HOLDERS St Patrick’s Maghera stormed into next week’s St Clare Cup final with a comfortable victory over Cross & Passion Ballycastle in Ballymena yesterday afternoon.

CPC got a decent start and led by 0-4 to 0-3 at the end of the first quarter with three scores from Clíodhna Thompson and an opener from Tegan Cassidy.

However Maghera then hit them with three goals in the space of five minutes from Caoimhe Roche and a brace from Gracie Diamond. From then on, Maghera were in control and Éadaoin Bradley, Roche and Diamond tagged on points for an interval lead of 3-6 to 0-4.

Caoimhe McShane hit back with a goal early in the second half and Tegan Cassidy added three points to close the gap slightly at 3-10 to 1-8 at the end of the third quarter. But St Patrick’s finished strongly with six of the last eight points, despite a huge performance from Ceala Casey and Caoimhe McGarry.

The second semi-final is this (FRIDAY) afternoon in Bellaghy when St Mary’s Magherafelt are favoured to beat St Louis Ballymena. St Mary’s topped the group after the round robin games over the last two months with Eva Forbes a towering presence at centre-forward.

Meanwhile Maghera and Cross & Passion are set to meet again this (FRIDAY) afternoon in Ballymena in the Danske Bank Gallagher Cup hurling semi-final with St Mary’s CBGS Belfast already through to next week’s final.

St Patrick’s: G Diamond 2-3, C Roche 1-2, E Bradley 0-4, E Diamond and R Quinn 0-2 each, E Scullion and R McNally 0-1 each.

CPC: C McShane 1-0, T Cassidy 0-6, C Thompson 0-3, R McMullan 0-1.