Sports

DEFENDING U-21A hurling champions, Éire Óg, were stripped of their title at Newmarket on St Patrick’s Day by a Cratloe outfit that ran up a whopping 18 wides over the hour.A strong finish from the South-East Clare side was enough to see them progress to the semi-final where their opponents will be either Newmarket or Kilmaley, who must meet again after they played out a draw at Meelick.Meanwhile, competition favourites, Sixmilebridge, progressed to the semi-final after they proved too strong for Clonlara at Tulla. Shortly before the final whistle, a flare up resulted in three players, two from Clonlara, being dismissed on straight red cards by match official Rory Hickey.Three players, two from Éire Óg and one from Cratloe, were also sent off in the game in Newmarket.The remaining quarter-final was played on Sunday and resulted in victory for Inagh-Kilnamona over the Broadford-O’Callaghan’s Mills combination.   Cratloe 1-13Éire Óg 1-6 WHEN Éire Óg opened a one-goal lead 10 minutes into …

THERE were comprehensive wins for Ballyea and Smith O’Brien’s in the opening round of the U-21B Hurling Championship on St Patrick’s Day. Neighbours, O’Callaghan’s Mills and Broadford, who have joined forces to take part at A level, had mixed luck in the B title race. The Mills had a one-point win over Clarecastle while Broadford went down by two points to Corofin.St Joseph’s came from behind to beat Ruan-Banner, while neighbours Clooney-Quin and Crusheen shared the spoils and must meet again to determine who will go through to play Corofin. O’Callaghan’s Mills 3-11Clarecastle 4-7 OVER the 60 minutes, O’Callaghan’s Mills were the better-balanced side and deserved to win this tie but it nearly didn’t turn out that way. Leading by seven points with as many minutes remaining, they looked set to win comfortably.An Aaron Considine point from a 30m free reduced the lead to six with three minutes to go. Then a Considine free rebounded off the post and David …

For a hurler or footballer to transfer from their native club is never an easy decision but from once Cratloe’s Sean Hawes moved to work in Belfast, it was inevitable a switch of clubs would follow.Sean has continued to return to his native Cratloe over the past two years despite being based in Belfast but he has finally made the switch. He made his debut for the Antrim senior side last week when they defeated Carlow in the Division 2 Hurling League.“I have played senior hurling for 12 years with Cratloe and I certainly enjoyed it. Winning the senior title in 2009 really topped it off and, while it was disappointing to lose last year’s final, it was great to get there again. It showed how much we had come on,” Sean told The Clare Champion.“I had decided that I was going to transfer at the end of this season anyhow. When the opportunity came up to represent Antrim, it …

Scariff         28 Shandon     19 Scariff made the trip to Shandon, Cork for last Sunday’s league match and came away 28-19 victors. However, the scoreline does not reflect the match performance. Scariff got off to a great start with a try from Robbie Madden after good work from Conor McNamara. But that was as good as it got for Scariff until the 60th minute. Handling errors, lapses in concentration, poor defence and discipline let the Cork side back into this game. On 60 minutes Scariff were awarded a penalty try after James Kelly was taken off the ball as he was about to touch down. This gave Scariff the impetus to close out the game, with a second Robbie Madden try. The bonus point was secured with a Barry Gibbons try. James Kelly converted all four tries.This victory leaves Scariff one win away from promotion to the second division. The performance will have to improve, however, if they …

