Fresh from their thrilling victory over O’Donovan Rossa in the county hurling championship, the White’s Cross hurlers turned their attention to the defence of their city division championship crown and a tricky tie against Nemo Rangers who had defeated Rathpeacon in an earlier round. It was the Capwell side that the started the brighter and had the first two scores of the game. It took White’s Cross a while to settle into the match and they had to wait for nine minutes for their first score which was taken by Donncha Murnane on the run. The same player was instrumental in setting up the next score for captain Kevin Buckley five minutes later. This started a flurry of scores as Kevin Buckley added another point, a 65 by his brother Conor and two Eoin Murnane points put White’s Cross into a four point lead. Nemo added a point from a free in the nineteenth minute before the crucial score of the game arrived in the 24th minute of the half. Great work by Eoin Murnane in the corner picked out out the unmarked Cormac Flynn who controlled, turned buried the ball past the keeper to leave 6 points between the sides. Both sides traded scores from frees on either side of the half time whistle before Eoin Murnane, provider of the first goal, finished from a tight angle to put eight points between the sides five minutes into the second half. The score at this stage was 2-08 to 0-06. Nemo rallied and scored a goal of their own a few minutes later but this just seem to drive on White’s Cross. Strong running by Conor Buckley, Robert McElhinney, Donncha Murnane and Sean Twomey drew frees which Conor Buckley and James Cooney duly converted. Kevin Buckley added a few from play to take his tally to four poins while Eoin Murnane also added another point to finish with a personal tally of 1-03. Sean Twomey also added an outstanding solo effort while Breandan Murnane and James Cooney both hit over long distance points from play to complete a dominant performance from the winners over the hour. Next up is a semi final against Lough Rovers in what will be a repeat of their meeting from 12 months earlier.

Team Shane Cahill, Padraig Murnane, John O’Connell, Derek O’Connor, James Cooney (0-06, 0-05 frees), Murt Kelleher, Breandan Murnane (0-01), Donncha Murnane (0-01), Robert McElhinney, Ruairi Murnane, Kevin Buckley (0-04), Conor Buckley (0-03), Sean Murnane, Eoin Murnane (1-03), Cormac O’Flynn (1-00). Subs Sean Twomey (0-01) for Sean Murnane, Fiachra O’Connell for Breandan Murnane, Seamus Quinlan for Ruairi Murnane, Colin McCarthy for Cormac O’Flynn and Ronan Quain for Derek O’Connor