Sports

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 …

ENNIS boxer Lee Brady made a welcome comeback to ring action in the finals of the Munster Leagues in a frost-bound Ennis last Sunday.It was Brady’s first action of the new season, having been sidelined with injury since September and he was anxious to return to the winners’ rostrum against Limerick’s Callum Ryan (St Francis). He ticked all the right boxes in this one and emerged victorious on all three judges’ scorecards in a pulsating three rounds of action in the 67kg class.He conceded height and reach to the rangy Limerick fighter but was always busy and kept Ryan on the back foot, scoring with left and right hooks for a comprehensive victory.Brothers John and Simon McDonagh, who were unbeaten in their previous respective outings, almost made it 100% success ratings in the leagues but a rather harsh decision deprived Simon in his battle with Chester O’Mara from Clonmel. He will rue the absence of the computer scoring and, in …

The Munster Masters Indoor Championships plus the juvenile multi-events for U-12 to U-18 were held at the Nenagh Indoor Arena. Clare athletes gave outstanding performances when taking nine gold medals, nine silver medals and three bronze medals.Richard McArthur, in the O-45 category, came away with five gold medals. After winning the 60m, he followed with gold in the long jump and high jump, and later on that afternoon he won gold in the 200m and added a gold in the 56lbs without follow.David Courtney, Ennis Track, competing in the O-45 section came away with the gold medal in the shot putt and he added silver in the long jump and 56lbs for distance and a bronze medal in the high jump.In the masters O-40 Tommy Greene, St John’s, came away with gold in the shot putt (10.49m) and he also captured the 56lbs for distance. He won a silver medal in the long jump and a bronze medal in the …

At a function in the Temple Gate Hotel on Monday night, Munster Council distributed development grants to clubs for work on pitch and dressing room developments.Over the three years (2007-2009) Munster GAA has distributed € 5,600,000 to clubs across the province. This money has, in the main, been generated from gate receipts. Central Council has contributed €2,381,805 to club physical development grants over the same period. In 2010, Munster GAA distributed €1,608,149 to club and county physical development projects.In addition to the expenditure in relation to physical development, Munster GAA has also provided other financial support in 2010 to counties, with a total of €480,752 paid out to Clare. Team expenses and field rent amounted to €67,853; €121,602 was for coaching with €58,790 for projects. The biggest figure, €232,507, went to physical development in a selection of clubs.The Clare clubs to benefit are: Ballyea (€16,000); Broadford (€11,305); Kilrush (€16,000); Moy (€1,689); O’Curry’s (€9.965); St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield (€32,085); Sixmilebridge (€21,379); Banner …

CLARE GAA chairman Michael O’Neill said when he addressed the convention for the first time as chairman in December 2007, no one could have envisaged the changes that have taken place in the country since then.“While it is vitally important not to get bogged down in the negativity which has engulfed us in such a short time, we can’t ignore the detrimental effect that emigration is having on our clubs in particular and to a lesser extent on our county teams. As an organisation, there is only a certain amount we can do to alleviate the genuine hardships our members are facing throughout the country. The GAA has built a massive infrastructure in every town and village thanks to the hard work, every genuine member of the association has put in on the ground and we need this work to continue,” the Ballyea club man said in his address to delegates at the end of his third year in office.On …

THE growth in alcohol and substance abuse resulted in a national committee being formed, which in turn has led to a decision that every club must now have an ASAP officer (alcohol an substance prevention).Munster ASAP officer, Diarmuid Gowan from Cork and the first chairman of the national committee, Joe Connolly, the former Galway All-Ireland winning hurling captain addressed the meeting. They were introduced to the gathering by the Clare ASAP officer, Des Crowe who is also the assistant county board secretary.“This is a local problem and it’s there whether we like it or not,” Connolly told delegates. “Don’t anybody tell me that the villages and the parishes of Clare don’t have a problem with underage drinking and drugs abuse. It’s there on the ground whether we like it or not. We did in our time what our age group was doing and we gave it stick in our own way but it has gone on a lot from that …

As the severe weather conditions ­continued throughout the past week, many golf courses across the county remained closed for the most part. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that weather conditions will improve enough to have courses re-opened this week. A number of competitions are planned at clubs across the county for the holiday period. Ennis The incoming captains at Ennis Golf Club, Michael and Phil Butler, will have their drive-in on January 1 at 3pm.In conjunction with the drive-in, there will be a team-of-three team competition and the timesheet for this opened on Tuesday of this week. A big turnout of members is expected for the occasion. Ennis Seniors Having recently secured the accolade of senior golfer of the year, Seán O’Gorman continued his winning ways at last week’s Christmas hampers outing of the Ennis Men’s Senior Social Group.Sixty played in the outing and Seán returned 36 points over 14 holes to win from Luke Coote, who also carded …