Sports

Manus Celtic A 1   Rhine Rovers 6   Leaders Rhine Rovers maintained their place at the top of the table with this comfortable win over Manus Celtic A at the Fairgreen on Sunday.Following the thrilling conclusion to last year’s Second Division title race between these two sides, it would be fair to say a less conclusive result would have been expected here. Rovers topped the league last year, just ahead of Manus. This latest setback for the Clarecastle outfit comes hot on the heels of a 9-0 drubbing by Bunratty-Cratloe the previous Sunday. Rovers got off to a flyer when Christy O’Brien, after only 30 seconds, found the net with a neat finish.Supporters might have expected Rovers to dominate proceedings after such a whirlwind start but in playing their first game since mid-November the Quin men seemed to struggle with the bounce of the ball. When Rovers did maintain a level of fluidity in midfield, however, they managed to open …

Avenue United 2   Clonmel Town 1 Avenue United and Clonmel Town served up a cracking contest in the Munster Youths Cup tie at Lees Road on Saturday when the home side booked a place in the quarter-finals, with a merited win.The visitors enjoyed the better of the early exchanges with Colman Kennedy and Kevin Fahy impressing in midfield and it took resolute defending on the part of Dean D’Auria and Paddy O’Malley to keep the game scoreless.Clonmel had the best chance of the half when Kieran Browne forced a fine save from Nathan Murray. The game was scoreless at half-time.In the second half, Avenue came more into the game and Sean Corry and Dara Kerin got a grip on proceedings while Michael Gallagher caused problems for the visitors’ defence.Avenue took the lead 10 minutes into the second half when Dara Kerin found the net after Conor O’Brien’s effort rebounded off the post.  As Avenue pressed for a second goal, Evan …

Lifford A 2   Burren United 2 With leaders Newmarket Celtic not playing, Ennis side Lifford, who are second in the Premier table, were hoping to close the gap when they entertained Burren Utd at Cassidy Park last Sunday. However, they had to settle for a share of the spoils and the interested neutrals present could not argue with the result as both sides deserved something from this very entertaining tussle. Indeed, Lifford must have thought the three points on offer were destined to be theirs when they got off to the perfect start, scoring in the very first minute. Lunga Balman raced forward from the halfway line to the right corner and his good cross was deflected to the net by the unfortunate Burren Utd defender Alex Garcia. This was a cruel early blow to the visitors and it took them quite a while to recover but to their credit they did and went close to equalising through Evan Talty, …

Newly appointed Clare Ladies Football County Board chairman Alan Copley has immersed himself in most aspects of the game in recent years. When his three daughters showed an interest in the sport, the Ennis-based Kilrush man became involved with Banner Ladies. Since then, he has helped out with virtually every underage team from U-10 to minor and has devoted equal time and effort to many underage county development squads. “We don’t know too much about camogie because I’m from Kilrush originally,” Alan joked. “My eldest daughter went into the Banner and the other two are there at the moment too. I started off with the U-10s and U-12s, right at the grassroots. It was great craic and was something I was longing to get into,” he added. He liked the fact that the club’s priority was to ensure everyone got a game, whatever their level of ability. “They had and still have a great philosophy. For example in 2011 we …

Ennis Brazillian jiujitsu fighters put their club on the map last Sunday in bringing back gold and silver medals from the Northern Irish BJJ Open in Belfast, the largest tournament of its type in the area.Fightsports Clare’s head trainer, John Eustace, took first place in the purple belt –80kg category, winning two fights. His opponent in the final was a former European champion having won at blue belt two years ago. Eustace won his first fight by Azamba choke and the final by points, 7-0.Craig Ryan, who also trains out of the Chapel Lane gym, took silver in the white belt -94kg bracket putting in a powerful performance over three tough fights. After winning his first five-minute bout by head and arm choke, Ryan won the second on points after it went the distance. Due to a loophole in the competition’s structure his opponent got a bye straight to the final where the previous two fights caught up with the …

CLARE Junior sides Ennis and Scariff both tasted defeat in last week’s league action, results are likely to add to the interest in their meeting on this Sunday. Currently, Scariff are just ahead of Ennis on the league table and will be keen to maintain that position in what will be the first meeting of the clubs in competitive action at junior level.Whatever the result of this week’s tie, they will meet again on Sunday week at the same venue, this time in the Munster Junior Cup. Ennis 3   Newcastle West 8ENNIS paid the penalty for a slack first half in this league tie at Ennis and were fortunate not to be more that 8-0 in arrears at half-time. The visitors scored a try midway through the half but they missed the conversion. They increased their lead with a penalty before half-time.In the second half, Ennis dominated throughout the field but they made costly mistakes when they came near the …

CLARE won three Munster titles at the Munster Senior and Junior Cross Country Championships plus the Juvenile Inter-County Relays U-10, U-12 and U-14, which were held in Beaufort on Sunday.Clare won titles in the boys’ U-10, girls and boys’ U-14, as well as silver medals in the girls’ U-10 and boys’ U-12, while the girls’ U-12 were pipped on the finish line for the bronze medals.In the Munster junior ladies, the 2011 champion, Jean Clancy, St John’s retained her title with Niamh Markham, Ennis Track and Niamh Clancy, St John’s taking the silver and bronze medals with Ennis and Clare taking the team gold.Last year’s junior men’s titleholder Jake O’Regan, St John’s, again produced a very big race to retain his title, with St John’s retaining the inter-club title.Marie Carey, Ennis Track won a silver medal in the senior ladies’ 5000m and Ennis Track won the Munster inter-club title, while in the senior men’s 10,000m race, Michael Shannon, Kilnaboy won …

Twenty-four newly qualified coaches have been added to the ranks of the Clare ladies football clubs’ coaching personnel. Experienced and new coaches from nine clubs, including Banner Ladies, Cooraclare, Doora-Barefield, Éire Óg, Fergus Rovers, Kilmihil, Kilrush, Miltown Malbay and Newmarket-On-Fergus gathered in Doora-Barefield GAA grounds last Saturday to take part in the LGFA-tutored Fundamentals coaching course. The completion of the Level 1 – Raising The Bar coaching course next year will complete their ladies’ football coaching full qualification. Mentors from all over the county are devoting large portions of their spare time to supervising and coaching underage teams at all levels from U-10 to U-18 and senior. Clubs with new and experienced mentors alike are encouraged to participate in an upcoming Code of Ethics course, with details to be announced to clubs soon. The advantages of attending such courses are many as clubs and players benefit from training programs and child protection awareness.