What a thrilling weekend in the TUS Clare Senior Hurling Championship. As is the norm in the gift that keeps on giving, every tie on the final day will carry the weight and intrigue of final placings.

Abacuses at the ready for the annual ‘bear with us’ explanation…

Group One was billed as the group of death at the outset, and it has certainly lived up to its billing. Inagh-Kilnamona have kept up their side of the bargain and have two wins from two. Four points is enough to guarantee them at least a runners-up spot, but both victories have been comfortable and they are surely now firmly in the conversation among the 2026 championship frontrunners.

The race for second, however, is absolutely sizzling.

When you are Tony Kelly, every game and every performance is poked, prodded and scrutinised. The county talisman failed to score from play in the opening round, a fact that naturally garnered plenty of attention. Kelly’s response in last Sunday’s second-round tie against Clonlara in Cratloe was sublime. He accounted for 1-12 of Ballyea’s 1-17 total in a vibrant performance played further from goal.

Ballyea dominated the second period, but it still wasn’t enough to push the black and amber over the line for their first group win. A late Clonlara surge, capped by Aidan Moriarty’s very late point after he was picked out by a Michael O’Loughlin sideline ball five minutes into injury time, makes Clonlara’s final-round task ever so slightly less nerve-wracking — and, crucially, keeps their fate in their own hands.

All they have to do now is beat the aforementioned high-flying Inagh-Kilnamona.

Simple as that, eh?

Sunday’s draw brings Clonlara’s tally to three points. Ballyea need a win against St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield to equal that total and then hope the score difference swings in their favour. At present, Clonlara sit on +4, with Ballyea on -10.

St Joseph’s won’t be there to accommodate a thing. Two points for ‘the Parish’ men would leapfrog Ballyea and see them escape the relegation trapdoor.

In a championship where nothing is ever straightforward, Group Two came within a few bland seconds of bucking the trend.

A valiant Scariff performance, minus the services of Mark Rodgers, was reeled in during the final minutes of Saturday evening’s tie, as the reigning champions produced a seven-point second-half turnaround. It was a brave effort from Donal Moloney’s men, who were on top for much of the encounter.

They know, however, that there are no points for moral victories.

To quote Eoin Brennan’s account of the game in the Clare Echo: “When you swing at the kings, you better not miss.”

For 24 hours, Scariff were preparing for a winner-takes-all relegation tie, until Riain O’Donnell’s injury-time poach and strike for Crusheen, who simply ‘would not go away’ against Broadford on Sunday, blew the group wide open again.

The win means Crusheen and Broadford are now on one win apiece. Broadford face Éire Óg with the incentive of joining them on points — and potentially toppling them on head-to-head.

Crusheen, meanwhile, can make it a three-way tie at the top of the table when they face Scariff. The latter can now either avoid relegation with a win of their own or even be pulled into a three-way score-difference race for a runners-up spot if Broadford also lose to the champions.

Confused?

You’re not alone. Damn you Riain O'Donnell !

Group Three is no less chaotic.

Clooney-Quin’s first-half four-goal mauling of Feakle put them on three points at the top of the table. If they defeat their neighbours from O’Callaghan’s Mills, it puts them through as group winners — and sends the Mills to relegation.

Feakle were a pale shadow of their first-round showing and now face Cratloe in a true knockout, winner-takes-all final-round tie. A win for either puts them through as either group winners or runners up . Both sides are on two points, although Cratloe’s tally is without a head to head and has been earned from two draws. 

The second was an incredible Houdini act on Saturday night when Mark O’Brien’s goal, followed by Conor Ryan’s fleeting touch to a Rian Considine free, billowed the net and rescued the tie.

It was a cruel finish for the Mills, who thundered into the tie from six points adrift before half-time, only to lead by six on 60 minutes.

A win for them in the final round would put them on three points — level with Clooney-Quin — and joint runners-up to whoever wins the Cratloe-Feakle tie.

As it stands, nobody in the group is either qualified or clear of relegation with a fortnight to go.

In Group Four, Kilmaley are only the third side of all sixteen to have a maximum tally of points from two outings, joining Inagh-Kilnamona and Éire Óg at the summit.

But, like Éire Óg, they are not yet fully qualified.

A convincing Round Two defeat of Wolfe Tones means they still need at least a point from their final group game to guarantee a quarter-final spot.

The subplot to their final group tie is, of course, manager Brian Culbert’s collision with his native club, Sixmilebridge, whose derby win over Newmarket last Saturday puts them back in the running.

Sixmilebridge would be clear runners-up should they win and Wolfe Tones lose.

If both the Shannon men and Sixmilebridge win, we go to a three-way duel, with Kilmaley and score difference potentially deciding the outcome.

Newmarket-on-Fergus, for their part, are not yet out of the running either. A win for them against the ‘Tones, coupled with a Sixmilebridge defeat, would bring them into the reckoning in a three-way tie for second place.

And that, in a nutshell, is the beauty — and the madness — of championship hurling in Clare.

Four groups. Sixteen teams. Two rounds and alot of hurling done.

And, somehow, we still have almost everything to play for.