Sports

AT last, a mid-Clare camogie club has finally captured the elusive Phil McBride Cup, following heart-breaking All-Ireland defeats for three different clubs.A three-goal blitz during a six-minute purple patch midway through the second half helped Inagh to an impressive nine-point victory over three-in-a-row London champions, Tara.The scenes at the end of the entertaining All-Ireland Junior Camogie Championship final at Ashbourne, County Meath illustrated how much this victory meant to ecstatic supporters from the entire parish covering Inagh, Kilnamona and Clounanaha. Hundreds of Inagh supporters rushed over and raised their new heroes high in the air to celebrate the historic day.More than three bus-loads of Inagh supporters and as many more in cars, who made the round trip of over 500km weren’t left disappointed as Sinéad O’Loughlin and company outscored their opponents 4-1 to 1-4 in the second half, despite playing into the teeth of a very strong wind.This was the fourth time since 2005 that a Clare club had reached …

INAGH manager, Flan Garvey never doubted his charges had the ability to capture the coveted All-Ireland Camogie Junior Club crown once the team played to its full potential.Three points ahead at the break, facing into a very strong breeze, it looked as if Inagh faced a difficult task in the second period.However, when the former Inagh schoolteacher was interviewed during the interval, he repeated the team’s motto – “Is féidir linn”.Barack Obama’s mantra “We can do it” was adopted by the new manager at the start of the year and Flan saw no reason to change from his positive attitude, even when the game was in the melting pot.While Flan was a little concerned with Inagh’s first-half display, having the benefit of the wind and the sun, he knew the team could play a lot better. The former councillor described Inagh as a “second-half team”, which was graphically illustrated in their tremendous comeback from a nine-point deficit against Four Roads …

CHOOSING a player of the match can sometimes be difficult when three or four individuals are often battling it out for just one award.However, there was no need for a debate about the best player in Sunday’s match. Inagh centre-forward Fiona Lafferty stood head and shoulders above most players on the field. In addition to scoring 1-4, including a vital goal in the 39th minute, her workrate, tackling and general support play for her colleagues was immense.The talented centre-forward scored an impressive 5-49 out of Inagh’s 20-54 during the course of their All-Ireland campaign and is one of the reasons why the Phil McBride Cup is now resting in Inagh.Camogie president Joan O’Flynn, who presented the player of the match award to Fiona, said she had shown “outstanding leadership, huge energy, huge commitment and never-say-die attitude throughout the year and particularly during the final”.A former All-Star nominee, she also excels at ladies’ football, winning an All-Ireland intermediate ladies’ football medal …

TWENTY-ONE-year-old Ennis man Luke O’Dea made his Munster debut last weekend. Playing on the wing in a 34-17 victory over Edinburgh in the RaboDirect PRO12 game at Thomond Park Stadium, the Shannon RFC club man scored a bonus point-winning try in what was an impressive personal display.Luke has played all of his club rugby with Shannon, although he received his secondary school education at St Flannan’s College and won an U-16 football championship medal with St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield.“We lived in Birmingham and he played with a club called Mosley from the age of about six or seven,” Luke’s father John told The Clare Champion.“We moved back here in about 2002. He didn’t play with Ennis because the weekend he was due to go to training, Clare were in the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny and they cancelled their training. So he went to Shannon instead and stayed with Shannon,” added John, who is a life-long club member and former Ennis RFC …

Castleisland 13   Scariff 12 SCARIFF lost out to a strong Castleisland side by the narrowest of margins in Craven’s Field in Scariff on Sunday.Castleisland started very strong and had the Scariff pack under huge pressure, with a series of scrums on the Scariff line. Scariff soaked up the early pressure but eventually Castleisland, with the aid of a strong wind, broke through the Scariff defence to score in the corner. A penalty late on in the first half left the half-time score 8-0 to the visitors.In the second half, Scariff went on the attack from the outset. With most of the possession throughout the half, they were rewarded with a try from James Kelly after good passing between the backs and forwards. Kelly converted his own try, leaving the score 8-7 after 10 minutes.Poor concentration in defence allowed Castleisland in for a second try midway through the second half, extending their lead to 13-7. However, Scariff reacted quickly with Colin …

ENNISTYMON Vocational School emerged as tournament winners in the three-team Clare basketball tournament at Ennistymon on Tuesday.They now go on to regional level to face teams from the rest of the North Munster area at a date to be decided.The afternoon tournament was keenly contested and all games were unpredictable right up to the final quarter.Ennistymon VS 29   Ennis Community College 20 AFTER a sluggish, low-scoring first quarter Ennistymon found their feet and with Roma Byrne pitching in with six points they held a 12-8 half-time advantage.Ennis came storming back in the third quarter with strong play from Sean Weir and Badr Jdair. John Dillon took more control at that point for Ennistymon and with Skerritt and McNulty rebounding well, Ennistymon edged ahead 29-20 at the end.Ennistymon VS 43   Kilrush CS 39 ENNISTYMON had to play back-to-back games and Kilrush looked sharper and more aggressive working the fast break to telling effect with Cian Murray, Conor Downes, and Kevin Looney …

Kilkee Community College 3-9   Kilrush Community School 2-8 The ladies football Clare senior C schools finals took place last Thursday in Cooraclare with Kilkee Community College beating Kilrush Community School in an exciting final. A strong wind dictated the flow of the game and Kilkee capitalised on this to the full in the first half. An exceptional performance in attack by Shauna Harvey saw her rack up 2-5 (0-2f) before the break, while Olive King contributed three points. Amy Keane took a great goal to boot. Kilrush goalie Hazel Baumann was very good and put in several blocks to deny a very goal hungry attack. In fairness to the Shamrocks, they worked very hard to bring the game up field and some good performances through the middle via Sinead Burke, Roisin O’Looney, Aine O’Looney and Aoife O’Gorman saw a hard fought 2-2 being accumulated to keep the Kilrush girls in contention. Aoife Carraig pointed first for Kilrush, a solid Aine …

Clonlara girl, Deirbhile Ryan will travel to Glasgow this weekend to compete in the School’s Combined Events International. A pupil at Gael Cholaiste Luimni and a member of Nenagh AC, Deirbhile qualified to compete with the Irish junior team when she finished in third place in the All-Ireland.She will be competing in the hurdles, shot putt, high jump, 800m and long jump.