Connacht Senior Club Hurling Championship

The Connacht Senior Club Hurling Championship was an annual hurling tournament played between the senior hurling clubs in Connacht contested from 1970 until it became defunct after the conclusion of the 2007/08 season due to the predominance of the Galway champions coupled with a lack of meaningful opposition for quite some time. The winners of the Connacht hurling championship went on to qualify for the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final. Winners qualified for this competition by winning one of the five senior county championships in Connacht. Since Galway has traditionally been much stronger than the other counties, its county champions qualified automatically for the final. In 2007, this competition was won by Portumna from Galway, which happened to be the last time the competition was played, with the final being contested by Portumna and James Stephens of Ballina, Mayo. In the latter half of the 2000s, Portumna dominated hurling on the national stage, contesting four All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship finals in five years, winning three. Since the annulment of the competition, the Galway champions now qualify for the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final, while the county champions from the other four Connacht counties compete in the Connacht Intermediate Club Hurling Championship

Although the competition was dominated by the Galway sides throughout its history, the title left County Galway on three occasions when Roscommon provided winners on these occasions with Four Roads winning two titles in 1977 and 1988, while Tremane won their sole title in 1976. Four Roads were awarded the 1977 championship as a result of Galway champions Kiltormer being handed a 12 month suspension by the Galway County Board for incidents which took place in an under-21 club match involving the club, which happened after Kiltormer had won the Galway title and were due to play in the decider.^[1] Four Roads went on to represent Connacht in the All-Ireland semi-final of 1977/78. Mayo side Toureen reached the final on numerous occasions, most recently in 1999 when they ran Athenry close.^[2] No Sligo or Leitrim side competed in a final throughout the competition's existence.

Top winners

List of finals

References