{"id":527505,"date":"2026-03-08T21:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527505\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T21:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:27:08","slug":"clare-keep-wexford-at-bay-to-open-up-second-promotion-spot-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527505\/","title":{"rendered":"Clare keep Wexford at bay to open up second promotion spot \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clare<\/a> may have confirmed top spot in Division 1B of the National Hurling League<\/a> following a sixth successive victory on Sunday against Wexford but the scramble to join them in the final on the first weekend in April is still very much up for grabs.<\/p>\n

A first home win over Wexford<\/a> since 2019 seemed to be a formality as Brian Lohan\u2019s side led for the final hour and soared by as much as eight points clear in both halves. However, Wexford craved victory to ensure that they kept their promotion bid in their own hands and thanks to a trio of Lee Chin points and a Simon Roche goal, the visitors would slash the arrears to just the minimum entering the final 10 minutes at 0-21 to 1-17.<\/p>\n

In front of a crowd of 6,575 in Ennis, Clare refused to panic and got themselves back on track with a brace of long-range Peter Duggan frees before substitute Ian Galvin (two) and Ryan Taylor restored a six-point buffer.<\/p>\n

Keith Rossiter\u2019s side did muster up one final rally when after a three-point flourish, Lee Chin unleashed an injury-time shot at goal, only for Mark Sheedy, making his league debut, to repel the effort and seal a 0-26 to 1-21 victory for the Banner.<\/p>\n

That result now puts Dublin<\/a> in the driving seat to face Clare in the Division 1B Final after Niall \u00d3 Ceallach\u00e1in\u2019s team got themselves back on track with a comprehensive 6-32 to 0-18 victory over Down<\/a> in Parnell Park on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

Goals from John Hetherton (two), Dara Purcell, Diarmaid \u00d3 D\u00falaing, Fergal Whitely and Paddy Dunleavy ensured that last year\u2019s All-Ireland semi-finalists drew level on points with Wexford in the table with just one round remaining.<\/p>\n

Dublin\u2019s vastly superior score difference means that a final victory in their trip to Carlow in a fortnight\u2019s time would garner promotion back to Division 1A for 2027 regardless of how Wexford fare against Kildare in Wexford Park.<\/p>\n

However, Carlow<\/a> need the points just as much to avoid the trapdoor into Division 2 after falling to their fourth defeat of the campaign against an ever-burgeoning Kildare<\/a> by 3-22 to 1-19 in St Conleth\u2019s Park in Newbridge on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Brian Dowling\u2019s buoyant side further enhanced their growing reputation with a blistering start that saw them soar 0-17 to 0-8 clear over their neighbours by half-time.<\/p>\n

Despite being without top-scorer Jack Sheridan, the Lilywhites put the result beyond any doubt on the resumption with an unanswered 2-2. Goals through Daire Guerin and Cathal McCabe powered Kildare 17 points clear, with Muiris Curtin grabbing a third to cancel out a Carlow major through Paddy Boland.<\/p>\n

A defiant Carlow did lessen the final damage to nine but Pat Bennett\u2019s side will require a big display out of their final showdown with Dublin if they are to get out of the relegation dogfight with Antrim and Down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clare may have confirmed top spot in Division 1B of the National Hurling League following a sixth successive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,262266,262264,262263,262262,140226,233596,575,85,262265],"class_list":{"0":"post-527505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-carlow-gaa","11":"tag-clare-gaa","12":"tag-down-gaa","13":"tag-dublin-gaa","14":"tag-kildare-gaa","15":"tag-national-hurling-league","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-wexford-gaa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}