HAVING failed to justify favouritism in each of their last two meetings, it is surprising to find Clare again carry the favourites’ tag on Sunday when they face Waterford at Thurles in the opening round of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship.When the sides met in last year’s semi-final at the same venue, Waterford scored a two-point win. Everyone who saw the game will know Clare had enough chances to come out on top. It was a similar situation in the opening round of the league in February, with just the minimum separating the sides at the final whistle that time and Waterford getting the winning point in injury time.Those results will ensure Clare won’t get carried away with the pundits’ views this week as they complete their preparations for Sunday’s game, which throws in at 4pm in Semple Stadium.Clare aren’t expected to name their starting line-up until later in the week but the expectation is that the team will be …

CLARE selector Mike Deegan is “concerned that people are getting carried away” with their expectations ahead of the 2013 Schampionship. “It has happened before and one would be afraid that it would seep in. We try to keep that away from the players. People wrote off Waterford at the beginning of the recent league. This is a very experienced Waterford team and to write them off would be totally wrong. They have one of the best half-back lines in the country and it’s a serious ask to beat them,” the Cratloe man said this week.“We started the season aiming to compete in the league and to hold our place there but championship is championship and everyone wants to play come championship time. Of course, we have been looking forward to Sunday’s game, especially after last year. We were bitterly disappointed to be so close and to lose out. We had the winning of that game and you always look for …

Comment FOLLOWING the runaway wins of Cork and Kerry over Limerick and Tipperary in last weekend’s Munster Senior Football Championship first-round games, there has been much discussion about the championship format.While Cork and Kerry were expected to win, the size of their winning margins is what is causing concern. Indeed, the winning margins of both teams could have been much greater, such was their dominance on the day.Clare followers are fearful their side will suffer a similar fate when they face Cork on June 16 in Ennis.That there must be a serious examination of the current format is obvious but suggestions coming from provincial officials in Munster that a return to the seeded draw, whereby Cork and Kerry are placed on opposite sides of the draw each year, is surely not the solution.After many years of trying, Miltown Malbay man Noel Walsh succeeded in getting a motion passed, which led to the introduction of the open draw in the Munster …

THERE will be little time for rest for the members of the Clare senior and intermediate hurling squads this weekend. Following their games against Waterford in the provincial championships at Thurles on Sunday, it will be back to club action on Monday, with a full round of domestic league games.In Division 1A of the Clare Champion Cup, joint leaders Éire Óg will be hoping to return to winning ways after their shock championship first-round defeat when they travel to play Clooney-Quin.Another club seeking to get over a disappointing first-round championship outing is Sixmilebridge and they travel to play another of the joint leaders, Inagh-Kilnamona.Clonlara, desperately in need of league points, travel to play Clarecastle, while title-holders Newmarket, who are also sharing top spot, will be fancied to win away to bottom-of-the-table Broadford.The remaining game in Division 1A is the meeting of Cratloe and Crusheen, scheduled for Wednesday evening at Cratloe.In Division 1B, unbeaten leaders O’Callaghan’s Mills will have Ruan as …

QUIN trainer, Brian Hassett registered his fifth point-to-point winner of the season when his 4/1 shot Bendala Bleu recorded a comfortable success in the winners’ race at last Sunday’s Carberry Hunt meeting held on picturesque Inchydoney Island near Clonakilty. A good winner of his maiden at Dromahane on his previous start, Bendala Bleu was sent to the front by Ciarán Fennessy with four fences to jump and, despite a hair-raising moment when he ploughed through the second-last fence, the son of Beneficial was not to be denied as he stayed on strongly to beat runner-up Fernando’s Song by two lengths.Hassett, who also owns the winner, revealed, “This horse has really come to himself over the last few months and all he needed was time to mature and fill into his frame. He travelled well today and is improving all the time. I’ll probably go to Kinsale with him next weekend and he might go the sales in Doncaster in August …

When John Conlon lines out in the saffron and blue of Clare on Sunday, it will mark the start of his fifth successive Munster Senior Championship season. He made his debut against Tipperary in 2009, the season in which he helped Clare to a first Munster and All-Ireland U-21 success.The Clonlara man, who has just completed his studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, has yet to experience a win in the provincial showpiece.“We are good enough to have won a Munster championship game. This year, everything has pushed towards achieving just that. One of the big aims is to get that hoodoo off our backs. Sunday’s game has been the focus since the start of the season. We have lost to them three or four times in recent years,” Conlon told The Clare Champion this week.“We won the Munster U-21 final against them in Dungarvan a few years ago. There was only a puck of a ball in it. …

The Woodlands Hotel in Adare was the venue last Thursday night for the launch of Féile na nGael 2013, the national festival of camogie, hurling and handball that is being hosted by Limerick GAA.Two-hundred host clubs were represented in all codes, with each club presented to the assembled guests and speakers by MC on the night, Donal Fitzgibbon.The three presidents, Aileen Lawlor (camogie), Liam O’Neill (GAA) and Willie Roche (handball) spoke of the programme of the traditional school visits, games, skills finals and so on and thanked the inter-county hurlers and camogie players who travelled to the schools.  The event will take place over the weekend of July 5-7. Oliver Mann, county GAA board chairman, James Moynihan county camogie chairman and Munster GAA Council chairman Robert Frost all reiterated the words of the presidents.The late Seamus O’Riain was instrumental in establishing Féile na nGael in 1971 as a festival of Gaelic games. In its 43rd year, the festival is going …

Banner  4-27 Newmarket-on-Fergus  1-8 THE Division 1 Clare league final was a very one-sided affair. The paltry attendance at the game in the Banner GAA Grounds reflected that the result was a foregone conclusion before a ball was thrown in.Any doubters of this would have been well and truly discredited after just five minutes, when the Ennis side had amassed a 1-4 to 0-0 lead. Laura McMahon then scored an opening point for Newmarket but the score was emphatically rebuffed less than a minute later through an Aoibheann Malone goal for the Banner Ladies.The Ennis side dominated affairs throughout and were winners of their third title in-a-row at this grade. However, it is a very poor reflection of the state of the ladies’ game in Clare when a team can be so dominant in a county final to such an extent that the game is over within 10 minutes. At that stage, the Banner Ladies led by 2-7 to 0-1.The …