The young guns led the way for Gort on Saturday as they helped the Galway club to their second Connacht title of the year, creating a piece of club history in the process. Gort clinched the Connacht Shield Final in dramatic fashion to complete a fine couple of weeks for the club, as they had also reached the the All-Ireland Final in the Pierce Purcell competition, having earlier won the Connacht title for the first time.

It was the first time in the club's history they had won two Connacht titles in the same year.

They had gone into the Shield Final against Boyle trailing 4-1 and needed to win four matches in Gort on Saturday to force a play-off, which they duly did.

And in the play-off it was the youngsters who came through with flying colours. Fourteen year-old Tony Finnegan and 17 year-old Eoin Keating had won their match on the 14th hole and were then put into action once again in the play-off by team Captain Noel Forde.

And they didn't let the team down, parring the first sudden-death play-off hole to give Gort their third Connacht Shield title, having won previously in 1965 and 1978.

The other pairings on the successful team were Gerry Cahill (who won his first Connacht Shield 36 years ago) and Gerry Connolly; Kevin Fahy and John Counihan; the father and son team of Niall and Noel O'Shaughnessy and Pat Cradock and John Madden.