Sports

Twelve-year-old Martin Mongans was crowned Munster 50kg boy 2 Munster boxing champion in Kilmallock recently. A pupil at Ennis National school, Martin boxes out of the Our Lady of Lourdes Club in Limerick.On his way to the title he stopped his opponent in both the semi-final and final.He will box for the national title next week in Dublin. Martin comes from a family that is steeped in boxing. His father, John, is a former Munster champion while his uncles and brothers have also boxed at provincial and national levels.   Clare boxers chase national honours The National Boys’ Boxing Championships, traditionally held during school holidays in Easter, will get under in the National Stadium in Dublin next Monday, continuing through to Saturday, when the finals will be boxed off. Clare boxers, who had a fantastic innings in last year’s championships, will defend their titles and are hoping for a repeat of last year’s heroics, having come through the Munster championships …

You would’ve believed a man could fly. If spectators took anything from Shannon Kickboxing Club’s sixth annual show last weekend it was that gravity-defiance wasn’t the realm of just Superman or Neo from the Matrix. In round two of one of the last fights on the card, Ethan ‘The Animal’ Kerin launched a jumping front snap kick into the face of his opponent Danny ‘The Hammer’ Joyce. It was the sort of move you seldom see in the lightweight bouts, let alone at super heavyweight, but bucking the physical trends of his weight class seems to be becoming something of a habit for the Ennis Kickboxing Club pugilist.While the second round was a good one for ‘The Animal’, it hadn’t all been plain sailing for the fighter. Squaring off against Joyce for the second time – the two fought last year at the same venue with Kerin coming out on top in his kickboxing debut – the Ennis man started …

It is rare to find women willing to talk about their age, even more peculiar to find ones who will speak about their weight. The ladies of Kilfenora Boxing Club are different. With eight teenage girls in the club and seven of them fighting in the All-Ireland finals at the end of the month, they are proud to don the gloves and enter the ring. Fourteen-year-old Clóda Collins took up boxing back in September. The Ennistymon Vocational School student loves her new sport and is looing forward to her All-Ireland debut.“I took up boxing because I wanted to stay fit for camogie. I love sport. I am not a real girly girl. I love to be outside. I hate being stuck inside, except being in the ring or gym,” she tells The Clare Champion.“Boxing is a good sport and it keeps your fitness levels very high and it is enjoyable. I was a bit scared at first going into the …

Clare 3-13 Kerry 2-12 IF the Clare lady footballers were a weather front, we’d be living in as variable climate as is imaginable.Their football is definitely full of variety, although their spirit seems resolute. If it wasn’t, they would have been well beaten by Kerry in Doonbeg last Sunday. Their four-point win secured a Division 2 semi-final place against Galway on Sunday, April 29 but that’s a mere particle of the story. Throughout the hour, Clare mixed excellent defending with porous defensive play, sublime attacking football with ponderous play in front of goal, aggression with placidity. The paucity of their first-half innings is underlined by the fact that Clare were eight points adrift (1-8 to 0-3) in the 29th minute. Luckily, Maria Kelly’s goal, a minute before the interval, infused Clare with vim and hope as they sat and plotted the remaining half hour’s football. Kelly’s crucial and impressively executed goal was created by slick combination play involving Eimear O’Connor …

Kerry 5-10 Clare 2-4 Clare lost out to Kerry in Kilmoyley on Sunday afternoon in the provincial U-16C Camogie Championship semi-final.The home side took an early three-point lead before Caroline Walsh goaled for Clare in the 10th minute to level the game. This was cancelled by Kerry’s first goal of the game from Eirne Ní Dasmhunaigh seven minutes later. Kerry added another two points before Lauren Tuohy converted a free for Clare with 22 minutes on the clock. Kerry were on a hunt for goals and grabbed their second in the 25th minute when Ní Dheasmhunaigh got to the rebound after Shauna Ryan had blocked Cora O’Carroll’s original shot. Clare added three points before the half-time whistle, Tuohy with a point from play and a 45 and Lisa O’Donoghue sending over a shot from the wing, leaving Clare trailing by four points at the break. Jessica Fitzell pointed for Kerry five minutes into the second half. Clare responded with a …

Lissycasey  1-10   Cooraclare  2-7 When Cooraclare went seven points clear inside the last quarter of this Garry Cup tie at Cooraclare on Friday night, they looked to be heading for their first win of the campaign.However, a strong finish from Lissycasey earned them a merited share of the spoils.The visitors had the better of the first half and should have been more than two points clear at half-time when the score stood at 0-5 to 0-3. In the second quarter, they had failed to convert two great goal opportunities.On the resumption, Cooraclare grabbed the initiative and goals from Gearóid Looney and Sean Maguire, together with some good points from John Looney, helped them open a seven-point gap inside the last quarter.To their credit, Lissycasey regained the initiative and points from Francis Hayes, Enda Finnucane and David Considine were followed by an excellent Francis Hayes goal to earn a share of the spoils.Gerry Moran, Cyril Sheehan and Matt Gilroy were others …

The adult domestic hurling season gets underway this weekend with first round dames in Division 1, 2 and 3, most of which are scheduled for Bank Holiday Monday.In the week that the championship draws were made, the opening round of these leagues should give an early season indication as to how much work the various panels have done to date in preparation for the championship.In what are difficult times for clubs as far as the raising of funds is concerned the fact that the competition sponsors, The Clare Champion, offer cash prizes to the winners and runners up has added to interest in the league in recent seasonsLast year’s finalists, Newmarket (winners) and Inagh-Kilnamona meet in the opening round of the Clare Champion Cup (Division 1A) at Kilnamona on Monday. Two points separated the sides in the final and the Blues will start as slight favourites to repeat that resultNewmarket will be looking to inter-county men James McInerney, Enda Barrett, …

This Sunday, the All-Ireland juvenile finals will take place in O’Loughlins in Kilkenny, where the Banner County’s five Munster champions all face Ulster opposition in their respective finals. The action starts at 11am and the first match is the girls’ U-14 doubles final, with Clodagh Nash (Tuamgraney) and Doireann Murphy (Clarecastle) taking on Armagh’s Aoibhinn Henderson and Alana Doran. Clooney’s Natasha Coughlan and Michelle Nihill play Tyrone pair Maeve McElduff and Aoife Kelly in the girls’ U-16 doubles decider.Colin Corbett (Tulla) will be favourite to take the boys’ U-16 title when he plays Eugene McGeough from Monaghan. This Saturday sees Colin Crehan and Niall Bolton play the All-Ireland minor doubles final in Cappagh, Limerick, at 12.30pm against Tyrone’s Pol Clarke and Gabhainn McCrystal. After impressive wins in the Munster final against fellow Clare pair Barry Nash and Patrick Fitzgerald and in the All-Ireland semi-final against Wexford, hopes are high the Kilkishen/Tulla duo can claim a win this Saturday and take …