Sports

Four Roads, Roscommon 1-9 Corofin 0-6 FAILURE to match the experience and physical strength of their opponents proved costly for Clare champions Corofin in the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Club Championship final played at Duggan Park in Ballinasloe on Sunday.The Roscommon and Connacht champions emerged as deserving winners of the Phil McBride Cup but the final scoreline is a little flattering in their favour.Two points separated the teams with 30 seconds of normal time to play. Then Four Roads got through for the game’s only goal and they followed with a point shortly before the full-time whistle. That they emerged as deserving winners is without question but a six-point margin is not an accurate reflection of the effort put in by Corofin.That said, Corofin will look back on this tie and wonder what might have been had they availed of all of the chances that came their way. They missed a couple of point opportunities in the opening quarter, while they …

WEST Clare boxer Keelan Sexton, who is the reigning 63kg Irish champion, guaranteed his place on the Irish team for the forthcoming Home Internationals last Saturday when he defeated 67kg champion Mike Ward on a 6-4 scoreline at the National Stadium in Dublin.Sexton has been training in the Ennis Boxing Club over the past three months, pending the opening of the West Clare Club, and he has been in splendid form in sparring sessions with Ennis fighters Lee Brady and Lee Sherlock. He said after the fight on Saturday that he felt quite lethargic in the first round and allowed Ward to dominate from long range for a 2-0 lead.However, the second round came to life in the second minute, after Sexton scored with damaging left hooks to the body and trailed by a single point at the bell. The Clare boxer opened up in the third and final round and outscored Ward, who could not keep Sexton at bay …

COLM Collins (Cratloe) has been appointed Clare U-21 football manager for 2011. He will be joined on the management team by Peter O’Connell (Shannon Gaels) while other additions will be made to the management in the coming weeks. A number of trials are due to be held and clubs are invited to contact the manager on 087 2517993 if they have a player worthy of consideration, not already called to attend a trial. Full training will commence from January 1. Clare will play Limerick in the first round of the Munster championship on March 9.

FORMER Clare senior and Kerry minor football manager John Kennedy is to be appointed coach to the Kilmurry-Ibrickane senior football team for 2011. Kennedy will be joined by Patrick Murrihy and Joe Hurley on the management team. The latter were ratified at last Sunday’s Kilmurry-Ibrickane AGM. Micheál McDermott stood down from managing the 2010 All-Ireland club finalists after their March 17 defeat and was replaced by Martin Keavey and Laois man Seán Dempsey, who coached the team for the county championship. Meanwhile, Martin Daly and Peter Cosgrove are set to link up at the helm of the Éire Óg senior football team, while Ger Keane and Barry Keating are likely to become part of the Lissycasey senior football management team for the new season. On the hurling front, current Clare senior camogie manager Patsy Fahey will train the Kilmaley senior hurling team, which will be managed by John Carmody. Both men were part of the St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield senior hurling …

  Kilmurry-Ibrickane KILMURRY Ibrickane senior GAA club held their AGM at the clubhouse last Sunday. Gerard Talty and Michael Considine were returned as chairman and secretary respectively, while Patrick Murrihy and Joe Hurley were appointed as senior team mentors for 2011.The meeting reflected on the year in which Kilmurry Ibrickane contested the All-Ireland club final in Croke Park on March 17, with former manager Micheál McDermott and selectors Martin Cahill and Gerard McCarthy singled out for their work.The feat of the girls and the boys’ U-12 teams, who won their respective county championships, were highlighted, as were the U-10s on winning the Canny Cup, the national schools team on winning their schools title and the ladies team, which represented Quilty/Mullagh national schools.Both the chairperson and secretary paid tribute to all who helped to prepare the teams and also all who coached and trained all other teams in the parish. They also acknowledged all who organised, supported and contributed to the …

West Clare Gaels full-back Sineád Kelly was presented with the Lucozade Sport/Irish Independent Player of the Month award for October this week. Sineád has been playing great football this year for Clare and West Clare Gaels but was particularly outstanding for her club as they captured the All-Ireland intermediate title recently.

EVERY one of the 36 boxers who entered the ring in the Queens Hotel last Friday evening did so united in their aim to raise money for Clare Crusaders Clinic in Barefield.Yet as collectively united as they might have been prior to and after their respective fights, they were on their own for three long, often ferocious minutes once the bell rang.While ostensibly a charitable event, none of the fighters wanted to be hauled out of the ring before their three allotted minutes had expired, unaware of their own name. The crowd swelled to more than 1,000 people and the longer the evening edged into late night, the more animated the crowd became. Conor Smith (Inagh) and Cartha Donovan (Donegal) set the tone for the evening when they knocked seven shades of sweat out of each other in the opening bout. Having paid €20 to gain admittance, this was one investment that nobody was about to regret. Rita McInerney (Doonbeg) …

The Woodies DIY Athletics Association of Ireland Inter-counties Cross Country Championships plus the juvenile even ages from U-12 to U-18 were held at Gransha Park, County Derry, in a snow blizzard all afternoon and Clare athletes produced outstanding performances with many star athletes and Caoimhie Harvey, (St John’s), finishing 10th in the girls’ U-12s with (St John’s) and Clare taking inter-club and inter-county bronze medals.Aidan McCarthy, (St Cronan’s) and Patrick O’Rourke, (Kilmurry Ibrickane-North Clare), finished fifth and sixth in the boys’ U-12s, with Clare taking the inter-county award and (Kilmurry Ibrickane-North Clare) a silver medal in the inter clubs.Laura Egan, (Kilmihil), finished 23rd in the U-16s girls and Clare took bronze medals. Ian Slobody, (Kilmihil), finished 13th in the U-16s boys.Aishling Darcy, (Ennis Track), was ninth in the Girls’ U-18s with Jake O’Regan, (St John’s), 11th in the boys U-18s and Darragh Lynch, (Ennis Track) 13th.Orla O’Mahoney, a former (Marian) Athlete from Ennis and running in the Clare colours, finish …