Sports

  JOHN and Regina O’Connell have been fighting almost every night lately. Thankfully, the Barefield husband and wife haven’t been brawling with each other. Instead, they have been religiously heading to Ennis Boxing Club in Chapel Lane, preparing for Friday’s Clare Conquest fight night in the Queen’s Hotel. John will fight Tony O’Dwyer in the night’s opening bout at 8.05pm, while his wife will take on Aisling O’Loughlin from Corofin later in the card, which will consist of 17 fights.“It was years ago. I was about 12, I’d say,” John replied, when asked if he’d ever boxed before. “I had no notion of going at the beginning but Regina and a couple of the lads went, so I decided I’d go as well. The craic has been mighty since. You meet some great friends,” he added.When John the ‘Mean Machine’ takes to the ring, he’ll have to manage without ‘Raging’ Regina’s moral or vocal support. She’ll have enough to do, …

CLARE intermediate camogie champions, Inagh take on London club, Tara in the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Club Championship final on Sunday. The game is scheduled for Ashbourne at 2.30pm. It will be history in the making for both sides as they contest an All-Ireland club final for the first time.Both sides have enjoyed a successful year. The London side bagged both the London senior league and championship titles. They overcame Ruairi Óg of Cushendall, Antrim 2-9 to 0-11 in the Ulster final and at home in the semi-final, saw off Myshal, Carlow, 2-6 to 0-6 on Saturday.The exiles have a strong panel from which to pick and captain Denise Gilligan, who leads the attack, will be a formidable opponent to mark. Gilligan bagged 1-6 against Myshall and 2-6 in the quarter-final.Inagh lost out on the league title in Clare in cruel fashion, when Truagh-Clonlara’s Michelle Caulfield goaled from a 45’ in the dying seconds of the game to snatch victory from …

ENNIS lady navigator Gráinne McEnery with Kerry driver Mike Quinn (Ford Escort) secured the 2011 Top Part West Coast Rally Championship by finishing second overall at the recent Banna Resort Kerry Mini Stages Rally.Gráinne, who works as service manager with O’Sullivan and Hansbury Motors in Ennis, is the first Clare competitor to win the championship since its inception in 1993.The championship is run over six rounds, starting with the Birr and District Motor Club Stages Rally, followed by the Circuit Of Kerry, Limerick’s Circuit of Munster, Galway’s Summer Rally, the Clare Stages Rally and concludes with the Kerry Mini Stages in Banna.Gráinne developed an interest in rallying from a young age as her dad, Joe, a keen rally spectator and her brother, Charlie, a championship-winning navigator, would bring her to various events around the country.She competed in her first rally as a navigator in 2006, the Clare Single Stage with driver John Reddington, where they finished 11th overall.In 2008, Gráinne …

IRISH champions Lee Sherlock, Brian McDonagh and Keelan Sexton had a break from hostilities last weekend as they piled on the training sessions in preparation for their home tournament in the next fortnight.Meanwhile, colleagues Conor Doyle, Jamie Keane, Wayne Danaher, Mike McDonagh, John McCormack and Sally Carrig, all travelled to Tralee for tournament action last Saturday. The Tralee show, which was held in the Abbeygate Hotel, scene of some great battles for Clare boxers in the past, had a capacity crowd on hand to cheer the boxers in some exciting bouts.It was a good evening for all six Ennis boxers with five victories amidst some stirring performances and a near flawless showing from middleweight Wayne Danaher, who seems to improve with every outing. Danaher, with his characteristic upright stance, showed glimpses of his potential power against Conor Fallon from Kilnamanagh whom he beat on the unanimous decision of the judges. He controlled the contest at long range and was always …

  Banner Ladies 6-8   Kilmihil 1-9 BANNER Ladies added the Division 1 league title to their senior championship crown when they beat holders, Kilmihil in Miltown on Sunday.A blistering start to both halves proved crucial and once more it was Niamh O’Dea who did the damage. In the first attack of the game, a quick free from Louise Henchy to O’Dea proved fruitful when the minor player drove it to the net. It was all Banner in the opening minutes and points from Rebecca Culligan and O’Dea put them 1-2 to 0-0 ahead.Kilmihil got going and began to whittle down the lead. Two points each from the Considine sisters, Ailish and Eimear, saw them trail by three with a quarter of an hour gone, while Banner were reduced to 14 players following the sin-binning of Katie Cahill for a foul on Eimear Considine, while Suzie McNamara and Niamh Keane pointed for the winners.O’Dea then goaled again when she was first …

CLARECASTLE’S Tommy Hegarty was honoured at the Irish Handball Association’s national awards function in Dublin on Saturday night, when he was named the national official of the year.A few weeks ago, Hegarty was named as the provincial official of the year when Diarmuid Nash (Tuamgraney) was named as the player of the year and Pat Donnellan (Kilkishen) was named the Munster masters player of the year.The national player of the year award went to Robbie McCarthy, Westmeath, while the national masters player of the year award went to Michael ‘Duxie’ Walsh from Kilkenny. Off to the US AT the recent Irish 40 x 20 championships in Kilkenny, three Clare representatives were victorious.Tulla’s Colin Corbett and Colin Crehan from Kilkishen won their respective age grades and as well as being crowned Irish nationals champions, they earned their place on the Irish team that will travel to Tucson, Arizona this December to compete in the prestigious US Junior Nationals.Clooney girl, Natasha Coughlan …

AVENUE, Connolly and Ennis Town Rock recorded good wins in the Munster Junior Cup at the weekend when two of the games needed a penalty shoot-out to provide a winner. Avenue United A 2   Newmarket Celtic A 2 (AET)Avenue won 3-1 on penalties AVENUE progressed to the next round of the Munster competition defeating great rivals, Newmarket Celtic in a penalty shoot-out.The winners got off to a dream start with a goal from Mikey Mahoney after a minute. Newmarket fought back and levelled through Stephen Kelly before taking the lead, just before half-time, through Daithi O’Connell.Ten minutes into the second half, David Russell equalised for the eventual winners.Ten minutes from the end, John Healy produced a good save from Eoin Hayes. With time almost up, Newmarket goalie Trevor O’Donnell produced an outstanding save from Alex Ezuko.The Newmarket goalie produced an equally excellent save at the end of extra time, this time from Barry Nugent, to keep the sides level.In the …

Bridge Celtic 4   Turnpike Rovers 0 BRIDGE Celtic were comfortable winners over Turnpike Rovers in their tie at Bridgetown on Sunday. After a scoreless first half, the home side struck early on the resumption and a brace from Willie Neary put them in the driving seat. Alan Conway hit another brace before the end of the game. Bridge Celtic: Paul O’Connell; Luke Turner, Derek Conway, William Slattery, Stephen Howard; Willie Neary, Paul McEvoy, Seamus Gleeson, Pat Tobin; Alan Conway, Wesley Fleming.Subs: Ollie Phillips, Fergal Lyons and Brendan Nolan.Turnpike Rovers: Ian Mounsey; Shane Moroney, Donnacda Hassett, Joe Slattery, Dermot Gannon; Dean O’Grady, David McMahon, Eric Considine, Jason Hayes, Sean Dobbins, James Keane.Subs: Eric Hayes and Mark Woods. Manus Celtic A 1   Avenue United B 1 MANUS took the lead when Simon McDonagh scored from the penalty spot. Andrew Page and John Molloy came close to adding to this lead, while Mike McDonagh saw his effort hit the post before half-time.Manus created …