A LATE point from Brian McEvoy earned James Stephens a thrilling, draw with Young Irelands (Gowran) in a magnificent Kilkenny senior hurling final at Nowlan Park yesterday.
A beautiful point from Charlie Carter two minutes from time looked like earning Young Irelands their first senior title. But then McEvoy performed his rescue act, much to the delight of the 11,000 crowd, who will look forward to the replay at the same venue in two weeks' time.
During the early stages D J Carey and Carter looked set to destroy the opposition. Carter netted after four minutes and then Carey scored a tremendous goal in the 14th minute.
However, James Stephens rearranged their entire team and, with Richard Minogue unerring from frees, they sneaked right back into contention. At half-time the arrears were dragged back to 2-5 to 0-9.
Within two minutes of the restart, James Stephens had points from Minogue and Liam O'Connor to draw level for the first time. Subsequently, fortunes swayed to and fro, and it was all up for grabs with five minutes remaining after Carter hauled Young Irelands back level.
Then the same player put Irelands in front, but they were caught on the line by a team who just would not accept defeat.
Timmy Collins scored 1-2 and turned in a dazzling display for Wicklow hurlers yesterday as they caused a major surprise in the new format Oireachtas competition by beating All-Ireland finalists Limerick by 2-18 to 2-13 at Arklow.
However, though Wicklow will savour a famous victory, Limerick fielded only four players from the team beaten by Wexford in the All-Ireland final five weeks ago - Michael Nash, Davy Clarke, Frankie Carroll and Padraig Tobin.
Free-taker John Keogh was another of Wicklow's heroes with a total of eight points. Aided by the wind in the first half Wicklow led by 2-10 to 1-4 at the break, the Limerick goal by Carroll coming just on the stroke of half-time.
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