Castlelyons overcome Corofin and the fog to land Munster Intermediate Hurling title

Castlelyons (Cork) 3-16 Corofin (Clare) 0-19

Fog threatened to derail Castlelyons' march to Munster glory. In the end, there was nothing could derail Noel Furlong’s men.

Four minutes into the second half of this Munster intermediate club hurling decider, and with Castlelyons 3-11 to 0-9 in front, worsening fog saw referee Conor Doyle call a temporary halt to proceedings.

The Tipperary official instructed 12 minutes be given to see if the fog would lift. At the end of those 12 minutes, and with no visible improvement in conditions - excuse the pun! - another 10 minutes was added to the delay in the hope that the cloud of thick fog at the City End might lift.

It did, eventually, and so after a 22-minute pause, the second half restarted.

Corofin’s Michael Kelly and Diarmaid Cahill clipped the first two scores upon the restart. It cut the deficit to nine. Six was as close as the Clare champions got thereafter.

They needed at least one green flag to properly threaten a comeback. The closest they came was a Gearóid Kelly shot late on kept out by Castlelyons ‘keeper Jack Barry.

Castlelyons had the fatal wounds inflicted long before the fog fell and lifted.

Based in Dubai, and having been a long-distance commuter during Castlelyons’ successful county championship campaign, Anthony Spillane had his latest flight home paid for by the 16th minute of this Munster final.

With just over a quarter of proceedings passed, the returning Spillane had helped himself to a hattrick.

The opening two green flags, which arrived inside the opening two minutes, captured the difference between the respective sides.

Those opening exchanges were littered with goal openings at either end. But where Corofin mined a solitary white flag from the three