Clare still in with a shout

All Ireland SHC Quarter-final Clare 1-13 Kilkenny 1-13 For Kilkenny, this has become the year of living dangerously. Rolling back the clock, the wild bunch who set in motion Clare's great years did everything but unseat the All-Ireland champions in a smashing game that began as a battle of wits and ended as a heart-stopping shoot-out. Keith Duggan reports from Croke Park

Although the GAA teased the crowd of 37, 134 with the promise of extra-time - an announcement that threw both teams and management into a tizzy - it was quickly established that the protagonists would do it all again on another day. Weird and anti-climactic as that conclusion was, it was probably just: the players were out on their feet, particularly Kilkenny, who had to survive the last 29 minutes with 14 men.

They retreated for the glades of Kilkenny last night shaken, with their three-in-a-row aspirations battered but still workable. Yet the vengeful magnificence they demonstrated against Galway has been reduced to a distant memory. Clare took their illustrious opponents to the very edge here in a match that provides another feather in the richly-plumed cap of Anthony Daly.

Pumped up in a manner redolent of his playing days, the Sixmilebridge man could hardly have dreamed his game plan would work so perfectly. Drafting Gerry Quinn into the side at the 11th hour for Daithí O'Connell, he played the Corofin man at left-half back, allowing Alan Markham to play a sweeper role in defence. The result was Niall Gilligan and Tony Carmody fronting a two-man Clare attack, with Kilkenny's James Ryall looking lonesome with the free rein left to him.

The gamble was that Gilligan's rich vein of form would keep Clare in contention on the scoreboard and the concentration of Clare defenders would prevent Henry Shefflin from orchestrating another zinging performance from the champions. Even as he worked to counter it, the tactician in Brian Cody must have applauded.

The plan was good but its protagonists made it look ingenious. With Davy Fitzgerald as ringleader, Clare, as expected, started off at 100 miles an hour, Gerry O'Grady, Brian and Gerry Quinn and Markham attacking every ball with ferocity and driving it towards the distant front two with accuracy. Gilligan took two points off Tommy Walsh in the first five minutes and forced a foul from the Tullaroan prodigy that would later have serious consequences.

And although Shefflin dispatched a series of bullet-like frees to leave the scores level at 20 minutes, Clare had set the mood of the game: edgy, close and gripping with nary a cheap score to be had.

At 0-5 apiece at the break, they had given themselves a chance.

The prediction that Kilkenny would explode out of the blocks following their meeting with Cody down below proved correct. With Shefflin largely bottled up by the excellent Seánie McMahon, the pressure was on the other forwards to stand up and be counted. It was DJ Carey who led the charge, taking Ryall's hoofed clearance, squirming away from Markham and accelerating before floating a perfect pass for substitute John Hoyne. In a clearing in front of goal, Hoyne gathered with a perfect flick and rapped the first goal past Fitzgerald.

That looked to have set the tone for normal business: Henry fired a free and then cut loose for two brilliant points that gave Kilkenny a 1-8 to 0-6 lead.

In between those scores, a disconsolate Walsh had been red-carded for hauling down Tony Griffin and Fitzgerald's resultant penalty had been repelled. But at that moment, Shefflin looked as if he didn't care what was happening in the match: that he would just score with every touch.

Clare might have faded after Fitzgerald's golden chance was denied but instead their resolve deepened. Jamesie O'Connor, thrown in after 22 minutes, was in vintage mood, breaking up Kilkenny possession and spraying around a series of measured passes.

Ollie Baker came in. McMahon and Gilligan cut the lead with frees. Griffin, subdued for 50 minutes, suddenly realised he had the winning of every ball that came his way. Colin Lynch, Markham and Jamesie began firing ball at his lanky frame with abandon. On 55 minutes, he won another penalty. Gilligan went low and the ball squirted to the net. The game was deadlocked.

Cody threw Seán Dowling in and two minutes later Griffin caused mayhem again, hitting the post after Tony -Carmody forced a great, point-blank save from James McGarry.

With 10 minutes left, Kilkenny were in a deadly serious situation. But their character can never be questioned. JJ Delaney hurled on implacably through the ups and downs, Derek Lyng, Peter Barry and Ken Coogan were resolute. DJ landed a free and then Dowling fired a point through the crowd.

Clare came back undaunted. Griffin, tailed by Ryall instead of Hickey now, showed the tall Kilkenny man a clean pair of heels and was hauled down. Gilligan converted. Then Baker, singled out in a crowd by O'Connor, rumbled forward to win another free. Gilligan once more did the honours and with five minutes left, Kilkenny looked vulnerable, with Shefflin stuck deep in the Clare square, patient and watchful but unable to dictate things.

Clare then had chances for the win - McMahon's 70-metre free was a shot to nothing but Carmody, after winning a ball he had no right to, shot just left of the posts with two minutes left.

A draw beckoned but Ken Coogan sent a long, ferocious ball from the raging heart of midfield. Suddenly Shefflin had ghosted behind Frank Lohan. Before the ball even fell into Shefflin's palm, it was apparent Lohan was about to be punished for practically his only mistake of the day. Possession gained, Shefflin turned to kill the opposition and was unceremoniously bundled down. Cody raced down the sideline as the crowd wondered if Shefflin would go for the dagger blow. Davy Fitzgerald danced on his line but the Ballyhale man rapped a point.

Against most teams, it would have been enough. But with no room for error, Clare came searching again. O'Connor took the ball off a Kilkenny stick and played Carmody deep into Kilkenny territory. Surrounded by black and amber, he threaded a pass out to Gilligan, who turned and looked for a free man. Out of the crowd stepped O'Connor. The point was true from the moment it left his hurl. They will reconvene in Thurles. The intrigue deepens.

CLARE: D Fitzgerald; B Quinn, F Lohan, G O'Grady; D Hoey, S McMahon (0-3, free, 2 65s), A Markham; D McMahon (0-1), C Lynch; G Quinn, A Quinn (0-1), D Forde; N Gilligan (1-7, 5 frees, pen), T Griffin, T Carmody.Subs: J O'Connor (0-1) for A Forde (21 mins), O Baker for A Quinn (52 mins), D O'Connell for D McMahon (64).

KILKENNY: J McGarry; J Ryall, N Hickey, T Walsh; R Mullally, P Barry, JJ Delaney; D Lyng, K Coogan; M Comerford, H Shefflin (0-8, six frees), P Tennyson (0-1); E Brennan, DJ Carey (0-2, one free), J Coogan (0-1). Subs: J Hoyne (1-0) for E Brennan (half-time), S Dowling (0-1) for P Tennyson (59 mins), P Mullally for R Mullally (64 mins).

Referee: G Harrington (Cork).