by John Fenton
Evening Echo
Tuesday, 27th August 2002

Next weekend's permanent tsb Cork hurling semi-finals, sees champions Blackrock and their main pretenders to the throne Newtownshandrum, on opposite sides of the draw, where they will encounter Sars and Avondhu respectively.

Blackrock will be looking for two consecutive county championship victories, a feat they last achieved in 1978/79.

They face a Sars' team, that, following on their club success in the All Ireland club Sevens last year, are making a bold bid to regain a title last held by the club in 1957.

Both of these clubs are reaping the benefit of a good underage structure with most of the Sars' team under 23 years of age.

They looked comfortable in overcoming Killeagh in the last round, but they know that only a fully committed effort will be good enough if they are to topple the champiobs.

Pat Ryan will probably start at centre-back, and if Kieran Murphy, John Murphy and Rory Duggan chalk up the scores they could rattle the favourites.

However, they are up against what is undoubtedly the best club defence in Cork with four of the current Cork senior team in their backline. Against the 'Barr's this quartet was superb, and with Noel Keane operating majestically at full back, this will be a major test for Sars.

Blackrock's reliance on Alan Browne is not as pronounced this year as in previous years, as Adrian Coughlan at centre-field and Barry Hennebry at wing-forward were the biggest contributors to the victory over St. Finbarr's.

The other semi-final sees the clash of Avondhu and Newtownshandrum, in a game that is sure to have a very local 'bite' to it.

Newtown, with the vast majority of the team that won three under 21 county titles in a row from 1998 to 2000, will be favourites to progress. Even without Gerry O'Connor for most of the game against Erin's Own, they were always on top. Newtown's strength is up the middle, with Paul Morrissey in goal, Brendan Mulcahy at full-back, centre-back Pat Mulcahy and Mike Morrissey at centre-forward the spine of the team. They provide the platform for flying wingers Ben and Gerry.

It is easy to see why they will be favourites to contest another county final to add to this most glorious chapter in their history.

With former Limerick guru Tom Ryan masterminding their progress from the sideline, they seem to have all the bases covered but this will only inspire Avondhu all the more.

With Mallow out of the intermediate championship their players can concentrate fully on this game, and even though they beat their other local rivals Ballyhea in the last game, this is the scalp they want.

Whatever about the merits of Sars and Avondhu it is difficult to envisage anything but a Blackrock and Newtown final which should be an intriguing clash of green and gold jersies.

Hopefully it will be a good weekend of hurling to revive spirits.