It’s crunch time in the Wexford Senior Hurling Championship…
The Wexford SHC quarter-finals took place last weekend with the postponed quarter-final game between St Annes and the Rapparees taking place on Saturday afternoon being the last quarter-final clash.
St Annes comfortably defeated the Rapparees to find themselves in the final four. It would have been interesting to see the Rapparees progress, given that they did not win any group game in the whole championship – but they came up against a much stronger outfit with the Annes, who scored 33 points in the process.
The Shelmaliers defeated Crossabeg/Ballymurn led by excellent Ross Banville and Conor Hearne displays. Naomh Eanna, although they left it late, defeated a 14-man Faythe Harriers after captain Lee Chin was sent off by referee James Owens to the dismay of the Wexford town faithful. Meanwhile, St Martins comfortably disposed of Ferns St. Aidan’s on a score-line of 1-20 to 0-14 to march on into the semi-final stages.
Interestingly, these were the four teams that most people would have predicted to progress from the quarter-finals. Even more interesting is the fact that the top two teams from the group stages of the championship have all progressed to the semi-final stages, despite some people being critical of the format of the new Wexford SHC.
Semi-finals – Wexford SHC:
Naomh Eanna vs St Martins
St Annes vs Shelmaliers
The fixture details have not yet been confirmed, but they will be added to this article once released to the media.
Once again, the Wexford SHC remains wide open, with all four teams having an excellent chance of capturing silverware for 2024. Reigning champions Naomh Eanna will be hoping that the title remains in North Wexford, but that won’t be an easy task either.
Jason Redmond
From Gorey, Jason is the owner of Wexford Weekly. He is also a post-primary English and History teacher.