Castletown Geoghegan see off Thomastown, Kilcormac-Killoughey overcome St Mullins
Tom Aib Wrap: Castletown After Celebrate Leinster Picture: Final Club Leinster Side's In Beary/sportsfile Their Shc Geoghegan Victory The Quarter
No Westmeath side has ever won the AIB Leinster club SHC, or even reached a final, and that record may not even change in the coming weeks.
But Castletown Geoghegan have still managed to pull off the most significant result of this year's championship, beating Kilkenny's Thomastown by 1-25 to 1-14 to reach Leinster's last four.
Having taken out powerhouse outfits Ballyhale Shamrocks and Leinster title holders O'Loughlin Gaels within Kilkenny, reigning All-Ireland intermediate champions Thomastown looked like the team to beat this winter.
But a nightmare second-half in Mullingar ultimately cost them as they watched a one-point half-time lead somehow morph into an 11-point defeat.
The dismissal of former Kilkenny senior Jonjo Farrell early in the second-half was significant though the hosts' ultra intensity and crispness of hurling suggested they may have won anyhow.
Free-taker Niall O'Brien finished with a whopping 1-13, helping to secure Castletown Geoghegan's return to TEG Cusack Park (1.15pm) to play Kilcormac Killoughey of Offaly next Sunday.
Castletown Geoghegan, managed by former Westmeath footballer Alan Mangan, will hope to start against the 2012 Leinster champions next weekend as they left off here, outscoring Thomastown by 1-13 to 0-4 in the second-half.
Kilcormac-Killoughey were pushed all the way in their 1-17 to 1-12 quarter-final win over St Mullins of Carlow.
The Screeney brothers, Adam and Jack, drilled seven points between them while Daniel Hand netted in the Netwatch Cullen Park fixture.
Kilcormac-Killoughey, without Cillian Kiely and Ter Guinan, led by nine points at one stage after a lightning start but were reeled back in by the hosts who were superbly led by James Doyle, 1-4.
Meanwhile, Wexford's Rory O'Connor struck 11 points as St Martin's enjoyed a profitable trip to Newbridge, overcoming hosts Naas by 1-15 to 0-13.
A week after the Naas footballers were beaten at the new look St Conleth's Park, their hurlers suffered the same outcome.
But it was a battle throughout and it was only when Jack O'Connor netted in the closing minutes that St Martin's set the seal on victory - propelling them through to a semi-final against Na Fianna next Sunday at Parnell Park.