Feakle-Killanena 1-13 Ennistymon 2-8 IN a well-contested quarter-final in the U-21C title race, Feakle-Killanena emerged with a narrow win over Ennistymon.The North Clare side held a one-point advantage at the interval but Feakle-Killanena had a slight edge in the second half and also had a great spread of scoregetters. This proved vital as Ennistymon depended greatly on Cathal Malone for scores. Feakle-Killanena: Eibhear Quilligan; Henry Purcell, Martin Glynn; Michael Noonan, Colin Nelson (0-3), Colin McNamara; Ronan McGuinness (0-1), Killian Bane; Declan Noonan, Gary Guilfoyle (0-4), Pádraig Brady (1-1); Shane McGrath (0-2), Paul McArthur (0-2).Subs: Eanna McMahon for Purcell (inj), Stevie Moloney for McArthur; Eoin McGuinness for Bane.Ennistymon: Cathal McDonagh; Enda Ralph, David Davenport; Brian Houlihan, Sean O’Driscoll, Darren Mullins; Michael Houlihan, Dara Ralph; Declan Sexton (1-0), Cathal Malone (1-8), Joey Rouine; Enda Slattery, Paul Queally.Sub: Liam Ganley for Queally.   Tulla 0-11Sixmilebridge 1-8 TULLA and Sixmilebridge will have to do it all over again after they played a draw at …

Kilkishen 2-6 Scarriff/Ogonnelloe 1-7 Kilkishen wore down a determined Scariff/Ogonnelloe side on Sunday to take the points in this first senior league match of the season. Both sides battled hard and the outcome was in doubt until minutes from the end, when a brace of scores from Kilkishen saw them edge ahead to take the points. Kilkishen: Clare Baker; Michelle Moroney, Nollaig Baker, Marie Nash; Monica Moroney, Kate Lynch (0-2, 2f), Cushla Hehir; Lisa Loughnane, Sarah Donnellan; Noelle McNamara, Leah O’Keefe (0-1), Siobhan Keniry; Ciara Ryan (1-0), Norah Murphy (1-2, 2f), Marie Collins (0-1).Subs: Sorcha Loughnane for Monica Moroney; Caroline Sheedy for Noelle McNamara; Shauna Fleming for Ciara Ryan. Sixmilebridge 5-14 Corofin 0-1Sixmilebridge came out convincing winners over Corofin in the opening round of the senior league. It was Corofin’s first time competing in the senior grade and both sides were missing many of their key players due to injury. The ’Bridge got off to a bright start with full-forward …

CRATLOE National School riders had great success at the inter-schools showjumping event held in Carrigaline, in Cork last Sunday. Fifteen national school teams, 18 secondary school teams and 160 individual primary/secondary school riders from all over Munster competed. In the primary schools’ team event, St John’s A from Cratloe were in second place and the team members were Conor McMahon, John Gallagher, Ava Cunningham and Kara Gupta. Other results involving Clare competitors are:60cm individual event (against the clock):5. John Gallagher (Cratloe National School).Double clears, individual 60cm: Tara Diggins (Sixmilebridge National School); Jack Collins (St Caimin’s, Shannon); Kara Gupta, Ishe Gupta, Rachel Hoctor, Stephen Hoctor, Caoimhe Mc Namara, Aoife O’Brien, Ava Cunningham (Cratloe National School).80cm individual event (against the clock): 1. Brian Gallagher (Ardscoil Rís, Limerick); 3. Mark Doyle (St Caimin’s, Shannon).Meter individual event (against the clock): 1. Conor Mc Mahon (Cratloe National School).

There were a number of surprises as seven games in round three of the Clare Junior Cup were played at the weekend.Premier side, Bridge United A went out to Rineanna Rovers B in what was the shock of the round.Manus Celtic B’s victory over Hermitage A will also have come as a shock as will the defeats of both Rock Rovers and Newmarket Celtic A by Tulla United A and Lifford respectively. Burren United     4 Cratloe Forest     3 Burren United took the lead after 10 minutes in Lisdoonvarna when Patrick Darcy headed to the net from a Liam Keane cross.Cratloe Forset had the better of matters from here to the half-time whistle and scored twice to lead by the odd goal in three at the halfway point. The South East Clare side’s scorers were. A Padraig Chaplin corner went to the net via a deflection off a Burren defender before Michael Hawes put the visitors aheadOn the resumption, …