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More All-Ireland glory for Clare

AS the 60 x 30 handball season draws to a close, Clare were involved in three deciders on the last weekend of All-Ireland finals, winning two doubles titles, to add to singles medals already captured by Pat Donellan and John Kirby.All three finals were played at St Coman’s, Roscommon town on Saturday and first up was the ladies’ junior singles final between Tuamgraney’s Ashling Fitzgerald and Aoife McCarthy of Westmeath. Fitzgerald won a great first game 21-19 but, despite putting up a great battle, was defeated 21-11, 21-13 in the next two games.Pat Donellan and Stephen McInerney played Cavan pair Andy Clarke and Dermot Dolan in the golden masters’ B doubles final. Similar to Donellan’s epic singles final win two weeks previously, the Clare duo were again forced to go the full distance to claim victory in the third game on a 12-21, 21-9, 21-12 scoreline.After recovering from losing the first game, the Kilkishen clubmen always looked in control and …

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Clare footballers honoured in Australia

A WORKING holiday abroad provided the three young Clare men with the chance to experience playing Australian Rules football.Twenty-four-year-old Gerard Murphy from Lissycasey has played as a forward and back at senior level for his home club. Patrick Looney, 21, a forward and Gearoid Meade, 23, a back, have both played senior level for their club, Cooraclare. Looney was a county minor representative and Meade represented the county a U-21 level.After their arrival in Australia, they learned there was employment available in a grain terminal in the small country town of Beulah in the state of Victoria.Beulah is a town of 200 people located 100 kilometres from the nearest regional city. The main industry is grain farming and the population of the area is declining.The lads immediately impressed the locals with their strong work ethic. They also got along well with the young people from the town. It was through these friendships that the Irish boys got invited to come …

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Nominations sought for football boss

Clare GAA has decided to seek nominations for the position of county senior football manager for 2012. Holder of the post for the past two years, Micheál McDermott confirmed to this week’s special board meeting that he is available to continue for another term and this has led to speculation that he will be the only candidate when nominations close next Wednesday.Miltown delegate Noel Walsh proposed at this week’s meeting that the same selection process as applied for the hurling post should apply now and clubs should be asked to nominate. The proposal was seconded by Clondegad’s Seamus O’Reilly, who went on to ask “the local media to note that his club were of the opinion there is a need for change”.Doonbeg’s Michael Neenan asked the meeting “to go deeper with regard to who is put in place. Put in place a director of football and start from the ground up. Take a leaf from the book of Tipperary in …

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Sixmilebridge edge into last four

Sixmilebridge 0-17 Inagh-Kilnamona 0-15 AN excellent game of hurling on Saturday evening was spoiled in the closing seconds by a nasty incident that ended with Inagh-Kilnamona’s Cathal Lafferty being dismissed on a straight red card.Two minutes of injury time had been signalled by match official, Rory Hickey and this had almost expired when the incident happened. Inagh-Kilnamona were trying to mount a last attack in search of the goal they needed to keep their championship hopes alive when all hell broke loose. The match official had no hesitation in dismissing Lafferty before blowing the final whistle. It was a disappointing end to what had been a most entertaining game of hurling.On the run of play, Sixmilebridge just about deserved their win but Inagh-Kilnamona will feel they could now be preparing for a semi-final, such was the closeness of the contest.While there were some excellent scores, both sides failed to capitalise on goal chances. The majority of these chances came in …

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Kilmihil reach first minor final since 1995

Kilmihil 0-11 Kilmurry-Ibrickane 1-7   Eight points down four minutes into the second half, Kilmihil’s participation in the 2011 minor A county football final was nestling firmly in the ‘highly unlikely’ category.Kilmurry-Ibrickane had led 1-5 to 0-1 at half-time and when Niall Hickey pointed his fourth free early in the second half, the game looked up for Kilmihil. Their chances of reaching their first minor A final since 1995 looked as likely as an Irish man and a Greek being handed control of the IMF for a month. Darren Sexton scored Kilmurry’s goal from the penalty spot 13 minutes before half-time. Sexton himself was fouled and he buried the penalty, which actually went through the net at the scoreboard end in Doonbeg. Sexton also pointed from play in the first half, while Aaron Murrihy, along with Niall Hickey, was Kilmurry’s other first half scorer as Kilmurry took advantage of a strong wind. Martin O’Leary was Kilmihil’s only scorer in the …

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Champions dominate to seal semi-final spot

Crusheen 1-24 Broadford 0-10   TITLEHOLDERS Crusheen were comfortable winners over Broadford at Clarecastle on Sunday.The foundations for the victory were laid in the opening half, at the end of which the winners were ahead by a point after playing against the very stiff wind.The teams were level on five occasions in the opening half and they exchanged points at the start of the second half before the titleholders hit five in-a-row in as many minutes, after which the Broadford challenge faded.The East Clare outfit were unable to match the experience of the Clare champions and were always struggling in the second half.The teams exchanged points twice in the opening minutes before Broadford took a two-point lead by the eighth minute. However, they failed to build on this, finding it difficult to get past the winners’ half-back trio of Ciarán O’Doherty and the Dillon brothers, Cian and Cathal.The winners were back on level terms by the end of the opening …

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McGrath and McInerney too good for Tulla

Cratloe 4-12 Tulla 0-15 THE twin striking force of Conor McGrath and Cathal McInerney proved too much for Tulla in the first of the Clare Senior Hurling Championship quarter-finals at Cusack Park last Saturday.Between them, they accounted for all but four points of Cratloe’s total and, as they had done a week earlier for the club’s footballers, helped them become the first of the 2011 quarter-finalists.This victory for Cratloe keeps their double dream alive. This week, the focus switches back to football and the club’s county semi-final date with Kilmurry-Ibrickane. They are also in the U-21A football final and the club’s minor footballers qualified for the C championship final, where they will play St Breckan’s.While Cratloe were deserving winners on Saturday, the final scoreline is a little unfair on Tulla. The winner’s third goal came in the 59th minute of the game, while Cathal McInerney completed his hat-trick of goals in the fourth minute of injury time.While Tulla had the …

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