The Leinster Junior B Club Hurling Championship is an annual

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

competition organised by Killeedy GAA Club in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

since 2006 for the champion junior B hurling teams in the province of

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The Antrim and Galway champions are also represented in the competition. The series of games are played during the winter months with the Leinster final currently being played in January. The prize for the winning team is the Alfie Hickey Memorial Cup. The championship has always been played on a straight knockout basis whereby once a team loses they are eliminated from the championship. The Leinster Championship is an integral part of the wider

All-Ireland Junior B Club Hurling Championship The All-Ireland Junior B Club Hurling Championship is an annual inter-county club hurling competition organised by Killeedy GAA club since 2006 for eligible hurling clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their count ...

. The winners and runners-up of the Leinster final join the winners and runners-up of the Munster final in the semi-final stages of the All-Ireland Championship. Sarsfields are the title-holders after defeating St. Martin's by 1–14 to 1–05 in the 2022 Leinster final.

History

Provincial club championships for respective junior B champions was the idea of the Killeedy GAA Club who, after winning the Limerick JBHC title in 2005, realised there were no provincial competitions in that grade of

. A senior championship had been running in Leinster since

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, while intermediate and

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

competitions had been recently introduced by GAA President Seán Kelly. Members of the Killeedy club approached a supportive Kelly, however, their proposal was rejected by Central Council. In spite of this setback, Killeedy organised their own unofficial

Munster Championship The Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest inter-county hurlin ...

for Junior B championship winners in 2005. A corresponding Leinster Championship was first organised in 2006 and received the official support of the

Leinster Council The Leinster Council is a provincial council of the Gaelic Athletic Association sports of hurling, Gaelic football, camogie, rounders and handball in the province of Leinster. The Leinster Council has been partnered with the European County ...

The championship

Overview

The Leinster Championship is a

single elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. Each team is afforded only one defeat before being eliminated from the championship. Pairings for matches are drawn at random and there is no

seeding The term seeding and related terms such as seeded are used in several different contexts: *Sowing, planting seeds in a place or on an object *Cloud seeding, manipulating cloud formations *Seeding (computing), a concept in computing and peer-to-pee ...

. Each match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn there is a period of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

, however, if both sides are still level there are penalties. Only the final, if both teams are still level after a period of extra time, goes to a replay.

Competition format

Quarter-finals: Eight teams contest this round. The four winning teams advance directly to the semi-final stage. The four losing teams are eliminated from the championship. Semi-finals: Four teams contest this round. The two winning teams advance directly to the final. The two losing teams are eliminated from the championship. Final: The final is contested by the two semi-final winners.

Trophy

At the end of the Leinster final, the winning team is presented with a trophy. The cup, named the Alfie Hickey Memorial Cup in honour of Alfie Hickey, a St. Lachtain's hurler and

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, is held by the winning team until the following year's final. The winning captain accepts the cup on behalf of his team before giving a short speech. Individual members of the winning team then have an opportunity to lift the cup.

History

The championship

Overview

Competition format

Trophy

Roll of honour

List of finals

References