WHAT could have been a stern test of Carlow's hurling as the Christy Ring Cup champions pitted their wits against a fully-fledged Fitzgibbon Cup team became more akin to a 'mock examination' when UCD chose to send their second string outfit to Dr Cullen Park got this Walsh Cup Shield quarter-final.

Still, a good performance in the 'mocks' is a confidence booster for the 'real thing' and after an iffy enough opening sitting, Carlow got down to serious business in the second session to emerge with a deserved honour, albeit with a rider, 'could do better'.

Highest marks on the day have to go the 20 year-old left full forward Paudie Kehoe who was a first time pull and two wayward frees away from writing himself into the record books.

Paudie finished the hour with a whopping 2-9 to his credit, 2-3 from play and had his 59th minute first whip on a ground ball not whizzed narrowly wide of the scoreboard end posts the St Mullins raider would have surpassed Des Murphy's 5-2 against Fermanagh in Irvinstown in 2001 as the highest individual tally by a Carlow hurler in competitive inter-county hurling.

As it is that 2-9 sees him join Jimmy McCarthy (4-3 v Down in Dr Cullen Park in the 1960 All-Ireland JHC semi-final in Dr Cullen Park) and Pat Coady (1-12 v Longford a perfect stick pass into the hands of Eddie Byrne who, outside the 21m line, dummied to shoot put instead drifted a hand-pass to Kehoe raiding in from his left. A quick catch and shot and the scoreboard end net was dancing.

2-9 to 0-8 at that juncture, Carlow extended their lead by a further two points during the closing quarter, substitute Eoin Minchin and old stager Eddie Coady landing a couple of inspirational long range scores.

At the other end substitute goalkeeper Kevin Kehoe, who made his competitive inter-county senior debut when replacing David Miley at half-time, brought off a brilliant full length diving save to deny UCD a goal, diverting a first time pull to safety just after a Hugh Paddy O'Byrne hook had prevented the Sky Blues raising the green flag.

Kevin Kehoe, who last Spring with Good Counsel, New Ross became the first Carlow man in 61 years to play in an All-Ireland Senior A Colleges hurling final, is the eighth member of the 2006 Carlow minor team, who created history by contesting the county's first ever Leinster MHC final, to graduate to a red, yellow and green senior jersey.

Five of those were still minor the following year when Carlow were unlucky to lose to Wexford in Wexford and three more boys who played that night have made the step up to senior, including Alan 'Alfie' Corcoran who made his debut on Saturday and hurled a tidy game at corner-back.

Yes, the work at under-age level is beginning to filter through to senior ranks and with a leavening of experience from the likes of ageless veterans Edward Coady and Damien Roberts, both in their third decade of inter-county hurling, Carlow, under the astute tutelage of Kevin Ryan, are moving in the right direction. in the 2003 NHL, also in Dr Cullen Park) in joint second place in the all-time list.

Wides from a close range free and a 65 also prevented him from bettering that 2-9 but they were the only errors in a fine individual performance from a youngster in just his second year of senior inter-county hurling.

And it was another young gun, also in his second year of inter-county fare, who set-up Kehoe for both goals, goals which finally killed off the enthusiastic collegians who must have sensed a surprise victory when leading 0-7 to 0-5 at the end of a pedestrian first half.

Carlow had levelled up at 0-7 apiece when five minutes after the restart tall Eddie Byrne collected a long David English delivery inside the 20m line slightly to the right of the posts. 'Feathers' low shot for goal was halfblocked down but squirted to the far post where the lurking Paudie, possibly availing of the new square-ball rule, tapped the sliotar over the line.

We had also seen an experimental rule impact in the 21st minute when the penalty for David Miley pucking the ball from outside the small square was a throw-in on the 20m line rather than the punitive '65' that applied heretofore.

Though James Foley replied to that Kehoe goal with a pointed UCD free the home side, who brought on four subs at half-time, were beginning to get on top, two of those replacements setting up Paudie Kehoe for a brace of points from play with astute passes.

Then, in the 55th minute came the clinching goal and a superb team goal it was. Veteran Damien Roberts collected possession between the 65 and 45m lines and delivered