Sports

Clare Sports Partnership and Clare Athletics Association will hold the rescheduled second race in this frostbite 5km road race series this Friday, December 31, starting at 12 noon in Mullagh.

The 14th annual Ennis Urban District Council and Marian AC turkey trot, originally scheduled for St Stephen’s Day, will now take place from Waterpark House Drumbiggle on this Saturday, January 1, starting at 12 noon.

Athletes from as far away as France and Switzerland gathered with a host of Irish competitors at this year’s Burren Charity challenge.

After a month of inactivity due to frost, the Clare soccer squad travel to Galway on Thursday evening for a tie they must win to have any chance of staying in the race for the Oscar Traynor, inter-league title.Beaten finalists last year, Clare went into this year’s title race with high hopes of going all the way and bringing the title back to the county for only the second time. They met a strong and well-balanced Limerick side in the opening round and ended up on the wrong side of a 3-1 result.This evening’s game with Galway was originally scheduled for the beginning of December but the inclement weather conditions led to a cancellationClare will be looking to goalkeeper, John Healy, David Russell, Damian O’Rourke and goalscorer in the opening round, Stephen Hickey to lead the way against Galway who will carry the favourites tag into the game Tournament rescheduledAs the pitches in Lisdoonvarna were frozen last weekend, the organisers …

Clare camogie kids discoClare camogie will host a disco for all young members from 8-13 years at the Auburn Lodge Hotel on Thursday from 5-8pm.

Bord na nÓg Péil convention will re-convene on Tuesday, January 4, to elect an executive for 2011 and to debate the eight motions that have been submitted. Forty eight hours later their hurling counterparts will re-convene to engage in a similar exercise.

JOE Cooney from O’Callaghan’s Mills is the new vice-chairman of Clare GAA. In a three-way contest for the post, he emerged victorious on the second count.Chairman of his club for the past four years, he stepped down from that position at the recent annual meeting of the club. He defeated PJ McGuane (Cooraclare) and Oliver Hanrahan (Éire Óg) for the position.After the first vote, Cooney and McGuane were level with 69 votes each. Hanrahan, who received 22 votes, was eliminated and delegates were then asked to vote for Cooney or McGuane. The second vote saw Cooney, a Fine Gael councillor, emerge victorious on a count of 80 votes to 75.Thanking the delegates, Cooney said he was “a committed GAA man” all of his life.PJ McGuane told the meeting he was a dedicated club and parish man. He said, “There were no recriminations or rancour and I hope this is the way forward.”“We have a generation of young married couples who …

The weather forecast is likely to be the main topic of conversation among racing fans in the build-up to Christmas, with hopes that the present cold snap, which has decimated racing on both sides of the Irish Sea of late, relents in time for the high-profile racing festival programme to go ahead. Met Éireann are predicting a thaw to arrive on Christmas Eve and it is very much a case of fingers crossed that the forecasters are correct, as all is set for the busiest week of racing is this country.   Limerick’s four-day Christmas racing festival has long been a mecca for punters in the Mid-West and this year’s programme looks bigger and better than ever. Course manager Russell Ferris and his team have been working overtime to get this meeting on and speaking to The Clare Champion on Monday, Ferris was optimistic that the fixture would get the green light. “We have been very lucky here that we didn’t …