Sports

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 …

The race for the first division title intensified at the weekend when three of the leading contenders all dropped points. Leaders Rhine Rovers went under to Turnpike Rovers, while both Corofin Harps and Connolly Celtic were held to draws, all of which adds to the excitement as the league edges closer to concluding. Bridge United A 1   Corofin Harps 1 Darragh Shannon put Corofin Harps into the lead midway through the first half of this tie at SixmilebridgeCorofin held the lead until the mid-point of the second period when Tom White scored an equaliser for the home side. His goal came just after Brian Halpin had been sent off.Bridge United A: John Mulready; Donald Devanney, Jonathon Downes, Dominick Murphy Johnnie Hayes; Tom White, Damian Murray, Christy Griffin, Darragh Fitzgerald Jamie O’Gorman, Gavin Downes.Subs: Kieran Quinlan for O’Gorman; Brendan Murphy for D Murphy.Corofin Harps: Niall O’Connor Brendan Neylon John Keane, Brendan Keane, Stephen Quinn, Jason Tierney, Ian Hassett, Ronnie Meere, Fergal …

Hermitage B 1   Newmarket Celtic B 2 Newmarket Celtic B travelled to the Fairgreen on Sunday and accounted for Hermitage B in this league tie.A goal from Michael Crosby and a penalty from Martin Mulqueen had them two goals ahead before Brian McMahon pulled one back for the home side when he converted a penalty. Hermitage B: Eoin Slattery; Cyril Casey, Danny Russell, Robert Ford, Kenneth Kelly; Brian McMahon, Cathal Keane, Eoin Cahill, Cormac O’Neill, Michael Singleton, Francis Franks.Newmarket Celtic B: Kevin Corbett; Kieran Crosby, Conor Cusack, Derek Moynihan, Chris Noonan; David Barrett, Martin Mulqueen, Danny Conway, Martin Frawley, Martin O’Nill, Michael Crosby.Subs: Chris Lake, Ciaran McCoy.Bridge United B 1   Sporting Ennistymon 4 Sporting Ennistymon made the trip to Sixmilebridge on Sunday where they proved too strong for the home side and ran out comfortable winners.They led from the start and were 3-1 in front at half-time. they could and should have been further ahead at this stage but failed …

The Munster Community Games finals for events that have a national final in May were held on Saturday, hosted by Cork. All events, except handball, were held at the University of Limerick, with the handball competition at Liscarroll in Cork  and Broadford in Limerick.Shannon won the U-16 chess title with Robbie Meaney, Kevin Singapurwala, David Hanly, Joseph Cesar, Samual Lenihan, Ross O’Connor and Daragh Danagher in their team.Derg won the girls’ U-15 handball title with Clodagh Nash, Katie Minogue, Amy Barrett, Fiona Hayes and Aoife Doyle in their team. Clare also won the boys’ U-15 handball title, with Quin-Clooney victorious. Their team members were Fergal Coughlan, Tadhg Shanahan, Barry Loughnane, Luke Keane, Brendan Dolan and Sean Hehir in their line-up.Cratloe won the indoor girls’ soccer title with Mary O’Connor, Emma Cunningham, Muireann Scanlan, Niamh Murphy, Ciara Murphy-Wright and Laura Chaplin in their line up.Broadford-Kilbane-Kilmore won the badminton U-15 title with Diarmuid O’Brien, Matthew Troy, Sean Phelan, Jack Dillon, Apryl O’Regan, …

  THE 42nd anniversary of  the Kilmurry-Ibrickane/North Clare Athletics Club was marked on Sunday with the annual meeting, which incorporated the Michael Egan Memorial four-mile race and fun walk.The event attracted a huge turnout of athletes from all over Ireland, along with a fine number of walkers. In beautiful weather, a star-studded field went to the start with Garry Thornton (Galway City Harriers) the 2010 winner taking another title in 19:24, from Michael Shannon (Kilnaboy) and Kenneth Rodgers (St John’s). The team title and the Michael Egan Shield went to Galway City Harriers ahead of Ennis Track, with host club Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare in third spot followed by Craughwell AC. Veronica Colleran (Ennis Track) recorded a big win in the senior ladies and set a personal best time over this course to retain her title in 23:46. She had almost 30 seconds to spare over Sharon Rynne (Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare) and Tracy Roche (Dooneen). Ennis Track retained the team title …

THE National Juvenile U-12 to U-19 Indoor Track and Field Championships (the second weekend) saw further success for Clare athletes.In the boys’ U-19 Cormac Lynch (Marian) produced a very big race in the 200m to take the gold medal with a new championship best and a personal best time of 22:99 to add to his 60m title that he captured in Nenagh a week ago.Another Marian Athlete, Angaharad Loughnane, competing in the girls’ U-14 1,000m walk  powered her way to the gold medal position over the final lap to win in a time of 5.20:84. In the girls’ U-14 800m Aisling Kelly (St John’s) came through her heat as one of the fastest losers and in the final, she was down in sixth place with two laps remaining but came storming through over the final 150m to finish fourth in 2.29:70.In the boys’ U-14 800m heats, Eoin Looney (Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare) came through his heat in 2.25:45. In the final, …