Canon Hamilton race kicks off

The opening shots in the race for the Canon Hamilton Trophy and Intermediate Hurling Championship will be fired this weekend, with three first-round games in each competition.
The first rounds are spread over two weekends and the games being played this weekend involve members of the Clare senior football panel, who will be involved with the county side against All-Ireland champions, Cork, in the opening round of the provincial title race two weeks later.
The remaining five senior and three intermediate games will be played on Saturday and Sunday week.
Cratloe, St Joseph’s and Ballyea all have players on the county senior football squad so their games against Tubber, Clonlara and Newmarket will go ahead this Sunday.
It’s the same at intermediate level with Éire Óg, Meelick and Corofin playing their opening-round games against Ogonnelloe, Feakle and Ennistymon.
Cratloe, last year’s beaten finalists, and Tubber have provided some of the better games in the domestic competition in recent years. These games have also provided plenty of talking points and last year’s clash, in particular, led to some disciplinary action against Tubber, who emerged as deserving winners on the evening. A year earlier, Cratloe won a high-scoring and lively tie by the minimum margin.
They will go into this week’s tie without the injured Martin ‘Ogie’ Murphy, who recently had surgery on a groin injury and, as a result, isn’t expected to play before August. Barry Gleeson will also be an absentee this weekend but otherwise the champions of 2009 expect to have everyone available.
They will, however, be without a leading light from their championship team. Sean Hawes is now playing his club hurling in Belfast, where he lives and the loss of this very experienced custodian is a huge blow to the South-East Clare side.
They will again be looking to regulars such as Barry Duggan, David Ryan, Michael Hawes, Liam Markham, Conor McGrath, Conor Ryan, Cathal McInerney and Damian Browne to lead the way.
Tubber also have some injury worries but they will be looking to Conor and Mark Earley, Patrick O’Connor, Clive Earley, Ronan Taaffe, Barry O’Connor and veteran Eamonn Taaffe to lead the way.
It promises to be a lively affair and there should be little between them at the final whistle. Cratloe get a hesitant vote to come out on top.
Clonlara, the champions of 2008, will carry the favourites’ tag into their meeting with St Joseph’s at Sixmilebridge but they will be mindful of last year’s meeting of the sides when the South-East Clare side had to battle all the way before emerging with a narrow win.
Donal Madden has been struggling to shake off injury and remains doubtful for this week. Their line-up is likely to be similar to recent years and they will be looking to the O’Connell brothers, Ger, the team goalkeeper, Nicky and Cathal, John Conlon, the O’Donovans, Domhnaill, Cormac and Tomás, Darach Honan, Colm Galvin and Tommy Lynch, to mention some.
St Joseph’s have struggled in recent times but they still include some very experienced players in Darragh O’Driscoll, Ken and Damian Kennedy and Noel Brody and these, together with Ivor White, Marty O’Regan, Cathal O’Sullivan and Kevin Dilleen are sure to make things difficult for Clonlara.
The remaining first-round game sees Newmarket take on Ballyea and the Blues will wear the favourites’ tag here. They are again on most followers’ shortlist of possible champions in 2011 but they are unlikely to be looking beyond this weekend’s first-round game. They have come close in each of the last number of years but it’s almost 30 years since the Hamilton Trophy last spent the winter in Newmarket.
Their panel is similar to recent years and they will be looking to Stephen Kelly, Paudie Collins, Colin Ryan, Eoin Hayes, Shane O’Brien, the Barrett brothers and Kieran Devitt. James McInerney and Bernard Gaffney have missed recent games due to injury and it remains to be seen if they will be fit in time for this weekend’s fixture.
Ballyea will be boosted by their recent U-21B championship success and are expected to include some of those players in their line-up this week. Former county player, Tony Griffin, remains one of their key players, while they will also be looking to last year’s Clare minor captain, Paul Flanagan, goalkeeper, Shane O’Neill and the experienced Paddy O’Connell to lead the way. It remains to be seen if they will call on current Clare minors Tony Kelly, Gearóid O’Connell and Jack Browne for this campaign. It is also uncertain if they will have inter-county footballers Gary Brennan and Cathal O’Connor for this one. Both have been regulars in recent years but haven’t played this season due to their commitment to the county senior football side.
There is little doubt that Ballyea will make the Blues battle all the way but Newmarket look the stronger and more experienced outfit and this should see them collect the points here.
Intermediate
Éire Óg started last season’s intermediate championship campaign as favourites to win the title and return to senior ranks but made an early exit.
They are again listed as one of the favourites for the title this year and should start the campaign win a win against Ogonnelloe on Sunday. The East Clare side, who survived a number of relegation battles before making the drop at the end of 2009, have suffered a couple of heavy defeats this season in the league including a 2-20 to 0-9 loss to this week’s championship opponents a few weeks ago.
Ogonnelloe are noted championship battlers and are unlikely to go down without a fight but the town side, with the likes of Mark Fitzgerald, Fergus Flynn, Barry Nugent, Davy O’Halloran, Kevin Moynihan and Kevin Brennan in their squad, should make a winning start to their campaign.
Feakle, on the basis of their early season form, will start their campaign as favourites to overcome Meelick. They may have been comfortably beaten in their last outing against Corofin but they impressed when beating Cratloe and also in their one-point loss to Clonlara.
Colm Naughton, the O’Gradys, Colin Nelson and Gary Guilfoyle will be hoping to lead the way on Sunday and they should make a winning start.
Corofin will be hoping to make a quick return to the top grade and they will start as favourites to overcome Ennistymon on Sunday.
With Gerry Quinn, the Heagney brothers, the Shannon brothers, the O’Loughlins, Killian Neylon and Donnacda Kelleher to call on, they will be fancied to account for Ennistymon, who are being coached by Newmarket’s Diarmuid O’Leary.
They will be looking to the Malones, Michael Devitt and Sean Driscoll and are sure to make things difficult for the favourites but anything other than a Corofin win will be termed a surprise.