Kerry won a rare hurling title in

Croke Park yesterday, the delayed Division 11 National League decider but Westmeath won the "Puc Fada". Easily the score of the match was struck by Westmeath's top scorer Andrew Mitchell, a 100 yards plus wind assisted delivery for a point at the Canal end.

But Kerry had the key score snatchers in right corner forward Michael Slattery, who struck a massive 1-10, a goal and six points from frees and John Mike Dooley.

Slattery and Dooley set Kerry on their way midway through the first half when adding on a goal (Dooley) and a point within a 30 second spell.

This flurry moved Kerry away from a parity situation to lead by 1-5 to 0-4 and they went ahead to snatch a 2-8 to 0-5 advantage by half time. a number of changes at half time made Westmeath a better looking side on the restart and they added three rapi d points inside as many minutes but, again Dooley stepped in to rattle the net and keep Kerry on course.

KERRY: J Healy ; C Cronin, C Flaherty, HJ Twomey; J McCarthy, M Lucid, WJ Leen; P O'Rourke, I Brick; Pβdraig Cronin (0-1), C Boyle, S Brick (0-2); M Slattery (1-10, 1-6 frees), B O'Mahony 0-1), J M Dooley (3-0). Substitutes: Pat Cronin for Padraig Cronin 47 min; Pβdraig for Pat Cronin 49 mins; J Wharton for S Brick 63 mins; Pat Cronin for Boyle 51 mins.

WESTMEATH: B Conaty; M Williams, B Murtagh, B Williams; D Gallaher, C Murtagh, N Gavin; D McCormack, A Devine; V Bateman (0-1), D Devine (1-0), R Galvin; J Shaw (1-0), A Mitchell (0-7, 0-6 frees), B Kennedy (1-1). Substitutes: G Briody (0-1) for N Gavin 31 mins; P Galvin for M Williams 34 mins; D Devine for P Galvin 55 mins; A Mangan for A Devine 62 mins.