The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Cratloe’s Munster double dream may be over for this year but they have a major assignment on Sunday.
With views of the rolling Cratloe Hills, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick is the venue for the meeting of the Clare champions and their Limerick counterparts, Kilmallock, in the provincial hurling decider at 2pm.
Adding to the huge interest in the game is the fact that Kilmallock are managed by Clare All-Ireland hero from 1995 and 1997, Clarecastle’s Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin.
Two of O’Loughlin’s former team mates, Brian Lohan and Alan Neville, are part of the Cratloe management team.
It remains to be seen if Cratloe’s defeat in the Munster football semi-final last week, when they had to play extra time, will have any impact.
It’s 14 years since the provincial title last came to Clare. In 2000, Sixmilebridge defeated Mount Sion from Waterford (2-17 to 3-8), the sixth title in-a-row for the county. Sixmilebridge (1995), Wolfe Tones (1996), Clarecastle (1997) and St Joseph’s (1998 and 1999) had won the title in the preceding years.
Meanwhile, Cratloe has been named the Munster Club of the Year, an award which will be presented at a function in a few weeks time.
