Sports

John Galvin WHEN Peter O’Connell’s first action as the new editor of The Clare Champion was to send me to Ballyvaughan to cycle 60km early on a Saturday morning, I feared for our future professional relationship. I don’t do mornings, particularly on bank holiday weekends. There were extenuating circumstances, as this was no ordinary cycle. It was a cycle led off by none other than the legendary Seán Kelly. Suddenly, I was interested. My brothers and I grew up through the era of the twin cycling supernovas. Kelly and Stephen Roche divided the spoils between them seemingly at will through the ’80s. While Roche won the big one, the Tour de France and got to meet Charlie Haughey on the Champs Élysées, in our house, it was the quiet man from Carrick who was the big hero. Although he started with the reputation of just being a sprinter, he became a consummate all-rounder, able to lead a breakaway or power …

Clare 1-23 Tipperary 1-21 THE Clare hurlers scored an incredible, breathtaking win over Tipperary in Semple Stadium on Sunday. Clare didn’t lead until 90 seconds from the end of five minutes of injury time. Tipperary had led 1-21 to 1-20 three minutes into injury time. It was Clare’s first Munster championship win over Tipperary since 2003 and means that next Sunday’s final round game, at home to table topping Limerick, will have a place in the Munster final at stake. If Clare win they will qualify for the final. They currently sit on four points, one behind Limerick, while Cork, who play Waterford next week, are also on four points. Peter Duggan who put over 0-15 in total, 0-13 from frees, was superb while Podge Collins also injected life and pace to the Clare attack. The Cratloe man set up Ian Galvin’s 64th minute goal, seconds after Jake Morris had spurned a goal chance for the home county. Tipperary led …

The Clare team to play Tipperary in the Munster senior hurling championship at Semple stadium in Thurles on Sunday is unchanged for that which was named to face Waterford two weeks ago. Conor cleary has again been named at full back as has been the case for both of Clare’s championship games to date but he has played both those games at centre back with David McInerney in the full back line and the same is likely to be the case this week the team named for duty is; Donal Tuohy (Crusheen); Patrick O’Connor (Tubber) CAPTAIN, Conor Cleary (Miltown St. Josephs),Jack Browne (Ballyea); David Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona), David McInerney (Tulla), Jamie Shanahan (Sixmilebridge); Colm Galvin (Clonlara), Cathal Malone (Sixmilebridge); Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin), Tony Kelly (Ballyea), David Reidy (Éire Óg); Conor McGrath (Cratloe), John Conlon (Clonlara); Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg) SUBS:Andrew Fahy (Whitegate), Cian Dillon (Crusheen), Jason McCarthy (Inagh-Kilnamona), Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge), Mikey O’Malley (Kilmaley), Ryan Taylor (Clooney-Quin), Niall Deasy (Ballyea), Ian …

Kerry 0-32 Clare 0-10 KERRY coasted into a Munster final meeting with Cork on June 23, hammering a very poor Clare in Killarney on Sunday afternoon. Playing in front of a crowd of 16,729, Kerry fielded seven championship débutantes and while it took them a few minutes to settle, once they did, Clare could not live with them and will now to have to lift themselves for the All-Ireland qualifiers. Kerry led by 12 points at half-time, 0-16 to 0-4, having put on an exhibition of shooting. Ironically, Clare’s strongest area, at that stage, was midfield, where Gary Brennan was outstanding while Cathal O’Connor also had some good moments. Clare went into an early 0-2 to 0-0 lead following points from Eoin Cleary (f) and Pearse Lillis. However, Kerry went on a scoring spree with Seán O’Shea kicking 0-5 from play, frees and a 45. Paul Geaney also looked exceptionally sharp at full-forward and raised four first half white flags. …

CILLIAN Brennan has just turned 21 and has a few things on his mind. In the short-term, he is thinking of Kerry and how best to effectively monitor inside forwards like David Clifford, James O’Donoghue and Paul Geaney. Beyond Sunday though, Brennan, who is the younger brother of captain Gary and Shane, is on the hunt for a job. A recent Mary Immaculate College, Limerick graduate in primary teaching, ideally he would like to apply his trade in Clare or at least the mid west region.. “I’m on the lookout for a job at the minute and trying to get the foot in the door and get the face out there. Hopefully, I’ll get somewhere close to home come September,” Brennan told The Clare Champion after training in Caherlohan on Sunday morning. Before that though he will play his second championship game for Clare in what is his début season. He is the first Brennan to play as a back …

CLARE GAA season ticket holders were excluded from the seated area at Cusack Park last Sunday for the Munster championship clash with Waterford. Also, supporters who bought tickets for the standing areas paid higher prices than what applies for the terraces at the three other Munster Championship venues; Cork, Limerick and Thurles. While the Munster Council originally justified this by saying that general admission would be on offer to all areas in Cusack Park, in actual fact the stand and terraces were segregated on the day. A Clare season ticket holder this week said that when she purchased her ticket last November, she had no idea that when championship came around, she would be denied a seat for Clare’s home games. “When you bought the tickets it said you may not get access to the stand. I assumed that meant that it could happen because all the seats were already taken up, and they couldn’t be reserved. I didn’t think …

What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago Clare hurling followers left Pairc Ui Caoimh disappointed having witnessed the minor and senior teams lose out to Cork in their opening games in the \Munster championship. Making those losses all the more disappointing was the fact that Clare could have won both games. This afternoon the mood was much better as Clare followers in the 13,736 crowd departed Cusack Park having witnessed the Banner sides bounce back into championship contention with merited victories over Waterford. Clare 2-27 Waterford 2-18 For the second week in a row John conlon excelled for Clare, this time playing a key role in many of his side’s scores while accounting for 1-3 himself Waterford can point to injuries to key players and the fact that they played the last twenty minutes with fourteen players following the sending off of their captain Kevin Moran as reasons for their defeat in this tie the reality is that …

A new study measuring the effects of resistance training on people with depression has revealed that activities such as weightlifting result in significant improvements in depressive symptoms. A review of 33 clinical trials, comprising 1,877 participants in total, found that when compared to non-active control conditions, resistance training was comparable in effect to frontline treatments such as antidepressant and behavioural therapies. The study, entitled Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms; Meta-analysis and Meta-regression Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials, was published online in JAMA Psychiatry. Brett R. Gordon of the Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department at University of Limerick said, “The effect of strength training on symptoms of depression compares to the effects of other common treatments, like antidepressant medication and behavioural therapies. Strength training or weight lifting, is free from the negative side effects and high costs of many medications and therapies. Strength or resistance training can also be carried out alongside the other therapies.” …