City sides kept apart in new hurling draw

RED-FACED Hurling Board officials reconvened in Athenry on Tuesday night to carry out the draw for the group phase of the Safety Direct senior hurling championship, after the original draw two weeks earlier had been rendered null and void.Controversy had followed the original draw at the Raheen Woods Hotel when it was discovered that Kinvara’s name had not been noted down after the 2007 county finalists were taken from the drum – instead of re-staging the draw, officials had decided to place the sea-siders into the fourth and final group. As it dawned on the club delegates that the original draw had not been carried out in a 'proper’ manner, it was agreed it should be re-staged at the same venue on Tuesday. “It was a bit of a joke,” admitted Hurling Board Secretary John Fahey. “When all the balls were taken out of the drum and we had the names typed up, we realised that we were missing Kinvara. It was a case of human error, with one man handing the ball to another after taking it from the drum. It was decided that the best thing to do was to run the draw again.”As a result...