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WHILE failing to win promotion from Division 2 was disappointing, Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin has no hesitation is saying that the championship is the be all and end all. “We regrouped after the league final and we decided we would give this a good lash. We are playing the best team in Ireland at the moment and they showed in their opening game against Cork that they have lost none of their appetite or their sharpness so we know we have a huge task on Sunday,” he said. That said, he promised that Clare “ won’t be found wanting in the trying department”.“Hopefully, we will do justice to ourselves as we are beginning to build up a nice panel. We started from scratch over the last two seasons. There is a bit of shape coming into it and hopefully, we will do ourselves justice on Sunday.”Stressing that preparation has been very good, he added, “Probably our setback has been coming …

CLARE hurling legend, John McMahon, who won two GAA All-Star Awards in 1976 and 1977 for his commanding exploits at corner-back, reckons the current team doesn’t stand much of a chance against a bullish and dominant Tipp side. “You’d be hoping that Clare give a good account of themselves but I can’t see them winning it.” The Sunday game, to be played at the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick, sees Clare with six Munster titles to their name face up to Tipperary with 38. These two last met under the same circumstances at the same venue in 2009, in which Tipperary survived a late Clare comeback to qualify 3-18 to 1-22 and ultimately win the final. John ‘The Mower’ McMahon believes this Clare side is missing “four or five players” to get back to anything near their glory days of the 1990s. Most notably, he suspects a weak spine is what holds them back, as well as a distinct lack of leaders …

CLARE hurling’s most pressing task isn’t necessarily to beat Tipperary in Limerick on Sunday. Whatever the result, it is imperative for the wellbeing of Clare’s emerging talent that they at least compete to the hilt against the All-Ireland champions. While Waterford are not at the same level as Tipperary, Clare’s main aim must be to mimic Limerick’s second-half display against the reigning Munster champions last Sunday. Limerick were quite docile for 34 minutes but once they hit the net before half-time, they threw everything they had at Waterford. Although beaten, Limerick left Thurles more advanced down the hurling tracks than they were on Sunday morning. They could justifiably say that they competed manfully and will be optimistic that they can improve further in the qualifiers. If they win a game or two in the coming weeks, in addition to having won promotion back to Division 1, Limerick will be desperate to hang onto Donal O’Grady for another season. Clare couldn’t …

Special Olympics athletes from Ennis Golf Club recently participated in two Munster golf final events. The first competition was held in Ennis and involved seven clubs from North Munster. The event concentrated on the various golf skills of putting, chipping, pitching and the use of long irons and drivers. Katie Flynn from Ennis led the way, when she produced a great performance in winning the gold medal in the Division 1 individual skills competition, which was the premier event in the finals. Katie was joined on the podium by clubmate Jill Hayes from Corofin, who took the bronze in the same event.  Edel Mulqueen from Killimer, Liam Moloney from Bodyke and Kevin O’Donovan from Clarecastle all put in sterling performances, just missing out on medals. The atmosphere in the Ennis club was very exciting. Among the award presenters were two of Ireland’s best Special Olympics athletes. Willie Loughnane, proud holder of eight World Special Olympics gold medals in gymnastics and …

Cork 3-16 Clare 0-10 AT first glance, it appears to be a convincing win for Cork and while they deserved victory, the final scoreline in this All-Ireland senior camogie championship first-round tie at Clooney on Saturday is flattering in their favour.Given that Cork had  recorded a 6-12 to 0-3 win over Clare when the teams met in the provincial final a month earlier, Clare were wary approaching Saturday’s tie.To their credit, the Clare outfit showed a huge improvement but the greater experience of Cork won the day. However, the visitors had to fight hard for everything on this occasion and if Clare can continue to show improvement, they must be given a chance of picking up a few wins in the campaign, which would give them a shout at getting to the play-offs.There was little between the sides in the opening half when a fortunate goal two minutes from the break helped the visitors to lead 1-7 to 0-6 when …

Kilkee duo David Russell and Michael O’Shea have rejoined the Clare senior football panel as Micheál McDermott’s team prepare for the visit of Down in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers in Cusack Park on Saturday week. Declan Callinan, another experienced inter-county footballer, has also linked up with the panel, while U-21s Stephen Tierney (St Breckan’s) and Seán O’Driscoll (Ennistymon) are now part of the panel as well. Diarmuid Daly has also returned to training following a long lay-off with injury. “There’s no doubt about it, they’ve added a bite to the panel and every one of these lads are going to be looking for a place in either the 15 or the 26 for Saturday week,” McDermott said of the new additions. Clare have, of course, lost their team captain Gordon Kelly, who will be playing football with Connemara Gaels in Boston for the summer. The Miltown man was sanctioned under the 60-day rule on Monday of this …

A proposal from Clare to inaugurate a Munster league for the minor champions of each county has been rejected by the Munster council. Responding to a query from Miltown’s Noel Walsh, the proposers of the motion, at this week’s Clare County Board meeting, Munster delegate John O’Sullivan said they had put the proposal but the other five counties were opposed to it. Mr Walsh asked if it had been proposed and seconded, to which chairman Mr O’Neill expressed surprise. “The other five counties opposed the proposal, which was put by Clare and there is nothing we can do,” he said.Mr Walsh also asked if central council had considered Clare’s proposal to continue the inter-provincial series (Railway Cup). Ger Hickey, Clare’s Central Council delegate, replied that the council had decided to continue the competition and the CCC had been asked to find a date for it in the 2012 calendar. County team costsTo date this year, the cost of preparing county …

Lissycasey         1-12 Éire Óg         1-11 Lissycasey followed on from their impressive showing against Doonbeg in the opening round of the senior football championship with a good and what could yet prove to be a very important win over Éire Óg in the Garry Cup (Division 2 league) at Lissycasey on Saturday evening.With relegation staring them in the face, Lissycasey went into the game knowing that another defeat would all but consign them to division 3 for next season. Adding interest to the tie was the fact that Lissycasey man Martin Daly is coaching the town outfit this season, while former Éire Óg star Barry Keating is the Lissycasey manager.Showing just one change from the side that took on champions Doonbeg a week earlier, they showed from the outset that they were determined to get a win.That said, things didn’t look good when they trailed by two points, 0-5 to 0-7, at half-time. On the resumption, Éire …