Sligo hurlers have again been drawn to play Offaly in the 2021 Christy Ring Cup.
This year’s competition comprises just five teams.
It will be made up of two groups, one with three teams (Wicklow, Roscommon, and Derry) and one with two teams – Offaly and Sligo.
Group A will be played in round robin format and each team will have one home and one away game with the top two teams qualifying for the semi-finals and the third placed team playing in the quarter-final.
Offaly and Sligo will play one match in Group B with the winner playing in the semi-finals and the loser playing in the quarter-final.
The teams were due to play each other in the group stages of last year’s Christy Ring.
However, the pandemic forced a change to the format of the competition, which meant the original matches were never played.
The winner of the Christy Ring cup will be promoted to the Joe McDonagh Cup for 2022 while the loser of the quarter-final will be relegated to the Nicky Rackard Cup for 2022.
Mickey McCann’s Donegal and Olcan Conway’s Leitrim have been drawn in the same Nicky Rackard Group.
The Nicky Rackard Cup will comprise of two groups, one with three teams (Donegal, Mayo, Leitrim) and one with two teams (Armagh, Tyrone) based on an open draw.
It will follow the exact same format as the Christy Ring Cup.
Donegal are contesting the Nicky Rackard again this year, despite winning the competition in 2020.
The pandemic-enforced changes to the championships last year meant there was no promotion from the various hurling tiers.
The winner of the Nicky Rackard Cup will be promoted to the Christy Ring Cup for 2022.
