The recent spate of fine weather may have taken 24 hours off for round four of the Celtic Challenge last Saturday, but it didn't prevent some brilliant performances from being delivered.

East Waterford made it two wins in a row in Group E, South Tipp maintained their brilliant form with another convincing win while Roscommon enjoyed a great win over neighbours Sligo.

Wexford Purple had a super victory over Dublin Clarke just five days after beating Meath Royals, while the Galway dominance of this competition continued with wins for all three Tribesmen sides - Galway Maroons, Galway McDonaghs and Galway Maroons.

East Waterford 2-13 Cork City 1-8

By Eoin Breathnach

East Waterford continued their climb up the Group E table with an excellent win over a gallant Cork City side in Kill GAA Club last Saturday.

A game in the home club of Captain Conor Burns was enjoyable for those in attendance with East Waterford always ahead, but never comfortable against the Leesiders who kept playing to the final whistle.

Once again East Waterford started well with Jack Troy and Sam Flynn prominent in the early exchanges as the Déise boys established an early lead.

A 20th minute Cork penalty converted by Blake was immediately replied to by a super team goal finished by Sean McDonald. A 2nd Waterford goal before half time was finished by Alan Kirwan displaying many of the skills his father Anthony had done in a Waterford Jersey over the years leaving the half time score, East Waterford 2-7 Cork City 1-4.

The second half was a tight affair with scored harder to come by. Cork City had plenty possession but some excellent defending by Déise defenders especially Páraic Hallihan and Matthew Kiely kept the Rebels at bay.

A couple of excellent deliveries from the ultra consistent Harry White set up scores for Seaghan Walsh and Troy again to ensure East Waterford remained on top at all time as the game entered the final stages.

A second win in a row so for East Waterford with 24 players having now started so far in the first four games of this excellent competition. The games are coming thick and fast with final group game and quarter Final in the next 2 weeks.

Next up for East Waterford is the final group game on Wednesday 31st May against East Cork in Fraher Field at 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, the best and fairest award for East Waterford on the day was Ballygunner’s Jack Troy who has been in excellent form scoring from play and frees in every game so far.

Roscommon 5-14 Sligo 1-12

By Frances Hanley

Although the scoreline  would suggest a  comfortable  win for Roscommon this was a very competitive game.

Sligo were very much in touch in the early stages of the game but three goals for Roscommon gave them a strong lead.

At half time the scoreline read Roscommon 4-9 - Sligo 0-6.

Sligo competed well in the second half and actually outscored Roscommon by 1-6 to 1-5. It wasn't  enough and attention  now turns to the final game in the group  against  Mayo.

Sligo's top scorer Andrew  Kilcullen received the " Best and Fairest  Award" for Sligo, emulating his brother Niall's achievement in the first game against Galway.

South Tipperary 9-16  South/East Limerick 2-7

By Fergus McGrath

In another clash of neighbours, South Tipperary got their campaign back on track against South/East Limerick in the very impressive grounds of the Staker Wallace GAA club at  Martinstown Co. Limerick.

The game started with Tipperary coming close to raising a few green flags before eventually doing so through Stephen Grogan (2) and Mark Downey.

The sides swapped points throughout the first half but three more goals for South Tipperary from Stephen Grogan (2) and Aaron Ryan left the half time score at South Tipperary 6-6 South/East Limerick 0-5.

South East Limerick opened the scoring in the second half in spirited fashion with an early point which was followed shortly afterwards by two goals.

South Tipperary responded with goals from Oisin Drennan, Tomas Vaughan and Stephen Grogan and a scattering of points from Aidan Griffin, Mark Stokes and T.J. Quigley and ultimately ran out winners.

**Galway McDonaghs 4-10 North/Mid Tipperary 0-09 **

By David Minogue

North/Mid Tipperary were defeated by Galway McDonaghs in the fourth round of the Celtic Challenge in Nenagh on Saturday 27th May.

The North/Mid Tipp side started the game well and led at the break (0-08 to 1-1) against a heavily fancied Galway side.

In truth, the Tipperary side should have led by more at the break. Despite dominating possession and territory they were wasteful on numerous occasions when electing to shoot from long range. Luke Cashin was also unlucky to have an effort superbly saved by the foot of the Galway ‘keeper while Michael Nally saw his effort came off the butt of the post. At the other end the Tipp backs were well on top with the Galway scores both coming from placed balls.

However, this really was a game of two halves. In the second half, the North/Mid side got the opening score within two minutes of the restart, but would fail to register a score for the remaining 28 minutes. The Tipperary forward line were engineering chances, but they could not find a way past the Galway goalkeeper.

At the other end, the Galway forwards moved up a gear and helped themselves to four goals as they ran out winners.

North/Mid Tipperary’s Shane Doyle won the Best and Fairest player award as selected by the referee. The North/Mid Tipperary side will need to be more clinical when they face Galway Maroon in the final round in Portumna on Wednesday May 31st at 7.30p.m.