Rarely has a winning point in an All-Ireland final provoked such a range of theories. Sixty years ago this weekend the Thunder and Lightning final between Cork and Kilkenny approached its conclusion. Despite a sunny start to the afternoon, most of the second half was played in a torrential downpour to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning.

Jimmy Phelan, Kilkenny's left corner forward, says his memories of the second half are dominated by the weather. How bad was it? "Well the dye on our jerseys ran into our togs."

The match itself had been Kilkenny's for a long period, but Cork hauled themselves back into it and with two minutes left, scored a goal to level the match 3-3 to 2-6. There is some confusion about the identity of the scorer, but it came from a Willie Campbell 70 which either went straight to the net or was helped in by Ted O'Sullivan.

With the match apparently bound for a replay, Kilkenny mustered one last attack. A 70 was awarded, although both Cork goalkeeper Jim Buttimer and corner back Willie Murphy insisted that the ball had gone out off a Kilkennyman.

The 70 was taken by the legendary Kilkenny wing back Paddy Phelan, who would normally have been good for such a task but conditions had deteriorated and the rain had left the old sliotar as heavy as a stone.

It was suggested subsequently by Radio Eireann's Micheal O hEithir in his autobiography that visibility was so poor that Phelan took the puck from his own 70 rather than Cork's and, because of that, the ball fell well short. What happened at that stage is also cause for conjecture.

Jimmy Kelly is credited with the winning point and there is agreement that he was the one who fastened on to the loose ball. Contemporary reports weren't even sure of that much with Pat'O in this paper content to leave it a matter of ambiguity. "P. Phelan dropped a free within scoring range; Leahy and Kelly were on it in a twinkling and the ball sailed over the bar for the winning point just as the referee was looking at his watch for full-time."

It was alleged in the 1992 All-Ireland match programme that there had been an element of contrivance about the winning score. This account had Kelly limping out from the full-forward position while feigning an injury and bending down while Phelan addressed the ball.

Apparently hors de combat, he was ignored by Cork's defence. Phelan hit the 70 to his supposedly stricken colleague and he flashed it over the bar with time nearly up.

Phelan's recall at the age of 82 is impressively lucid and he dismisses this out of hand. "Jimmy Kelly wouldn't have done that. He was a gentleman. The 70 was hit into the Hill 16 goal and broke two or three yards to the right of the uprights. Jimmy was on to it quickly and kind of took it and hit it over the bar."

This description is backed up by a Cork account which has Batt Thornhill batting the ball away but not getting enough power into the clearance, Kelly racing on to the break and snapping the point.

THE crowd of 39,307 yielded gate receipts of £3,6788-0. Although World War II broke out that morning, all sources testify that the impending global catastrophe didn't impinge much on the crowds and players on their way to the final.

According to Seamus J King's A History of Hurling " . . . it can be said with certainty that the interest of the 40,000 spectators was firmly focused on events in Croke Park rather than the invasion of Poland".

Phelan is more blunt. "Nobody gave a damn about the war until the news began to sink in after the match."

Travel was more tortuous than the modern supporter is accustomed to. Both teams travelled by train on the Saturday. Kilkenny stayed in Barry's Hotel.

They were a blend of very experienced players who had won All-Irelands earlier in the 1930s before the team was dismantled by Tipperary in the 1937 final in Killarney which was used as a venue because a building workers' strike delayed the completion of the new Cusack Stand. Phelan and Paddy Larkin (grandfather of Philip of the current Kilkenny team) were examples of such experience.

The reconstruction of the team was aided by the addition of players from the successful minor teams of the mid-1930s: Paddy Grace, Bobby Hinks, Paddy Walsh, Terry Leahy, Jim Langton and Jack Mulcahy.

Cork were also a new team, captained by a young wing forward from Glen Rovers called Jack Lynch. The future Taoiseach had a mixed afternoon, playing well and scoring one of Cork's goals, but missing a good chance of another near the end. Phelan also remembers Lynch missing a straightforward free.

"I remember Jack Lynch 21 yards out from the Canal End in front of the goals. Every time he raised the ball Jimmy Walsh ran at him and challenged. The referee ordered the free to be retaken and Jimmy did it again - of course you'd be sent off now but they were different times. The third time, Jimmy just made as if to do it again and Jack missed."

Phelan's two goals came in the first half, after three minutes and just before half-time. "The first one came when the ball broke to me 25 yards out and I just pulled on it. For the second, Bobby Hinks cut in the ball in from the side and I flicked the ball over my shoulder."

Physical fitness was a major consideration then. Danny O'Connell trained Kilkenny and Jim `Tough' Barry, the boxer, wrestler, hurler and swimmer, trained Cork. According The Irish Times account of Cork's preparations, "Short sprints, long walks and regular ball-playing have been the mediums on which perfect fitness was built."

Kilkenny were also fit - to the extent that Phelan felt he could have comfortably played on when the match finished and he was surprised to hear the final whistle.

Both teams went on to vastly divergent futures. Kilkenny hurling was "decimated" according to county historian and PRO Tom Ryle by the foot-and-mouth epidemic in the early 1940s. Club hurling was suspended for nearly a year and it was to be another eight years before the county won their next All-Ireland.

Cork were beaten in the 1941 Munster final played in November because of foot-and-mouth disease. But as the province's nominated team they won that year's All-Ireland and went on to complete a four-in-a-row of All-Irelands and won five in six years.

The Thunder and Lightning final's two surviving protagonists also had differing fortunes. Jimmy Phelan, although 22, never again reached an All-Ireland final whereas Jack Lynch won six successive medals - filling in the hurlers' one blank year by winning a football All-Ireland in 1945.