Westport beat Cooke 9-5 yesterday to reach the All Ireland Junior Cup semi finals for the first time. They won away at Portadown in round one 8-0 in a major upset and were expected to struggle against Cooke who are from Belfast and unbeaten in the Ulster Junior league this season.

The visitors led 5-0 at half time with the wind at their backs and Westport slowly came back into it in the second half kicking three penalties from their veteran out half Eddie Walsh who is 39 and was joint coach of the Connacht junior inter provincial squad that won the championship in May.