Big freeze cause McGrath Cup postponement

Micheál McDermott’s first game in charge of the Clare senior footballers has been deferred for at least a week. Clare were due to play UCC in the quarter-final of the McGrath Cup in Cooraclare on Sunday at 2pm.

However, because all three first round McGrath Cup games, which had been due to take place last Sunday were cancelled, those games have been re-fixed for this weekend.
Then the Munster Council decided to delay Clare’s quarter-final for a week.
Even the rearranged fixtures are in some doubt, however, as the freezing conditions show little sign of abating.
Weather permitting Clare will eventually play UCC on Sunday week, January 17. They may have played a challenge game by that point. Clare was due to play Munster club champions Kilmurry Ibrickane last weekend but that fixture was also postponed due to the freezing weather.
If Clare beat UCC they will play Limerick, CIT or WIT in the semi-final on the weekend of January 24/25. That is the same weekend that Kilmurry Ibrickane travel to London for their All-Ireland quarter-final fixture against Tír Chonaill Gaels.
On the league front Clare open their league campaign on February 7 when they host Mick O’Dwyer’s Wicklow, while they then face successive away fixtures against Kilkenny and London.