The opening of the renovated Pairc Ui Chaoimh brought no joy for Clare hurling as both the county senior and minor hurling teams had their seasons ended when defeated by Tipperary and Galway at the quarter final stage

Tipperary 0-28 Clare 3-16

So near and yet so far once again for the for the Clare senior hurlers once again. Dreams of championship success are over for another year after they suffered a three point loss to defending All-Ireland champions Tipperary at the newly re-built Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork.

Before an attendance of 28,567, missed chances and mistakes at vital times cost Clare dearly. After a poor start which saw them trail by six points after fifteen minutes, the Banner side fought back helped by a brace of Aaron Cunningham goals in as many minutes. Earlier they had a Conor McGrath goal disallowed when he was penalised for over carrying.

In the minutes before half time a couple of mistakes with puckouts gifted the Tipperary men some points andthey went to the break with a five point advantage, 0-16 to 2-5..

The third quarter was evenly contested wth each side adding four points before the winners stretched their lead to seven points with fifteen minutes to play.

Clare dominated the next ten minutes and hit six points without reply to come within a point of the winners with four minutes of normal time remaining.

A minute later Tipperary were awarded their first free of the half which John O’Dwyer converted before Brendan Maher landed a free frm over 90m to extend their lead to three points. They added three more to lead by six with the game in injury time.

To their credit Clare battled back again and Cathal McInerney got the final touch for Clare’s third goal but it was too late to prevent Tipperary from claiming victory

Tipperary; Darragh Mooney; Donagh Maher, Tomss Hamill, James Barry; Seamus Kennedy, Ronan Maher, Padraic Maher; Brendan Maher, Michael Breen; Noel McGrath, Patrick Maher, Dan McCormack; John O’Dwyer, Seamus Callanan, John McGrath.

Subs; Sean O’Brien for Barry; Jason Forde for Breen Niall O’Meara for O’Dwyer;; Stephen O’Brien for Callanan

Clare; Andrew Fahy (Whitegate); Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge) Patrick O’Connor (Tubber) – captain, Cian Dillon (Crusheen); David Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona), Conor Cleary (Miltown), Jamie Shanahan (Sixmilebridge); Colm Galvin (Clonlara), Tony Kelly (Ballyea); Cathal Malone (Sixmilebridge) Podge Collins (Cratloe), John Conlon (Clonlara); Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg), Aaron Cunningham (Wolfe Tones), Conor McGrath (Cratloe)

Substitutes: Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin) for Conlon; David Reidy (Eire Og) for Collins; Cathal McInerney (Cratloe) for Malone; Jason McCarthy (Inagh-Kilnamona) for Kelly

Referee; Colm Lyons, Cork

Stronger Galway in control

Galway 2-19 Clare 1-12

An all round better balanced Galway were deserving winners over Clare i n this All-Ireland minor hurling championship quarter final but the final scoreline is a little unfair to Clare

The third quarter was the crucial period as Galway doubled their half time advantrage of three points and they went onto dominmate the final period.

A physically stronger Galway had marginally the better of the first half exchanges which helped them to lead by a goal at half time when the score was 1-7 to 0-7.

The goal came from full forward Jack Canning seven minutes before the short whistle.

GaryCooney was Clare’s best forward on the day and ended the tie with 1-4 to his credit, all from play

Galway; Darach Fay; Darren Morrissey, Daniel Loftus, Caimin Killeen; Ronan Glennon, Conor Caulfield, Mark Gill; John Fleming (0-1), Conor Fahey (0-1); Sean Bleahane (0-3), Conor Walsh (0- (1-0).

Subs; Shane Ryan for Fleming; Enda Fahy for Bleahane; Sam McArdle for Gill; Conor Molloy for Mannion; Conor Elwood(0-1) for Canning.

Clare; Eamonn Foudy (Inagh-Kilnamona); Cian McInerney (Inagh-Kilnamona) captain, Ross Hayes (Crusheenb), Bradley Higgins (Kilmaley); Cian Minogue (Bodyke), Diarmuid Ryan (Cratloe), 0-1 Aidan McCarthy(Inagh-Kilnamona) 0-1; Cathal Darcy (Kilmaley) 0-1, Killian McDermott (Clarecastle); Gearoid Cahill (Corofin) 0-1, Tiernan Agnew (Sixmilebridge) Keith White (Inagh-Kilnamona) 0-3; Gary Cooney (O’Callaghans Mills) 1-4, Breffni Horner (Crusheen) 0-1, Riain Considine (Cratloe).

Subs; Colin Haugh (Ruan) for McDermott; Tom O’rourke (Kilmaley) for Considine;

Eoghan Wallace )(Clarecastle) for Cahill; Eoin Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona) for White; Lee Brack (Clarecastle) for Darcy;

Referee; John O’Brien. Laois

By Seamus Hayes