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The newly formed and now apparently ill-fated Laois Shopping Centre SHC ‘B’ championship looks as though it may not have a winner in its first year.
That is after the final, scheduled between The Harps and Abbeyleix was postponed yet again.
The original final was scheduled for last Friday but was postponed due to Storm Amy.
The game was then refixed for Wednesday evening in the Centre of Excellence but Laois GAA confirmed last night that this is now postponed.
They said: “The Senior B hurling final between The Harps and Abbeyleix is postponed. Will confirm new date and time over the next few days.”
When the new structure of the Laois Shopping Centre SHC was voted through, the question of what to do with the four sides who failed to progress from the groups arose.
It was decided that the bottom two teams in each group would go into a SHC ‘B’ competition.
This started as semi finals which also doubled as relegation semi finals.
The teams who won these, Abbeyleix and The Harps, saved their senior status.
But then perhaps bizarrely, they then went forward to compete to be crowned the seventh best team in the championship this year.
‘B’ competition exist in the Laois football championships for the last three years with varying levels of success.
The Laois IFC ‘B’ competition has seen its final failed to be played on two of the three occasions.
In 2023, Ballyroan-Abbey gave Timahoe a walkover and the same thing happened this year as Annanough received one from Mountmellick.
The Laois SFC ‘B’ competition has proved far more successful but that starts with eight teams rather than four as the two outlined above.
The future of the IFC ‘B’ and SFC ‘B’ will be something that fixture makers will have to look at over the closed season.
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