Sports

Clonlara 1-14   Cratloe 0-8 CLONLARA continued their winning run in the Clare Champion Cup with this comfortable victory over Cratloe at the latter’s venue on Monday.The visitors took a grip on proceedings from the start and raced into a four-point lead with scores from Colm Galvin, John Conlon (2) and Nicky O’Connell. The game was 11 minutes old before Gearóid Ryan had the home side’s opening score.Clonlara continued to hold the upperhand in key areas and just before the half-time whistle, James Hastings got through for their goal. His first effort was well saved by Sean Hayes, who produced a couple of great stops, but Hastings was following up and scored at the second attempt to leave the score at 1-8 to 0-3 at the interval.The winners had the opening two points of the second half to stretch their advantage to 10 points. Cratloe, clearly weakened by the absence of Conor McGrath, Cathal McInerney, Ogie Murphy and Paudge Collins due …

LEADERS Wolfe Tones and Kilmaley both dropped points in Round 4of the Division 1B League at the weekend. The Tones suffered their first defeat of the campaign when they failed to match a lively Smith O’Brien’s outfit in a game played at Shannon on Thursday evening.On Sunday evening, Broadford reopened their pitch, Glenomra Park, having carried out improvements and they marked the occasion with an impressive performance against Kilmaley which ended in a draw. Smith O’Brien’s 2-13   Wolfe Tones 1-11 SMITH O’Brien’s collected their first points of this season’s Clare Champion Cup (Division 1B) when they defeated hitherto unbeaten Wolfe Tones at Shannon on Thursday evening. This was the Killaloe side’s best performance of the campaign to date and their victory was deserved.Helped by a goal from Dean Sinnott, the winners led at the break on a score of 1-6 to 0-6. They went onto stretch their advantage to seven points in the third quarter before Wolfe Tones hit their …

DIVISION 2 leaders Liscannor suffered their first defeat of this campaign when going under by the minimum margin to Cratloe on Saturday.Despite the loss, they still remain at the top of the table, a point ahead of Lissycasey with Clondegad, Cratloe and O’Curry’s all tied together, a further point back. St Senan’s, Cooraclare and St Breckan’s are battling to avoid relegation. The Kilkee men who are pointless must win their remaining two games to have any chance of avoiding the drop to Division 3.   Cratloe 1-10   Liscannor 1-9 CRATLOE caused a surprise when they accounted for unbeaten Liscannor at Cratloe on Saturday evening.As the scoreline suggests, there was little between the sides throughout and the home side hit the winning point in the last minute.Outstanding performances from inter-county hurlers Sean Collins and Liam Markham proved vital for the South Clare side.With a number of key players ruled out due to injury, the winners were fortunate to have Collins and …

COLIN Crehan extended his magnificent run of recent form when he captained a Clare team to the prestigious Paddy Grogan Memorial Tournament in Carrickmore, Tyrone over the weekend. This invitational tournament features the top young handballers in Ireland and is run off on a novel format.Each team comprises four players, one U-14 girl, one U-14 boy, one U-16 boy and captained by an U-18 boy, with each team named after the captain’s county. Games were played on a time basis with overall aggregate score determining the winners. The Kilkishen teenager defeated Darren Doherty from Monaghan in the final in the latest game of a growing rivalry. Crehan defeated Doherty at the recent Irish junior trials and the Monaghan man won when they met in the tournament group stages on Saturday. Crehan wasn’t to be denied in Sunday’s final though and collected the cup with his team-mates Ramunas Ramuskas (Monaghan), Jason English (Tipperary) and Elise McCrory (Tyrone). The Monaghan runners-up were …

MONTHS of preparation have been put in for what promises to be a great occasion at Lahinch next week when the famed Clare club will host the annual international get together for members of Dr Alister MacKenzie-designed courses.Teams from MacKenzie-designed courses in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Britain and the US will join their Lahinch counterparts from Monday to Thursday inclusive.This is the sixth staging of the event, which started in MacKenzie’s home in Pasatiempo in California..In 1927, the great golf architect Alister MacKenzie was invited to submit a design for a new layout. The redesign work took one year to complete and featured undulating triple tiered greens. MacKenzie said, “Lahinch will make the finest and most popular course that I, or I believe anyone else, has ever constructed”.  After Lahinch, MacKenzie went on to design, among others, Augusta National, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne.A round of golf in the Greg Norman-designed Doonbeg is included on Monday for the visitors. On …

Broadford trainer, Joe Ryan has an exciting prospect on his hands in Turnandgo, who made a winning debut in the second division of the opening  four-year-old geldings’ maiden at last Saturday’s Tipperary Foxhounds point-to-point in Clonmel.Ridden by top jockey, John Thomas McNamara, Turnandgo showed a nice turn of foot when quickening up impressively from the third-last fence to beat runner-up Capilla by eight lengths.Ryan, who trains the victorious son of Morozov for his son, Joshua, said, “I’ve always thought the world of this horse. He is really tough and was by no means fully wound up for today. There is plenty scope for further improvement and he’ll probably go the upcoming Brightwells Sale at Cheltenham following today’s win.” Sixmilebridge trainer Niall Kelleher has enjoyed a good season and the Cork native was on the mark with Vicky’s Lass in the winners’ race at Sunday’s East Galway Foxhounds meeting at Laurencetown, near Ballinasloe.A fifth winner of the season for Quin jockey …

The Dolores Ruth-trained Razldazl Jayfkay was all the talk after a sensational win and a new track record in a second round heat of the Williamhill.com English Greyhound Derby in Wimbledon on Saturday night.In what was regarded as one of the great all-time performances, he hit the ground running once the traps lifted and proceeded to demolish the rest of the field to win by  13-and-a-half lengths with a new time of 28.08 for the 480m trip.  Now cut to 3-1 favourite for outright success in the event, Razldazl Jayfkay was completing a second-round treble for Dolores Ruth, who won two more heats on Friday night with Razldazl Rioga (28.54) and Razldazl Bugatti (28.45).Trainer, Pat Curtin is still very much involved in the outcome of the English Derby, his Shelbourne Geoff qualifying for round three after being runner-up in heat three on Friday night. Owned by a syndicate that includes Clare’s Murty McMahon and Noel Hehir, Shelbourne was beaten one …

Avenue United A 1   Newmarket Celtic A 5 Newmarket were crowned Premier League champions for the second year in succession when they defeated Avenue United at Lees Road on Sunday.Attention now turns to their challenge to complete the league and cup double and all eyes will be on their cup semi-final against Bridge United A on Sunday week.In the meantime, they will complete their league programme this week when they play Tulla United A after which the league trophy will be presented to captain Mark Donlon. The title holders took the lead through Ronan McCormack midway through the first half and this goal separated the teams at half time.Moments after the resumption of play Avenue were back on terms when Alan Roche found the target. The title holders were back in front ten minutes later when a Darren Cullinan cross was deflected to his own net by Colin Smith. A superb volley from outside the box from Stephen Kelly saw …