Sports

Two Clare women are set to take on one of the most renowned golf courses in the world next week as part of the Coronation Foursomes. East Clare Golf Club duo Rachel Whelan and Marie Donnellan are preparing to travel St Andrews next Monday where they will play the Eden Course in the Grand Final of this year’s tournament. It marks the latest step in their progression having only taken up the sport in 2017 through the “Get into Golf” programme hosted by East Clare Golf Club before joining as full members the following year. They won the qualifying competition on their home course before going on to win the Area Final where the first prize was an all expenses paid trip to the famous Scottish venue. They will be representing Ireland while competing against 15 other qualifying pairs from Northern Ireland, Scotland , England and Wales. The R&A Coronation Foursomes is the largest domestic golf participation event for women …

On this week’s podcast: We review the weekend’s club hurling action and argue over the best 15 clubs players in Clare over the last decade.    

THE draw for the quarter-final stage in the race for the Canon Hamilton, and the intermediate title, were completed this evening and read as follows: Senior Hurling Quarter-final draw: Ballyea v Crusheen Cratloe v Clonlara Inagh-Kilnamona v Feakle Sixmilebridge v Éire Óg   Intermediate Hurling Quarter-final draw: Broadford v Sixmilebridge Scariff v Inagh-Kilnamona Smith O’Brien’s v Killanena Tubber v St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield

It is another huge weekend of Clare club hurling action with the last quarter-final spots in the senior and intermediate championship up for grabs, while the relegation battle is also heating up. Clare Senior Hurling Championship Round Three Preview Cusack Park on Saturday at 2pm: Newmarket v Eire Óg The honour of getting a bumper afternoon of action at HQ underway falls to the Blues and the Townies, in what could well prove to be the most competitive game of the day. Newmarket come into the tie off the back of what will have been a morale boosting victory over O’Callaghan’s Mills last time out and following their brief flirtation with relegation in recent years, that anchor has now been lifted which will take a huge amount of pressure off their shoulders. Eire Óg will also come into the game with a positive mind frame despite suffering a defeat to Clonlara a fortnight ago. They may have come out on …

It is a critical weekend of action as the last four spots in the race for the Canon will be filled. There are four really good games ahead in Round 3, but the meeting of Cratloe and Kilmaley is the one that most attention will be fixed on. Both have been mentioned as championship contenders from the outset, but it is the fiasco that surrounded Kilmaley’s win over Whitegate that has had people talking most over the last two weeks. There have been numerous questions over what actually happened in Sixmilebridge that day and what effect it will have had on Kilmaley. It remains to be seen if the fallout will have had a detrimental impact on the dynamic of the management team and the preparation of the team for this game in particular, or will it be something that galvanises them for the challenge ahead? On the Cratloe front, I still can’t believe how poor they were against Inagh-Kilnamona. …

Chisom Ugwueru of Ennis RFC is one of twelve players named in the Ireland Under 18 Sevens side to compete in Rugby Europe U-18 Women’s Sevens Championship in Jarocin, Poland this weekend.  Chisom is one of two Musnter players selected. This is the final competition for the Ireland U-18 Women’s Sevens squad this season and forms part of the Women’s Sevens Development pathway for this group. They have been drawn in Pool C and will play against Georgia, Latvia and Scotland.  They played in the Home Nations Tournament last month where they finished in third place. Live streaming is available on www.rugbyeurope.tv. The full squad is as follows: Chisom Ugwueru (Ennis/Munster) Grace Browne Moran (Westport/Connacht) Beibhinn Parsons (Ballinasloe/Connacht) Capt Ava Ryder (Westport/Connacht) Leah Reilly (Navan/Leinster) Kate Farrell McCabe (Gorey/Leinster) Caoimhe O’Callaghan (Dundalk/Leinster) Amanda McQuade (Virginia/Ulster) Mya Alcorn (Letterkenny/Ulster) Lucy Turkington (Dungannon/Ulster) India Daley (Enniskillen/ Ulster) Méabh McElligott (Listowel/Munster)

A high profile former GAA referee is calling for a more centralised system to be used for appointing officials who accompany referees to championship games in Clare. It comes after a number of issues were raised after last weekend’s club football action, with one senior championship game almost having to be abandoned after the match official suffered an injury early in the second period. Wolfe Tones clubman Jarlath Donnellan, who also took charge of this year’s Cusack Cup final, was the man in the middle for the senior championship meeting of St Joseph’s Miltown and Kilrush Shamrocks. An accidental collision with one of the Kilrush players saw Donnellan injure his ankle with the game being stopped while he received attention. There were fears that he was not in a position to continue which would have led to the game being called off as no alternative referee was available. Only one linesman, newly qualified official Martin Downes from Naomh Eoin, was …

2019 was always going to be a memorable one for Lahinch Golf Club as it played host to the Irish Open for the first time in the clubs history. The positivity of having the international spotlight on the famous North Clare links was accentuated even further last weekend, as the club made more history by capturing the ILGU Senior Cup for the second consecutive season. They did it the hard way too, as they travelled to Killarney before defeating the home club on the Killeen course with an excellent final display. It was capped in dramatic fashion when Girl’s inter-provincial star Niamh O’Dwyer sank a brilliant eagle putt at the 16th hole to ensure back to back titles for her team as they defeated the Kerry side for the second year running. It was a strong Lahinch team who descended on the Kingdom with three of the winning Munster women’s inter-provincial squad representing the North Clare club managed by Valerie …