 to 0-8. It completed a great achievement for Clare as the county has been represented by different clubs in three of the last four All-Ireland finals - and won two of them.

Also with two All-Irelands in the cupboard are the new football champions Crossmaglen Rangers from Armagh. They had won the title two years ago and came back for more yesterday. But if this makes the triumph seem a routine inevitability, nothing would be more misleading.

Ballina Stephenites were rank outsiders but took the fight to the favourites and were led for the first time only in the last minute. Sixteen wides rubbed some self-mined salt into their wounds and afterwards the team was too upset to talk to anyone.

At one stage they led by 0-5 to nil and it wasn't until the 23rd minute that the Ulster champions got on the board.

Gradually and inexorably the margin was ground down. At halftime it was 0-5 to 0-3 with Ballina having kicked nine wides to Cross's two.

Despite heroics from Brian Ruane at the back and the county centre-field partnership of Liam McHale and David Brady, the match was reeled in during an exciting if undistinguished half-hour's football.

Oisin McConville kicked Crossmaglen level with a 49th minute free but Ballina struggled into the lead again only for McConville to repeat the dose. The end came in the 59th minute when John McEntee who had played a stormer for most of the match in trying to hold his side together, broke through to kick the winning point.

Ballina may be sick but they're in good company. In the past two years Crossmaglen have pick-pocketed one-point wins off the likes of Laune Rangers and Bellaghy. Little consolation, one supposes.