Limerick opened their Tailteann Cup campaign with a 0-25 to 1-15 victory over London at a sun drenched Newcastle West.
The Division 4 league champions were always comfortable against a London side that played in fits and starts.
Limerick opened the scoring with a well-taken Tommie Childs point but the visitors squared the game almost immediately through the impressive Ciarán Diver.
Diver was on target again in the sixth minute with another cracking effort and a Shay Rafter effort then saw London lead 0-03 to 0-01.
Limerick responded through James Naughton but Kristian Healy restored London's two-point advantage.
However, Limerick took hold of the game after that with Emmet Rigter and Peter Nash levelling the contest by the 14th minute.
Further scores followed from Nash and Danny Neville before a Daniel Clarke point brought London to within a point.
Jimmy Lee’s men then kicked the first two-pointer of the Tailteann Cup with Darragh O’Hagan booming one in from long range.
Rigter followed up with another from a touchline free that saw Limerick 0-10 to 0-5 clear with 25 minutes played.
Four more without reply thanks to Corbett, Neville, Naughton and Rigter stretched Limerick’s lead to nine.
London could have wilted at this stage but responded impressively with a Liam Gallagher ’45 and a Rafter effort from play.
They then split the Limerick defence in two and a superb Ruairi Rafferty shot beat Josh Ryan to cut Limerick’s lead to just four points.
Rafter and Diver had the final saw of the half with two fine kicks from play that saw the score at 0-14 to 1-9 in Limerick’s favour at the break.
The game was at a slower pace in the early stages of the second half but substitute Barry Coleman got Limerick off the mark with another two-pointer.
Joshua Obahor had a quick response for Limerick but a Nash free, O’Hagan from play and another two-pointer from Corbett allayed any comeback hopes.
Another Limerick sub, Rory O’Brien, hit the target to make the game 0-21 to 1-11 with 20 to play before a Rafter close range strike that flashed over the bar.
Josh Ryan fired over another two-pointer for Limerick late on that was matched by Matt Moynihan but it was Limerick that had the final score with Naughton’s fourth sealing a seven-point winning margin.
Limerick: J Ryan (0-02, 1tpf); J Hassett, D O’Doherty, C McSweeney; M McCarthy, I Corbett (0-03, 1tp), T Ó Siochru; T Childs (0-01), D O’Hagan (0-03, 1tpf); P Maher, E Rigter (0-04, 1tpf), C Fahy; D Neville (0-02), J Naughton (0-04), P Nash (0-03, 1f).
Subs: B Coleman (0-02, 1tpf) for McSweeney (h-t), D Murray for Maher (44), B Childs for Rigter (53), R O’Brien (0-01) for Neville (56), K Ryan for Corbett (66).
London: A Walsh; D Rooney, S Taylor, C McCarrick; E Walsh, M Moynihan (0-02, 1tp), C Gallagher; T Barry, J Obahor (0-01); L Gallagher (0-01, 1’45), D Clarke (0-01), K Healy (0-01); R Rafferty (1-00), S Rafter (0-05, 1f)), C Diver (0-04, 0-01f).
Subs: C O’Donoghue for Barry (52), F Eastwood for Walsh (60), N McElwaine for C Gallagher (61), M O’Reilly for Clarke (66), C Cox for Obahor (68).
Referee: S Mulhaire (Laois).
