GAA/All-Ireland SHC semi-finals: And now there are four: three from Munster, one from Leinster. Waterford, Kilkenny, Clare and Tipperary will battle out this year's All-Ireland hurling semi-finals after a weekend which produced a mixed bag of games but four clear winners.

On Saturday evening in Thurles, Limerick had given Cork something of a scare and Kilkenny had pretty much wiped Galway from the field to ensure two of the games blueblood counties survived till August.

Yesterday in Croke Park they were joined by a couple of challengers from the hurling hinterlands.

Clare and Waterford progressed yesterday in front of 45,928 paying customers at Croke Park. For their troubles both sides drew tough tasks in the semi-finals. Waterford will play Cork. Clare meet Kilkenny.

The bookmakers will assume another final between Cork and Kilkenny looms. Romantics will live in hope.

In dealing with yesterday's fare, keeping the best wine back shall be the policy. Clare overwhelmed Wexford in the curtain-raiser at Croke Park in a game so relentlessly dull that even Clare could scarcely manage a hop, skip or jump of excitement when it all ended.

Clare were clear ahead from early on when Diarmuid McMahon ended a run of six consecutive Clare points with a fine goal struck from a difficult angle. They just had to stay on the pitch for the remaining three-quarters of the game to secure the win.

Wexford have known bad days recently but this was the worst. The team were lifeless and without passion, and their humiliation (1-27 conceded) was made greater by the knowledge Clare hadn't felt it necessary to bust a gut.

Clare played controlled hurling and in the last quarter found themselves able to knock the ball around like a soccer team for long stretches, yet the game never even got near the pace of full-blooded championship hurling.

Just 10 years ago Wexford were on the way to a famous All-Ireland win, their charismatic team led by the even more charismatic Liam Griffin. Yesterday is was hard to see any vestige of that spirit or inventiveness.

Wexford's season ended with a second heavy defeat in three outings. Their only win in championship games was a one-point squeaker over a down-on-their-luck Offaly.

Clare, who were champions in 1995 and 1997, have done little more than Wexford to capitalise on breakthrough success but somehow without development squads and underage successes they keep going.

A narrow defeat in last year's All Ireland semi-final to Cork has sustained them through another summer. Old hands are still working the deck and the odd youngster who has broken through has matured into something worthwhile. Also Clare finally have the luxury of scoring forwards.

If Anthony Daly and co stayed to watch the second game at Croke Park yesterday they will have been reminded that hurling is usually played at a different pace than Wexford's challenge demanded. They will feel confident that they have another afternoon of that sort of attrition within them.

Yesterday brought one slight shock. The end of the road for the aristocrats of Tipperary just when the county was beginning to discover a little of its old outsize self-belief.

Babs Keating stood under the Hogan Stand and lamented that he wasn't able to change the numbers on the scoreboard but in his first year back in charge he has changed the mindset of the players on the pitch.

Tipp are a work in progress and if yesterday's setback was inflicted by a better team Babs will at least be able to remind himself there was good work done on the way to Croke Park.

As for his counterpart Justin McCarthy, it seemed just a few months ago the world was divided between those who felt that by staying on for this season he had outlived his usefulness by one summer and those who felt he had outlived it by two summers.

He made us eat our words yesterday, sending out a side which was implacable throughout.

Tipperary tossed setbacks at Waterford periodically, usually in the shape of goals plundered through desperation and skill. Every time, Waterford stood up and came back. This was their most assured Croke Park performance of the McCarthy era.

"All in all we were justified winners," said Justin afterwards as the media gathered around him in the tunnel.

"Tipp are a good team, they got to a Munster final and got great experience from it. They would feel they could beat us but our spirit counts. Players playing above themselves. We performed well here today."

In the Waterford dressing-room there was none of the harrooing and whooping which a county on the up often indulges in. Justin McCarthy held a short team meeting among players who seemed as focused afterwards as they had been before.

Everyone emerged with the sense that the hard work was still to come.

"We were moving well," said Ken McGrath. "It was very hard for every ball. We knew before the game it was there for us. We had three wins on the trot in the qualifiers and we were confident."

The rays of that confidence brought no greater blossoming than in the shape of Dan Shanahan. The big man was sublime yesterday, his personal tally of 1-5 failing to reflect his overall contribution or the sweet nature of every score he took.

He was among the last to leave the dressing-room.

"On the day we were good. It was a good afternoon for us. We know Tipp are going to get goals. They'll come back. We knew what we were capable off. We weren't thinking negative. We're told to think positive the whole time," he said.

"Outstanding work-rate today. Optimistic. We'll take every game as it comes. Cork the next day. It'll be a good battle."

Scene set. Seconds out.