125 hurling tournament title for Cratloe

Cratloe  4-14

Crusheen  1-7

CRATLOE won the 11-a-side senior hurling tournament, organised to celebrate 125 years of Clare club championships, when they overcame Crusheen in the final at Clarecastle on Sunday evening.
The South-East Clare club came up with the idea to run this tournament and emerged as deserving winners, running up impressive tallies along the way.
They opened with a 7-16 to 6-10 win over Kilmaley in a lively tie on Saturday afternoon.
In the other quarter-final games, Crusheen were 4-13 to 1-13 winners over Clarecastle, Éire Óg had an 4-11 to 3-5 win over St Joseph’s and Tulla were 6-9 to 3-8 winners over Smith O’Brien’s.
In the semi-finals, Crusheen had two goals to spare over Éire Óg, winning on a 5-7 to 3-7 scoreline, while Cratloe again ran up a tally of 7-16 when accounting for Tulla, who scored 2-18.
Cratloe’s running style game saw them dominate at vital periods in all of their games.
In Sunday evening’s final, the winners got off to a great start with a Padraig Chaplin goal in the second minute and this helped them to lead at half-time on a score of 1-8 to 0-3 after playing with the aid of the wind.
That the teams were keen to win this competition was clear from the outset and referee Seanie McMahon issued a few yellow cards early in the game.
They had the first two points of the second half from Barry Gleeson and Cathal McInerney but then Crusheen hit their best spell. A goal from Conor O’Donnell was followed by points from Pat Vaughan (two) and O’Donnell to cut Cratloe’s lead to four points. At this stage, a great contest looked to be in the offing.
In the space of a minute it all changed as the Collins brothers, David and Paudge, struck for Cratloe goals, scores that killed off the Crusheen challenge. The winners finished with a Gearoid Ryan goal to seal the title.
The games were played over 20-minute halves and unlimited substitutions were allowed. Both halves in each game started with all players, with the exception of the goalkeepers, in the middle of the field.
Sean Chaplin picked up an injury in Saturday’s games, which ruled him out, while Conor McGrath was unavailable for the final due to illness.
Cruheen lost David Forde to injury in the semi-final, while Ciarán O’Doherty and Fergus Kennedy were unavailable due to their involvement with Clare in the Munster Intermediate Hurling Championship final.
The starting line-ups in Sunday’s final were as follows:
Cratloe: Sean Hayes; Barry Duggan; Ogie Murphy, Michael Hawes, Liam Markham; Sean Collins, Gearóid Ryan; Paudge Collins, Damian Browne, Cathal McInerney; Padraig Chaplin.
Crusheen: Donal Tuohy; Alan Brigdale; John Brigdale, Cronan Dillon, Cathal Dillon; Pat Vaughan, Conor O’Loughlin; Jamie Fitzgibbon, Alan Tuohy, Conor O’Donnell; Dara O’Doherty.