Laois 0-15 Carlow 0-14
The Laois hurlers have preserved their Division 1 status for another year thanks to a hard-fought win over Carlow in horrific conditions in O'Moore Park on Saturday night.
The pitch was showing the strain of its fourth game in seven days and underfoot conditions were terrible from the start.
Laois clocked up a litany of wides in the first 35 minutes though a brilliant performance from Ross King - who hit eight points, three of them from play - helped the home side to 0-10 to 0-5 lead at the break. In all King hit 12 points in a man of the match performance.
Willie and Aaron Dunphy added a point apiece for Laois while all of Carlow's scores in the first half came from Marty Kavanagh frees.
Carlow reduced the gap to two early in the second half thanks to points from Kavanagh and sub Chris Nolan though a King free and a point from play from a tight angle from Ciaran McEvoy settled Laois somewhat by the 50th minute.
Nolan and Kavanagh kept plugging away for Carlow and though King kept Laois in front with frees, the visitors drew level with a minute of normal time remaining when John Nolan pointed.
King nudged Laois back in front with a free straight away and Kavanagh missed a late free to force a draw out of it.
Laois: E Rowland; L Senior, M Whelan, D Hartnett; C McEvoy (0-1), P Delaney, J Kelly; J Lennon, F C-Fennell; P Purcell, J Ryan, A Dunphy (0-1); R King (0-12, 0-9 frees), W Dunphy (0-1), E Gaughan. Subs: C Taylor for A Dunphy (56), R Broderick for Kelly (57), C Comerford for Fennell (65)
Carlow: D Jordan; M Doyle, P Doyle, R Smithers; A Corcoran, D English, G Bennett; A Amond, K McDonald; D Byrne, JM Nolan, J Kavanagh; T Joyce, M Kavanagh (0-11, 0-8 frees), P Coady. Subs: C Nolan (0-2) for Coady (H-T), J Nolan (0-1) for Amond (54), S Whelan for Joyce (56), E Byrne for D Byrne (64), M Malone for JM Nolan (67)
Referee: Cathal McAllister (Cork)
