Clonkill were crowned Westmeath senior hurling champions for the first time since 2001 following a surprisingly comfortable victory over a very disappointing Lough Lene Gaels at Cusack Park, Mullingar. Clonkill......1-15 Lough Lene Gaels.0-5 After an evenly contested opening period, Clonkill gradually gained the upper hand and with centre half forward Brendan Murtagh to the fore, they had opened up a 0-7 to 0-2 lead by the 25th minute. Two minutes later, Alan Dowdall scored the only goal from 20 metres to give the Loughegar men an eight-point half time advantage. Lough Lene Gaels manager Mick Cosgrave made a number of positional changes for the second half, but they failed to have the desired effect as Clonkill continued to dominate. The closest the Gaels came to finding the net was when Derek McNicholas' free came back off the crossbar in the 39th minute. Following that let-off, Clonkill responded with a flurry of points from Andrew Mitchell and Enda Loughlin to end their six-year wait. Tweet

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