Sports

Niamh Aherne from the Kilfenora club captured the Girl 4 63kg title in the National Girls Boxing Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin last Saturday night when she comprehensively outclassed Connacht champion Ciara Sheedy from the Swinford club in Mayo.It was a sweet victory for the 15-year-old who hails from Gort and threw in her lot with the North Clare club at the beginning of the season. There was double joy for the Aherne family when Niamh’s younger sister, Molly, took the 48kg Girl 1 (11-year-old) title by walkover. Niamh, who had beaten Clodagh Greene from South Meath in the semi-finals held all the aces in her final with Sheedy and she dominated the three rounds from the centre of the ring. Her left jab was unerring and two cracking right handers midway through the second round put the fight beyond the reaches of the Swinford girl, who tried her utmost to come on terms in the last round …

At a meeting in the Woodstock hotel in Ennis last Thursday, a group of people representing the four clubs that make up the Urban board in Ennis together with members of the Banner GAA club decided to form the Banner Juvenile Club.The meeting was attended by the chairpersons of urban clubs Dal gCais, Naomh Fhlannain, An Boithrín and Na Fianna together with a number of their coaches and several members of the Banner senior club. “It was decided that the needs of the children of Ennis will be best served by the organisations coming together and providing a new structure. We have applied to be allowed enter teams from U-8 to U-12 and our application has been approved,” Banner senior secretary Owen Rynne told The Clare Champion this week.Last week, Éire Óg successfully appealed to the Clare Hearings committee to be allowed have teams up to and including U-12. That hearing acknowledged, “players from Dal gCais, Naomh Fhlannain, Na Fianna …

ANOTHER chapter in the history of Clonlara GAA will be written this Sunday when recently elected association president, Liam O’Neill, will perform the official opening of the club’s pitch.The opening ceremony will take place at 6pm when the facility will be blessed by Fr Pat Greed and Fr Brendan Cleary, assistant. Afterwards, Clare will play Tipperary in a senior hurling challenge and with the opening games in the Munster Championship just a few weeks away, it is expected that both sides will be fielding near full-strength teams for the game, which will throw in at 6.45pm.Over the years, Clonlara GAA Club used fields around the parish with the permission of local farmers such as Stritch’s field, which is now Churchfield’s, Stritch’s field in the village, which is now Derryvinna and Cloonomera and Crowe’s field in Doonass.In 1953, the GAA club purchased six acres from James Byrom’s land, which was part of Doonass Demesne, for £600. The trustees were Tomás MacCormaic …

AS the Clare senior camogie management were making arrangements to replace top-scoring forward Clare McMahon, ahead of Saturday’s scheduled Munster senior semi-final, news came through on Wednesday morning that Limerick had withdrawn from this week’s fixture.Clare would have been fancied to win against Limerick but the loss of McMahon, who suffered a broken bone in her hand while playing for her club Kilmaley in last week’s league final against Newmarket, was a concern. She has been the team’s free-taker and top scorer in recent times and is a key member of the side.“We would prefer to have a game before the Munster final and we will be having talks with the Munster Council and Limerick with a view to re-scheduling the game. We have offered Saturday week, May 19, as an alternative date,” Clare camogie chairperson Orla Considine told The Clare Champion.The other semi-final involving Cork and Tipperary will go ahead on Saturday.Clare would also have had to plan without …

Clare 4-14   Limerick 1-9 Snatched from the jaws of a possible nine-point semi-final defeat, Clare’s minor ladies footballers took the Munster title against Limerick in Cooraclare last Wednesday. Sharpshooters Orla Devitt, Aoife O’Gorman, Aisling Torpey and Alanna O’Brien were to repeat sterling performances in the Clare attack to dominate Limerick from the outset.Claire O’Riordan pointed for the visitors from the throw-in but by the third minute both O’Gorman and Torpey had announced their intentions by rattling the Limerick net. O’Riordan was back for her second Limerick point but Ellie O’Gorman had quickly negated that and a great Torpey spell had her convert a free and take a top-drawer individual point from play. Kerrie Dillon worked hard for the opposition and pointed but a characteristic 50m run from Shauna Harvey from the depths of the Clare defence yielded a point in the 15th minute to take the wind out of the visitors’ sails until the last kick of the first half.  …

Newmarket  1-12  Kilmaley  2-8 Newmarket and Kilmaley have dominated senior camogie in the county in recent years and have produced a number of exciting and close contests in that time. In the final of the 2012 senior league at Clarecastle on Saturday evening, they produced another classic contest before Newmarket managed to dethrone their rivals, recording a one-point win.A Newmarket victory didn’t look likely when they trailed by eight points at half-time. While they had played against the fresh breeze, Kilmaley had looked the sharper side in the opening half.However, it was a different story after the interval, as Newmarket stepped up a gear and fought their way back before snatching victory with a Nikki Kaiser point in the third minute of injury time.The winners had started well and took an early lead with points from Erica Minogue and Sharon McMahon.A huge delivery from a Denise Lynch free saw Clare McMahon win possession and find the net to give Kilmaley …

Two Ennis Tri Club members competed at the recent European Duathlon Championships held in Horst, Holland. The course consisted of a 5km run, a 20km cycle and a 2.5km run on tight, technical streets.Keith Dwane, (Shannon) and Paddy Quinn (Clarecastle) made the trip for the championships. Both Ennis Tri members qualified in their age category to compete for Ireland in Horst. Paddy Quinn took his first international poduim result, taking the bronze with an overall time of 1.02. He posted a ripping 16.33 for the 5km run, only 20 seconds behind the Belgian leader and 10 seconds behind the second placed Luxembourg participant. Quinn worked hard on the bike to close the gap on the two in front of him so that he emerged out of the second transition in second place. However, Quinn could not keep the powerful Lux athlete at bay and managed to hold on to third position to claim the bronze medal in his age group …

The fourth round of the Munster Tug of War League was held last Sunday at Thurles, hosted by the Farrenreigh Club.There was again some outstanding pulling in all four competitions held.In the 600kg men’s novice/senior, five teams competed, Farrenreigh, The Shop, Harps, Araglen and The Burren and after some very tough pulling, the top two teams to get through to the final were The Burren and The HarpsThe Burren won in two straight ends to take top points in both novice and senior sections.The 680kg men’s was the last competition held and there were five teams, The Shop, The Mill, Farrenreigh, Araglen and The Burren and after another tough competition, the finalists were The Burren and Araglen.Again, the Clare club shone, taking the title in two straight ends to claim top points.As a result of these victories, The Burren are now amongst the favourites for the upcoming Munster and national championshipsThe Burren club have top points in the novice section …