A 1-18 to 1-11 victory at Nowlan Park earned Ballyhale Shamrocks a Leinster Club SHC semi-final against Raharney of Westmeath in a fortnight following a hard earned seven-point win over Laois champions Rathdowney/Errill. Henry Shefflin and TJ Reid were the providers in chief for the eventual winners amassing 14 points between them over the hour. Shamrocks started this game strongly with an Eoin Reid goal after two and a half minutes following a long range pass from David Hoyne. Points from Henry Shefflin and TJ Reid propelled their side into a 1-2 to 0-0 lead after six minutes, as Rathdowney/Errill simply had no answer to an eager Shamrocks attack in the opening minutes. It took Rathdowney/Errill ten minutes to get their first point, with centre-half-forward Eoin Holohan slotting over an excellent effort from play. However Shamrocks' dominated once more to hold a six-point lead in the 20th minute, but Rathdowney/Errill stayed in touch thanks to a Jason Phelan goal eight minutes before the break. But this was a false dawn as Ballyhale tagged on seven points without reply before the interval to hold a 1-13 to 1-3 interval lead, with Henry Shefflin scoring six points at this stage, while TJ Reid raised the white flag on five occasions. Rathdowney/Errill failed to give up on the restart and really gave a strong account of themselves, with Brian Campion scoring four second half points, three within the opening eight minutes to cut the gap to seven points. Although the gap was reduced to six points with five minutes remaining Ballyhale finished strongly to secure victory. Ballyhale Shamrocks - J Connolly; P Shefflin, E Walsh, P Holden; M Dermody, A Cummins, B Aylward; J Fitzpatrick (0-2), M Fennelly (0-1); H Shefflin (0-8), B Costelloe, TJ Reid (0-5); P Reid (0-1), E Reid (1-0), D Hoyne (0-1). Rathdowney-Errill - JP Ryan; E Fitzpatrick, L Mahon, N Delaney; B Campion (0-5), Pat Mahon, J Fitzpatrick; S Dollard (0-1), Patrick Mahon; E Meagher (0-1), E Holohan (0-1), L Tynan; J Phelan (1-3), A Delaney, J Purcell. Subs - A Kavanagh for Patrick Mahon, L Wynne for Delaney. Ref - B Kelly (Westmeath). Tweet

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