Ballyhale Shamrocks 2-20 Toomevara 3-14:Wild times in Portlaoise eventually yielded to the conformity of the odds. After as exhilarating a hurling match as February has any right to offer, the verdict was arrived at bang on the bookies' spread - a three-point win for the Leinster champions in Saturday's AIB All-Ireland club semi-final.
But let's not judge a space voyage by the splashdown. Toomevara, well practised this season in escapology, for once found themselves fastening the chains around the box only to see their mercurial opponents slipping free with a goal to spare in injury-time.
"That last 15 minutes is when we were caught," said Toomevara manager Pat Herbert, "which is unusual for us. Normally Toomevara are eight or nine points down and it was unusual at half-time to find ourselves that much up. We're at our best coming from behind. Losing a man at a vital stage means losing a forward and they cut off that supply of ball into the inside forwards in the last few minutes."
No one in the 8,000 crowd could fail to marvel at the Kilkenny side's brilliance in taking a match they trailed at one stage by 12 points and bending it to their will but similarly who wouldn't feel sorry for the Tipp champions, who despite multiple woes came so close to springing a big surprise. Already they were missing the injured John O'Brien, their key forward to date, and the suspended Paul McGrath, and with the match on the line in the 48th minute they lost Tommy Dunne, one of the club's greatest players, to a rashly collected red card for throwing a punch.
There was probably merit in Ballyhale's contention that the match had turned by then but there was still sadness in the sight of such a great and sporting hurler ending the last match of his career distraught on the sideline.
Despite their starting travails the Greyhounds were so fast and aggressively out of the traps they nearly had Shamrocks lapped on the half hour when they led by 3-10 to 0-7.
Their forwards had started in marauding style, snapping over chances and most devastatingly capitalising on hesitant defence to flash in three goals in 11 minutes: the first two in the fifth and sixth came from determined running and composed stick work by Eoin Brislane and Paddy O'Brien, culminating in strikes Ballyhale goalkeeper James Connolly will probably feel he should have stopped.
Ten minutes later Ken Dunne's shot came off the post and Willie Ryan was fouled for a penalty after winning the rebound. O'Brien's shot came off the bar and was planted by John Delaney.
Even though the pendulum swings hard in hurling this match was heading away from the Kilkenny champions.
Benny Dunne was playing superbly on Henry Shefflin and for all James Fitzpatrick's hard work and running, Toome were dominating centrefield. The one lifeline was they were still getting scores and when Patrick Reid scrambled a goal on 30 minutes to cut the interval deficit to eight, 1-8 to 3-10, it was hardly surprising the Kilkenny men saw glimmers of light.
Winning manager Maurice Aylward said afterwards: "I felt we were very much still in the game. I was looking at the Toomevara puck-outs in the first half and they were going a huge distance. I thought the breeze was blowing across the pitch but it was in our favour in the second half."
Toomevara began shooting wides - 11 in the second half compared with two in the first - whereas their opponents began unpicking the knots that bound them.
For all Shefflin's troubles with Dunne, his free taking was crucial and unerring - seven from seven - and his influence grew with clever distribution and in the 54th minute his precision cross found Fitzpatrick with an open goal to bring the match to within a score, 2-14 to 3-13.
Patrick Reid's point levelled the match in the 59th minute and two minutes later wing back Bob Aylward hit the lead with a massive return but in between O'Brien - playing so well he might have pipped James Fitzpatrick for man of the match - swept in a long ball that Ryan clipped past Connolly but which ran just wide.
Fittingly Fitzpatrick from play and Shefflin with a free rounded off the scoring. Crisis? What crisis?
BALLYHALE SHAMROCKS: J Connolly; P Shefflin, E Walsh, P Holden; K Nolan, A Cummins, B Aylward (0-1); J Fitzpatrick (1-4), M Fennelly; E Fitzpatrick, H Shefflin (0-8, seven frees), TJ Reid (0-2, one sideline); E Reid (1-2), P Reid (0-2), M Aylward. Subs: D Hoyne (0-1) for E Fitzpatrick (34 mins), C Fennelly for M Aylward (43 mins).
TOOMEVARA: J McGrath; D Young, T Delaney, Barry Dunne; Terry Dunne, Benny Dunne, J McLoughney; F Devaney (0-3), K Dunne (0-5, four frees and 65); P O'Brien (1-4), E Brislane (1-0), Thomas Dunne; M Bevins, W Ryan (0-1), J Delaney (1-1).
Referee: E Morris (Dublin).
