Clare have captured their fifth Munster minor hurling title.
Eoin Begley’s second half goal helped the Banner on their way to a 1-19 to 0-15 win over Cork in Semple Stadium.
The Banner led 0-10 to 0-9 after a tense opening period that saw the sides level twice, but Marc O’Brien’s free saw Clare head to the dressing room with the minimum to spare.
Begley’s goal arrived soon after the restart as he followed up on a great save by Cork goalkeeper from O’Brien’s initial effort to bat the ball home.
It saw Clare go 1-10 to 0-9 clear, and by the time Cork got their first point of the second period, the Banner had built a seven point advantage.
With the defence marshalled superbly by captain Gunning, Matthew O’Halloran and James Hegarty in particular, the path to Mark Sheedy’s goal was never threatened, and while Cork did cut the gap to five in the closing stages, Clare kept their composure to fire the last two scores of the game to seal a historic win.
Up next will be an All Ireland semi-final against the Leinster runners up, with details of that to be announced in the coming days.
