Sports

Two Clare players will challenge for national honours this weekend when a number of All-Ireland 40×20 finals will take place. Tulla’s Cathal Hannon plays the junior singles final against Monaghan man Terry Kiernan in Curraghboy on Sunday. Hannon had an impressive win over Wicklow’s Pat O’Donnell in the semi and hopes are high that he can claim the title this weekend. On Saturday, Shannon man John Cawley will be in action in the golden masters B singles final. Cawley travels to Silvermines to take on Galway’s Denis Phelan having defeated Eamon Purcell of Kikenny in the semi-final. The All-Ireland minor doubles final, which pits Colin Crehan and Niall Bolton against Tyrone pair Pol Clarke and Gabhainn McCrystal, will take place Saturday, April 7, in Cappagh, on the same programme as the men’s senior doubles and ladies’ senior singles deciders. There are also two attractive All-Ireland final triple-headers in Tulla and Tuamgraney this Sunday, including the intermediate singles final where Ballina …

  Avenue 4  Cahir  Park  1 Two goals in each half steered Avenue United into the Munster Youths final when they proved too strong for Tipperary side Cahir Park at the County Grounds in Doora on Sunday. In the final, they will play Waterford Bohs in a game that is set for Waterford on a date in April to be confirmed.The winners took the lead when Paddy O’Malley converted a penalty half an hour into the game after a Cahir Park defender was penalised for a handball. They doubled their advantage shortly afterwards when Kaylan O’Loughlin flicked on a Dean D’Auria corner into the path of Conor O’Brien, who duly found the net.The visitors got a boost early in the second half when Liam Casey scored but Avenue were two clear at the start of the final quarter when Conor O’Brien struck for his second and the Ennis side’s third. Five minutes from time, Sean Corry sealed a great day …

  The way is clear for the quarter-finals of the Clare Junior Cup and the pairings will be decided this Friday evening. Three clubs, Avenue United, Newmarket Celtic and Bridge United, have two teams in the last eight of the competition, where they are joined by  Rhine Rovers and Ennis Town Rock.   Lifford B 2   Bridge United B 3 Bridge United B’s dream of making it third time lucky in the Clare Junior Cup is still alive. Victory over Lifford B has propelled them into the quarter-finals of this year’s title. For the past two years, Bridge B have tasted defeat in the final of this competition. Lifford took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes when Roberto Pinto found the net and they held this lead until shortly before half-time when Greg Deegan headed the equaliser following a corner. Early in the second half, Billy Maxwell put the winners into the lead but at the start of the …

Burren United 0 Newmarket Celtic A 2   It’s now nine wins from nine starts for Newmarket Celtic in the premier league after this latest victory. They travelled to Lisdoonvarna on Sunday and having survived the opening half, when they were under huge pressure as they played against a very strong wind, they took control.Daithí O’Connell and Ronan McCormack scored the goals that see the league title holders maintain their winning run.Newmarket goalie Jason Casey was the star player in the opening half, denying the home side on many occasions.Burren United: John McDonagh; Michael Reddan, Daniel Carey, Enda Coughlan, Michael Keating, Alex Garcia, Evan Talty, Donal Howley, Stephen Moloney, Patrick Darcy, Martin McDonagh.Subs: Micheal Duffy for Darcy.Newmarket Celtic A: Jason Casey; David O’Grady, Eoin O’Brien Seamus Lawlor Darren Cullinan, Michael Devitt, Stephen Kelly, Paudie Hayes, Ronan McCormack, Daithí O’Connell Gary Collins.Subs: Kieran Devitt for Collins; Seamus Considine for Hayes; Alan Kelly for O’Grady. Hermitage A 0 Ennis Town Rock 1 …

CLARE’S hope of contesting their fifth consecutive Munster minor final ended at the Ragg on Saturday when they suffered a five-point defeat against the home county. Nikki Kaiser opened the scoring for Clare when she converted a free in the second minute.Tipperary responded with two points from Aoife Ryan to push the home side in front by the fifth minute. Tipp were denied a goal two minutes later when Suzy O’Shea pulled off the first of a number of great saves. Kaiser converted another free for Clare to bring the sides level by the 10th minute. Michaela Graham pushed Tipperary in front and it fell to Kaiser to level the sides again in the 14th minute. The winners pushed ahead with three unanswered points in the next 10 minutes before Kaiser pulled one back for Clare from another free. Another Tipperary point from Caoimhe Maher gave them a 0-7 to 0-4 advantage at the break. Tipperary could have been a …

WHEN Clare led by a point with over 50 minutes played, a six-point defeat did not appear to be on the cards. However, a strong finish by Fermanagh, in which they outscored Clare by 1-5 to 0-1, saw them collect all three points. This was their first win of the campaign in a game played Kinawley, County Fermanagh last Sunday. Clare are still in fourth place heading into their final group game at home to Kerry on April 1, while Fermanagh have moved up to leave Tipperary at the bottom. With the top four teams going through to the semi-finals, Clare appear to have booked the fourth spot ahead of the final round, provided Mayo beat Cavan in their last game. Should Clare lose to Kerry and fifth-place Waterford defeat Tipperary, the Déise would be tied with Clare on nine points but Clare would advance due to the fact that when they met in the opening round, victory went to …

Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-9   St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield 1-7   AS important as the result was St Joseph’s determination to make a game of their first meeting with Kilmurry Ibrickane since last year’s one-sided county final.Now under the management of Mark Raftery, St Joseph’s displayed plenty of vim and vigour in Quilty. However, they didn’t avail of the strong first-half wind sufficiently and, in fact, trailed 1-5 to 0-5 at half-time. Keith King scored Kilmurry’s first-half goal in injury time.The second half was fairly evenly fought but St Joseph’s didn’t threaten to bring a result home until Cathal Duggan goaled six minutes from full-time. However, Kilmurry midfielder Niall Hickey kicked the game’s last score to secure both points for the reigning Cusack Cup and county champions.Twelve months ago, this Cusack Cup fixture ended in a draw but bearing in mind St Joseph’s flat county final display, they will be relieved that they did themselves more justice this time.Kilmurry Ibrickane: Peter O’Dwyer; Martin …

It IS an event that has generated an unbelievable sense of purpose and the remarkable success story that is the Pakie Ryan Memorial Run in Newmarket is about to be catapulted to a wider audience.However, this time round, the event has stimulated a greater deal of media interest. In fact, cameras will roll in the village on Saturday, as the event will be filmed for a future transmission on the Sky network.While this dimension has excited organisers, the real thrust of the memorial 10km run, 5 km walk and cycle, to perpetuate the memory of a young family man and raise funds for local charities, will not be lost on the local community.Last year, 1,700 participants pounded the pavements and pedalled their way on roads around the parish and this year all the indications are that the level of participation will be surpassed.Chairman of the organising committee, Anthony O’Looney, is confident of a record entry and says meticulous planning over …