Clare's Fergal Lynch is hoping history will repeat itself in tomorrow week's All-Ireland hurling final.

When Clare won the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1995, their starting team was made up entirely of bachelors and it will be the same scenario when the Banner do battle with Cork next weekend. But Lynch - who is the only married man in Davy Fitzgerald's squad - could feature at some stage as a substitute, just as Cyril Lyons did on that famous day against Offaly 18 years ago.

"Someone said to me the other day that none of them were married bar Cyril Lyons, who came on as a sub. I don't know if I'm playing the Lyons role. He was probably a better hurler than I am, but it's a good omen," the school principal noted in the Clare Champion.

"Brendan Bulger and Paddy Donnellan won't be too far behind me (to get married), I'd say. I'm going to give them up to Christmas, although they'll hardly last that long!"

The Clooney-Quin clubman says he feels very much at home in a squad that is dominated by players who are more than a decade younger than him.

"I think sometimes they reckon I'm as big a messer as they are themselves. I got on very well with the younger fellas. I look up to them as much as they look up to me. There's a great sense of respect among players and management. Even though there's an age difference between us, we all have great respect for each other," he added. Tweet

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