Clare 3-13 UL 1-13 A tally of 18 wides on a day when the team scored 3-13 highlights Clare’s dominance over University of Limerick in the Waterford Crystal cup hurling quarter-final at O’Garmey Park in Sixmilebridge on Sunday. Understandably, there will be some concern at the high number of wides but weather conditions were atrocious and must be taken into consideration.Clare deserved this victory but the result was in doubt to the very end. The students held a two-point advantage at half time after playing with the aid of a strong breeze. Ten minutes into the second period, Clare had moved five points clear after scoring 1-4 without reply. It looked like they were about to pull away but a bad defensive blunder presented UL with a goal opportunity, which they accepted and, within a few minutes, the margin was down to the minimum, with 10 minutes to play.Five minutes from time the margin was still the same before …

O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge will host the first ever meeting of Clare and Cork in the Waterford Crystal Senior Hurling Tournament on this Friday night when the throw in for the first of this season’s semi-finals will be 7.45pm. Limerick IT and holders Tipperary will play in the second semi-final at Dolla (Silvermines) on Sunday at 12 noon.Last year, Cork lost to Tipperary after extra time in the semi-final, while Clare went down to the Premier County in the finalOn the way to Friday’s final, Cork defeated UCC 3-20 to 1-16 in a preliminary round before recording a 4-16 to 1-8 win over Waterford IT in last week’s quarter-finalClare received a bye straight to the quarter-finals where they beat UL last weekend.Jimmy Barry Murphy and his Cork management team have introduced a number of young players this season and they have impressed in the two games to date, as the big scorelines run up by the Leesiders suggest.They are expected …

The adjourned convention of Clare GAA took place last Thursday at the West County Hotel, Ennis, with a debate on a proposed new draft bylaw dealing with isolated players. The convention was followed by a structures meeting, when a number of sub committees were ratified. Sports Editor Seamus Hayes reports

“HAVE dog will travel” appears to be the motto of Liscannor brothers, Declan and Terry McDonagh, particularly when they think highly enough of the greyhound.Three weeks ago they headed up the N17 on a 200-mile plus round trip to Tubbercurry in Sligo. Keeping them company in the back of the van was the strapping fawn bitch, Kinielty Jazz, a runner in the Tubbercurry Oaks Trial Stake. For the coursing-mad brothers, distance wasn’t a problem.Like most of the dogs entered at the three-day meeting, it was last-chance saloon as regards Clonmel qualification because barring Macroom’s midweek meeting in mid-January, it was the final weekend where trial stakes were up for grabs.“It was make or break in Tubbercurry. If she wasn’t good enough to win the trial stake, there wouldn’t be much point keeping her as a two-course duffer for next season,” he adds.Out of the Trajectory-Scartview Laura litter, Declan acquired the bitch from Tom O’Connor in Castleisland and when he started …

THE Clare challengers were kept well apart when the draw for  the national coursing meeting was made on Sunday night.A total of six runners with Clare connections will go to slips for the Boylesports.Com Derby (64) and the Greyhound and Pet World Oaks (64) in Clonmel with four more included in the reserves for the new-look national meeting.The three-day meeting has been changed from being an event early in the week to a weekend attraction so that all the action in Powerstown Park will be on Saturday, Sunday and Monday next, starting at 11.30am each day.ICC secretary, DJ Histon, told  The Clare Champion they decided to change the usual format for a number of reasons. Foremost in their mind was to give everyone an opportunity to attend the national meeting. With the meeting on weekdays, school and college students were prevented from supporting the event. In the current econmic climate, some workers could find it difficult to take time off …

TRAINER, George Gallery has been in the coursing game long enough to expect the unexpected. His mindset is conditioned by the unpredictable nature of the sport.Good days tend to come and go at a much quicker rate than the tough-luck stories. But as George explains, “That’s coursing for you. You just have to keep at it because you never know when you’re luck will change.”Of all people, George could do with a change of luck.This year, by his own admission, he had a lot of promising pups. The season was filled with great expectations. But then, it all went horribly wrong. His Rockmount kennels were hit with a debilitating virus and much of his time was spent nursing rather than training greyhounds.“I’ve had an awful time of it this year. We got a virus in the kennels and it set everything back. It was so frustrating because when I should have been on the road with runners, I was at …

As GAA clubs throughout Ireland continue to mourn the loss of players to emigration, the GAA in the Middle East is one of the units that is benefitting. Countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Saudi Arabia have men and women out training a couple of times a week and participating in tournaments throughout the year. Oryx na hÉireann, Qatar, have gone from strength to strength since 2004 and now have a lot of silverware, medals and individual awards to show for their hard work, effort and success.Michelle Kelly, a native of Kilmurry McMahon, moved to Qatar last year and joined the club.“The men fielded three teams in the last competition and have an ever-growing number attending training and the tournaments. The Qatar men’s teams participate in all Middle East and Asian tournaments with a consistent degree of success, having been crowned men’s Middle East League winners in 2010/11 and 2011/12 and Middle East Championship winners …

Clanwilliam 7  Ennis 22 Ennis U-17s travelled to Tipperary last Sunday in their opening pool game in the Pan Munster U-17 League against Clanwilliam. The visitors got into their stride fairly quickly and hit the bigger Clan forwards before they could get any serious momentum going. After 10 minutes, a steal by number 8 David Flynn fed the ball to centre Brian Cahill, who made a superb break that brought him within inches of the try line. A quickly recycled ball from the ensuing ruck was picked up by tighthead Ellie Mundu, who drove over the line to open the account for Ennis. The try was not converted.  However, the home team’s pick-and-go strategy continued to pose a challenge and it yielded dividends in the 18th minute when they created an overlap that saw them score close to the post for a converted try. The remainder of the half was a tight contest, with no quarter given. The Ennis pack …