Sports

Galway 0-18 Clare 0-11 Clare’s dream of a place in the last four in the 2018 All-Ireland minor football championship was crushed by a powerful second half performance from Galway at O’Connor Park in Tullamore this Sunday afternoon. Ahead by five points at half time, Clare played second fiddle to the Connacht champions in the second half and while Galway deserved victory, the final margin of seven points is rather flattering in their favour. A strong wind blowing directly down the field played a big part in this game. It favoured Clare in the opening half and they struggled against the breeze after the interval. Galway had drawn level before the end of the third quarter and the writing was on the wall for Clare from here on At the end of an opening half in which Clare played with the aid of the breeze, the Banner side led by five points 0-8 to 0-3, all of Galway’s scores having …

Clare 1-30 Galway 1-30 (AET) CLARE will meet Galway again, next Sunday in Thurles at 2pm, for a place in the All-Ireland final on August 19, following an extraordinary and epic semi-final in Croke Park this evening. Substitute Jason McCarthy rescued Clare with an injury time equaliser, at the end of extra-time, in what was a classic encounter. The teams were tied 1-23 to Clare’s 0-26 at the end of normal time. Peter Duggan, who scored 0-14 in total, equalised for Clare as the game entered injury, after 70 minutes. Substitute, Aron Shanagher goaled for Clare at the start of extra-time and from there to the end it continued to evolve into an increasingly epic contest. It was his first game game following a lengthy lay off, after an operation on his cruciate. Galway made a superb started and raced into a 1-7 to 0-1 lead after just 16 minutes. Clare could not win a break and struggled badly on …

ALL conquering last year and having turned in some dominant displays this summer, Ger Loughnane still feels Galway may not be the irresistible force some feel they are. He believes if Clare take them on from the first whistle, they may find some flakiness in the Galway ranks. “What I do hope is that Clare go in and ask the questions from the very beginning and just play with total abandon. Not wildness now, with structure; but absolutely have a right cut at them from the start. I think that fellas that collapsed before can collapse again, that’s always my belief. Fourteen of that Galway team, that played the last day, played in the 2016 Leinster final, which was the most abject surrender I’ve seen in the last 10 years in a championship game.” The Feakle man adds, “They’ve won an All-Ireland since, maybe they’ve turned into a brilliant team since, they look to have, but Clare have to test …

As expected the Clare team to face Galway in Saturday’s eagerly awaited All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final is unchanged from that which lined out against Wexford in the quarter final two weeks ago Aron Shanagher (Wolfe Tones) is included in the match day twenty six for the first time this season having overcome an operation on knee ligament damage in late 2017. He replaces Tulla’s Darragh Corry while another change to the substitutes list sees Jason McCarthy recalled and he replaces Ryan Taylor (Clooney-Quin) The team is. Donal Tuohy (Crusheen); Patrick O’Connor (Tubber) – CAPTAIN,. David McInerney (Tulla, Jack Browne (Ballyea); Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge), Conor Cleary (St Josephs Miltown), Jamie Shanahan (Sixmilebridge); Colm Galvin (Clonlara), Cathal Malone (Sixmilebridge); Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin), Tony Kelly (Ballyea), David Reidy (Éire Óg); Podge Collins (Cratloe), John Conlon (Clonlara), Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg) Subs; Andrew Fahy (Whitegate), Rory Hayes (Wolfe Tones) Cian Dillon (Crusheen), David Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona), Michael O’Malley (Kilmaley), Jason McCarthy (Inagh-Kilnamona), Niall Deasy (Ballyea), …

By Seamus Hayes THE inaugural Munster final of the Irish Boys inter-club championship will take place in Tramore golf club on Tuesday July 31. Among the eight clubs from across the province competing, will be two from Clare. Ennis and Lahinch will be the two representatives from North Munster and they will join Waterford Castle and Youghal (South Munster), Tralee and Ballybunion (West Munster), Mahon and Kinsale from South Munster Following proposals at provincial level last November, the event was added to the GUI Championships calendar for 2018. The new event is a strokeplay team event with five golfers playing for each team. Based on handicaps, the event differs from the Fred Daly trophy with the best three nett stableford scores counting towards each teams total.  The winning team will go forward to the All-Ireland finals which will also be played at Tramore at the end of September.  Play in Tramore gets underway at 11am with the final group of golfers teeing …

The result of Saturday’s All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final between Clare and Galway will determine the start up date for the domestic senior hurling and football championships. Club representatives attended a meeting at Clareabbey on this Monday evening where two schedules of games were outlined. In the event of the county senior hurlers qualifying for the All-Ireland senior final by beating Galway on Saturday, it is proposed to play first round games in the senior football championship over the weekend of August3, 4,/5 and 6 with round two to be played on the weekend of August 25/26. Round 3 will take place on September 22/23 followed by the quarter finals on October 6/7, semi-finals on 20/21 and the final on November 4. In this schedule the hurling title race will begin on September ½ with round 2 a week later (September 8/9) and round three on September 15/16. The quarter finals will take place on September 29/30, the semi-finals on October …

Kilmurry-Ibrickane 0-14 Clondegad 0-13 Kilmurry-Ibrickane’s grip on the division 1 senior league (Cusack cup) was severely tested at Cooraclare this afternoon but while experiencing some anxious moments, they held on and made it eight title wins in a row when accounting for Clondegad, In a game in which cards of all colours—yellow, black and red—were produced by referee Damian Fox, it was the greater experience of the title holders which proved decisive on the day. The winners scored first through Dermot Coughlan in the third minute, a minute after they almost had a goal when Keith King got through but his effort missed the target. Clondegad then landed four in a row but Kilmurry-Ib responded with the next three and the sides were level at 0-4 each at the end of the opening quarter. They were level twice more in a half before Clondegad edged ahead to lead 0-8 to 0-7 at the break. Two minutes before the break the …

Valerie leads Irish team By Seamus Hayes ENNIS woman Valerie Hassett will captain the Irish team for the European senior ladies team championships in September. The team will be led by recent Irish senior women’s close champion Suzanne Corcoran (Portumna) and includes a host of experience including 2016 British Senior Women’s Champion Laura Webb and Gertie McMullen (The Island) who has won both the Irish Senior Women’s Open and Close Championships in the past.The championship takes place in Mont Garni Golf Club, near Charleroi,from September 4 to 8. Barton Shield BALLYNEETY golf club in Limerick hosted the north Munster section of the Barton shield last weekend when six Clare clubs were in action. In round one Ennis beat Roscrea, Lahinch beat the host club and East Clare beat Dromoland while Kilrush went down to Adare Manor and Woodstock lost out to Limerick. Shannon beat Lahinch in round two but Ennis lost to Castletroy and East Clare went down to Limerick. …