Sports

Third Division Manus Celtic B   3 West Clare United 2 MANUS Celtic B moved close to the Third Division title when they beat St Pat’s and West Clare United at the weekend. They have four games remaining and victory in all four will give Manus the league title.On Friday evening they had a 4-1 win over St Pat’s with the goals coming from Conor Plunkett (2), Anthony Griffey and Aaron Considine from the penalty spot, although St Pat’s were much closer than the final scoreline would suggest.On Sunday, Manus defeated another of the title-chasing sides in West Clare United. The winners took a three-goal lead through Anthony Griffin, Donogh Murphy and Aaron Considine who, again, scored from the penalty spot.West Clare hit back with goals from Jamie Russell and Tom Honan.Manus Celtic B: Brian Keogh, Michael Malone, Barry Malone, Declan Frawley, Seanie Moloney, Aaron Considine, Shane Considine, Anthony Griffey, Conor Plunkett, Bernard Scanlan, Donogh Murphy.Subs: Davy Considine for Scanlan.West Clare …

DEREK O’Connor thrilled his supporters with a double at last Sunday’s County Clare Hunt meeting at Quakerstown, which brought his career tally between the flags to an amazing 700 winners. Award-winning O’Connor, now widely regarded at the best point-to-point rider this country has ever produced, paid his first visit of the afternoon to the winner’s enclosure when teaming up with Quin handler Brian Hassett to land the five-year-old geldings’ maiden aboard 4/6 favourite A Heart Beats On. Sent to the front with a circuit to race, the Kaieteur gelding kept up a relentless gallop to beat newcomer Bound For Glory by five lengths.“This is a very nice horse and his next assignment will be either a winners’ race or a bumper,” said the winning trainer. Former Grand National-winning rider JasonTitley provided O’Connor with the second leg of his double when Vintage Krug came home best to land the winners’ race. Dropped out in the early stages, O’Connor made stealthy progress …

Clare 2-9 Cork  2-7 CLARE captured their third Munster minor camogie title in five years on Monday evening when they defeated Cork at Mallow.Goals from Susan Fahy and Nikki Kaiser in the final quarter turned this tie in Clare’s favour.Team captain, Chloe Morey, was another of the Clare stars on the evening, scoring all of her team’s points. Her performance earned her the player-of-the-match awardThis was the fifth successive minor final between the pair and it proved just as competitive as the previous meetings with never more than a puck of the ball separating the sides. Clare led by 0-5 to 0-3 approaching the interval but an Aoife Kelly goal gave the home side a 1-4 to 0-5 half-time lead. A goal in the 45th minute from Áine O’Donovan put Cork three points ahead but far from dropping their heads, Clare rallied and hit back immediately when Chloe Morey won a puck-out and picked out Susan Fahy on the wing …

Kilkenny 5-17 Clare     0-10 THE final scoreline is flattering to Kilkenny but there is no doubting the merit of their win over Clare in the All-Ireland U-16 championship semi-final at Kilmallock on Saturday. The physically stronger Leinster side showed lots of skill and picked off scores in impressive fashion throughout this tie.The winners had three points on the board before Nikki Kaiser converted a free for Clare’s first score, which came in the ninth minute.Kilkenny added a 2-2 to their tally to Clare’s two points in the next 10 minutes. Clare were unlucky not to raise a green flag when after a pass from Kaiser midfielder Kate O’Gorman’s effort came off the upright and was cleared out for a 45’, which Kaiser duly converted. Kilkenny added another two points before the break leaving the half-time score at 2-7 to 0-4. While Clare did take the game more to Kilkenny in the second half, the strength of Kilkenny was too much …

Wolfe Tones             3-6 St Joseph’s, Miltown  2-6 WOLFE Tones completed the Clare Féile double for 2011 when they captured the football crown at the expense of Miltown St Joseph’s at Cusack Park on Sunday. Two weeks earlier, their hurlers won the hurling title at the expense of Clarecastle.Miltown got off to a great start with a Joe Marrinan goal in the opening minute. The next score came from Wolfe Tones in the sixth minute when Aaron Shanagher pointed from a free. In the eighth minute, a great move from Wolfe Tones ended with Dean Devanney scoring their first goal. Wolfe Tones then added another goal from Sean Costello in the 10th minute to leave the score at 2-1 to 1-0.Cormac Murray pointed from play for Miltown but some more excellent moves from Wolfe Tones saw Devanney get their third goal. Aaron Shanagheradded two points in the 14th and 15th minutes as the Shannon side stretched their lead. Both teams exchanged …

WITH the very good weather during the past week, all competitions were well supported and scoring was high. Over 60 played for the men’s Easter Hamper which was a singles stroke event against the par of 66.Eoghan O’Loughlin, off five handicap, returned 64 gross (nett 59) to establish a course record for the current layout. In second place was Harry Crowe (17) 59 nett. followed by Ross Burke (17) 59 nett, Conor Egan (12) 63 nett and Gerry Gallagher (22) 64 nett. In the seniors’ open last week, Willie McNamara (18) was the winner with 41 points from Gerry Meade (16) with 35 points. In the weekly open, the winner was David Egan (13) with 43 points from Ross Burke (17) with 40 points. The Friday evening team-of-four nine-hole scramble was won by Joe O’Rourke (21), Conor Egan (12), Ross Burke (17) and Stephen Cunningham (25) with five under gross. The lady captain’s prize to the men will be the …

The topsy-turvey form Clare have shown throughout the league campaign gave cause for concern ahead of Sunday’s league clash with Carlow at Cusack Park.

The Clare minor footballers will travel to The Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening to take on Limerick in a second-round losers group Munster championship fixture.