Sports

Derrick Lynch There will be no Clare club championship games played in April once more this year. The draft master fixtures plan for 2020 is to be discussed at next Tuesday’s county board meeting with the document being sent to clubs this week. It proposes that the first round of the senior football championship be played on the weekend of August 1, with the senior hurling championship getting underway the following week. These dates are dependent on the progress of the county teams, and will likely be reviewed closer to the time if needed. The proposed dates for this year’s county finals are October 18 (football) and October 25 (hurling). The provincial club quarter-finals are set to take place on November 8. The first championship due to get underway is the Clare U-21 hurling championship with that set to start on the weekend of March 7, while it also proposed for games in this championship to be played on St …

Derrick Lynch The 2020 intercounty season for Clare camogie gets underway this Sunday when they travel to St Brendan’s Park in Birr to take on Offaly in the opening round of the National Camogie League. It is a second year in charge for manager Ger O’Connell, with the make-up of his starting 15 likely to be much changed from their last outing in the 2019 championship. All Star Chloe Morey is not available for the coming season, while the Scariff-Ogonnelloe contingent will not be immediately involved after their run to the All-Ireland club semi-final last weekend. A number of other experienced players are also understood to be opting out for the coming year, but the Clonlara man is confident the younger members of the panel will step up to the place. “We have a really successful underage section that has been coming through in the last few years and getting to two All-Ireland finals in three years was a massive …

Clare Soccer Round Up Munster Junior Cup It was a disappointing weekend for Clare teams in Munster Junior Cup action as three more Banner sides bowed out of the provincial competition at the fourth round stage. Shannon Town 2-2 Dungarvan Utd (AET) – Dungarvan won 16-15 on penalties It will be of little comfort to Shannon Town that they were involved in something of a historic tie as they came out on the wrong side of a dramatic showdown. Penalty shootouts are always dramatic affairs, but this one surpassed all expectations with no less than 40 spot kicks being needed to finally separate two evenly matched sides. It was a cruel ending for Shannon Town who had shown great heart to respond from conceding a goal in extra-time to find another leveller which forced the game to the shootout. The sides were deadlocked at 1-1 after the opening 45 minutes with Colin Scanlan on target for the Shannon side. Both …

Clare 1-27 Carlow 0-14 CLARE opened their Allianz National Hurling League account with a wide-margin victory over Carlow in front of 2,283 in Cusack Park this afternoon. The Banner flew out of the traps and an early Shane O’Donnell goal was the catalyst for Clare’s success, and they eased their way to two points. Tony Kelly was the star of the show with 0-12 (0-7f) to kick-start Brian Lohan’s reign in the league in the perfect way. The game got off to a flyer in Cusack Park with five scores in the first two minutes, with Shane O’Donnell bagging an early goal thanks to great creative play from Ian Galvin to tee him up. Martin Kavanagh registered six of Carlow’s nine first half points and he as well as, John Michael and Chris Nolan slotted over early scores. Tony Kelly, Ian Galvin and David Reidy tormented Carlow with their speed in the middle third and Kelly landed five in the …

A tally of 0-8 for David Tubridy was not enough for Clare to overcome Westmeath in their National Football League Division Two opener with the Leinster outfit coming out on top by 2-9 to 1-11 in TEG Cusack Park. Clare had the wind in the opening period but trailed 1-5 to 1-3 as they headed for the dressing rooms. It had been a bright opening, with the visitors to Mullingar ahead by 1-2 to 0-1 after the opening 10 minutes. The Clare goal came from Gavin Cooney who pounced on a breaking ball after Dermot Coughlan’s initial shot was blocked, and he slid a cool finish to the net. That was quickly followed by a David Tubridy free, but another 27 minutes would pass before another Clare score materialised. Anthony McGivney rattled the net for Westmeath after good work from the impressive Ray Connellan, and they built on that to open up a two point lead. David Tubridy broke Clare’s …

Derrick Lynch Clare’s National Ladies football league campaign gets underway this weekend when Armagh make the trip to Shanahan McNamara Memorial Park in Doonbeg. It is the first of seven games in their Division Two campaign with a new format for the league this year. The semi-final stage has been scrapped with the top two in the standings at the end of the league series going straight through to the final. It is a third year in the role for manager James Murrihy, and he says with the talent in the squad it was easy decision to continue for another campaign. “We are really looking forward to getting the league underway because we feel we have some good work done now over the last few months. We started back in November and we have been working away since then. We had a challenge game before Christmas and we have had another three since just we are just really looking forward …

Derrick Lynch Eoin Cleary has been through five previous National League campaigns with Clare but this one will be a little different to all the rest. Gary Brennan’s departure from the panel for the coming year not only left a gap to filled on the starting 15, but it also meant that the captaincy duties would need to be reassigned for the first time in nearly a decade. Having made his debut against Waterford in the championship in 2014, Eoin Cleary has developed into one of the top forwards in the country and it was no real surprise that he emerged as the successor to Brennan in taking on that responsibility. He admits while he never thought the armband would come his way, he is looking forward to taking it on to the next level. “I am looking forward to the challenge ahead. We had Gary as the previous captain and what he brought to the set-up was unreal along …

Twelve months ago, Shane O’Donnell had a very different task ahead of him. The Éire Óg sharpshooter was facing into the second half of a Harvard scholarship. This year, his January will be slightly different. O’Donnell says he relished the life opportunity going to Harvard afforded him, but this year he says he’s relishing the chance to have a full season back with the Clare hurlers. “It has been a brilliant couple of months so far and I have really enjoyed the preseason, which was obviously quite different from a personal point of view to last year. Once you move closer to the league, people get to put the torture and horror of preseason behind them,” Shane joked. “Last year was a great experience for me, but from a hurling point of view it wasn’t the ideal preparation for championship. I missed out on all the preseason and the league, and I can already feel myself being more confident for …