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The All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association since 1928 for the youngest (under-18) county teams in Ireland. It is currently sponsored by Electric Ireland and is therefore officially known as the Electric Ireland GAA Hurling All-Ireland Minor Championship.〔(Munster GAA ) website〕 The series of games are played during the summer months with the All-Ireland final being played on the first Sunday in September in Croke Park, Dublin. The prize for the winning team is the Irish Press Cup. The championship was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champions of each of the four provinces of Ireland. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a 'back-door system' for teams beaten in the provincial series. The championship currently consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in late May with the provincial championships in Leinster, Munster and Ulster. Even though a team may be defeated in the provincial stage they still have a chance to compete for the All-Ireland title. The Munster and Leinster champions are rewarded by gaining automatic admission to the All-Ireland semi-finals. Twenty-six teams currently participate in the championship, historically the most dominant teams have come from the provinces of Leinster and Munster. Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary have been considered to be 'the big three' of hurling. Between them, these teams have won on 57 All-Ireland championships. Since 2000 Galway (Six wins) and Kilkenny (Five wins) have dominated the Championship, and Galway are the current champions. The title has been won by ten different teams, nine of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Kilkenny, who have won the competition 21 times. ==Format== The All-Ireland Championship is a knockout tournament, however, there is a certain element of seeding. The Munster and Leinster champions are put on opposite sides of the draw in separate semi-finals. The Ulster champions and Galway are put on opposite sides of the draw in separate quarter-finals. The Munster and Leinster runners-up are drawn against these two teams in the quarter-finals. Each match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn there is a replay. Drawn replays are now settled with extra time, but if both sides are still level at the end of extra time a second replay takes place and so on until a winner is found. The format has remained virtually the same since the very first championship in 1928. In 1997 the biggest change took place with the introduction of a 'back-door' to the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the defeated finalists in Munster and Leinster. This followed on from the success of the same system at senior level. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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