The Nicky Rackard Cup (; often referred to as the Rackard Cup) is the fourth tier of the

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

. Each year, the champion team in the Nicky Rackard Cup is promoted to the Christy Ring Cup, and the lowest finishing team is relegated to the

Lory Meagher Cup The Lory Meagher Cup (; often referred to as the Meagher Cup) is the fifth-highest inter-county senior championship in hurling. Each year, the champion team in the Lory Meagher Cup is promoted to the Nicky Rackard Cup. The Lory Meagher Cup, w ...

. The Nicky Rackard Cup, which was introduced for the 2005 season, is a recent initiative in providing a meaningful championship for third tier teams deemed "too weak" for any higher grades. The winners of the championship receive the Nicky Rackard Cup, named after former

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

hurler

Nicky Rackard Nicholas Rackard (28 April 1922 – 10 April 1976) was an Irish hurler whose league and championship career with the Wexford senior team spanned seventeen years from 1940 to 1957. He established many championship scoring records, including bein ...

regarded as one of the greatest hurlers of all time. In the

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

season, Tyrone were the Nicky Rackard Cup champions.

History and format

Inauguration of the competition

In 2003 the Hurling Development Committee (HDC) was charged with restructuring the entire hurling championship. The committee was composed of chairman Pat Dunny (Kildare), Liam Griffin (Wexford), P. J. O'Grady (Limerick),

Ger Loughnane Gerard "Ger" Loughnane (born 27 January 1953) is an Irish retired hurler who played as a right wing-back for the Clare senior team. Born in Feakle, County Clare, Loughnane first played competitive hurling whilst at school in St. Flannan's C ...

(Clare),

Cyril Farrell Cyril Farrell (born 1 August 1950) is an Irish former hurling manager, selector, trainer and coach. He was the manager of the senior Galway county team on three separate occasions, during which time he became the county's longest-serving mana ...

(Galway), Jimmy O'Reilly (Down), Willie Ring (Cork), Pat Daly (GAA Games Development Officer) and

Nicky English Nicholas J. "Nicky" English (born 20 October 1962) is an Irish former hurler who played as a full-forward at senior level for the Tipperary county team. Born in Cullen, County Tipperary, English first played competitive Gaelic games during h ...

(Tipperary). Over the course of three months they held discussions with managers, players and officials, while also taking a submission from the

Gaelic Players Association The Gaelic Players Association ( ga, Cumann na n-Imreoirí Gaelacha), or GPA, is the officially recognised player representative body for inter county Gaelic footballers and Hurling, hurlers in Ireland. The GPA's aim is to promote and protect all ...

. The basic tenet of the proposals was to structure the hurling championship into three tiers in accordance with 2004 National Hurling League status. The top tier was confined to 12 teams, while the next twenty teams would contest the second and third tiers which were to be known respectively as the Christy Ring Cup and Nicky Rackard Cup. There would also be promotion-relegation play-offs between the three championship tiers. The HDC also suggested that these games would be played as curtain raisers to All-Ireland quarter-finals and semi-finals. The proposal were accepted at the 2005

GAA Congress The GAA Congress is the supreme legislative body of the Gaelic Athletic Association ( ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ), commonly known by its acronymic, the ''GAA''. The GAA is the international governing body of Gaelic games such as football and hurl ...

. The Christy Ring Cup and the Nicky Rackard Cup competitions were launched at

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and he ...

on 8 December 2004.

2005-2006

The twelve participating teams were divided into three groups of four and played in a round-robin format. Each team was guaranteed at least three games each. The three group winners qualified for the knock-out semi-finals of the competition. The runners-up in groups 3B and 3C contested a play-off with the winner playing the runner up in group 3A in a lone quarter-final. The winner of that match joined the three group winners in the semi-finals.

2007-2008

The twelve participating teams were divided into four groups of three and played in a round-robin format, thus limiting each team to just two games each. The eventual group winners and runners-up qualified for the knock-out quarter-finals of the competition.

2009-2017

In 2009 a

double elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

format was introduced, thus guaranteeing each team at least two games before being eliminated from the competition. *The eight teams play four Round 1 matches. **The winners in Round 1 advance to Round 2A. **The losers in Round 1 go into Round 2B. *There are two Round 2A matches. **The winners in Round 2A advance to the semi-finals. **The losers in Round 2A go into the quarter-finals. *There are two Round 2B matches. **The winners in Round 2B advance to the quarter-finals. **The losers in Round 2B go into the relegation playoff. ***The losers of the relegation playoff are relegated to the

for the following year. *There are two quarter-final matches between the Round 2A losers and Round 2B winners. **The winners of the quarter-finals advance to the semi-finals. **The losers of the quarter-finals are eliminated. *There are two semi-final matches between the Round 2A winners and the quarter-final winners. **The winners of the semi-finals advance to the final. **The losers of the semi-finals are eliminated. *The winners of the final win the Nicky Rackard Cup and are promoted to the Christy Ring Cup for the following year.

2018-present

Beginning in 2018, the Nicky Rackard Cup changed format, with initial ties played in group stages, which in 2018 consisted of one of four teams and one of three. Previously it was a double elimination tournament. The top two teams from both groups advance to the cup semi-finals. The bottom team from each group will progress to a relegation final. The winner of the Nicky Rackard Cup will be promoted to the Christy Ring Cup, For 2018 only, 2 teams will be relegated from the 2018 Christy Ring Cup to the 2019 Nicky Rackard Cup to bring the number of teams in the 2019 edition to an even 8, allowing for two groups of 4. The loser of the relegation final will be relegated to the

, to be replaced by the winner of the previous years competition.

List of finals

Team Records and Statistics

Wins by Province

Player Records

Top Scorers Per Championship

Top Scorers: Final

References

{{Hurling All-Ireland inter-county hurling championships Hurling cup competitions