Sports

Doora-Barefield 1-5 Ennistymon 1-4 Has a minor championship ever created such excitement on and off the field? Unlikely. It was apt therefore that the 2010 Minor A Football Championship wasn’t decided until the fifth minute of injury time in an eventful, albeit free-filled final in Miltown. Brian Houlihan’s inspirational 60th minute goal pulled Ennistymon to within a point of Doora-Barefield to set up an incredibly exciting finish. After a lung-bursting run from his own full-back line, Houlihan linked up with Cathal Malone and Cathal McConigley before he fired past Liam Slattery. St Joseph’s four-point lead had suddenly evaporated and Ennistymon sensed they were not without hope. Two minutes into injury time, a sustained Ennistymon attack, where they virtually camped in front of their opponents’ goalmouth, culminated in Barefield winning a free out. It looked as if that was it. Not so. Two minutes later, Ennistymon midfielder Cathal Malone stole inside the winners full-back line but his shot on goal was …

The Munster uneven ages U-9 to U-19 plus the intermediate cross country championships were held in the Showgrounds, Charleville, on Sunday.Conditions were excellent after a lot of rain and Clare athletes produced magnificent individual performances.Daiela Svensson, Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare won the girls U-9. There was double gold in the U-11 section for Alex O Neill and Aidan McCarthy both St Cronan’s. There was another Munster title for Jean Clancy, St John’s, in the girls U-17 while Imogen Cotter, Ennis Track, won the girls U-19 title with Claire Madigan, St John’s taking the intermediate ladies 4,000m title.Clare captured 10 team awards, gold in the girls U-9 and bronze in the boys U-9; silver in both the girls and boys U-11, bronze in the girls U-13 and silver in the boys U-13; bronze in both the boys and girls U-15, gold in the girls U-17 and silver in the ladies intermediate. In addition, Ennis Track son the bronze medals in the inter-club …

ST Flannan’s College, Ennis suffered a heartbreaking one-point defeat in the opening round of the Corn Ui Mhuiri, Munster Colleges Football Championship at Glin.The winning score came from a 13m free in injury time after St Flannan’s had dominated much of the tie.The teams were level at half-time, 0-6 to 1-3, and the Ennis college then opened a four-point gap when play resumed, with a Martin O’Leary point followed by a Conor O’Gorman goal.Midway through the half, Coláiste na Sceilge struck for two goals in a matter of minutes, the second following a defensive mistake on the part of Flannan’s.To their credit, the Blues fought back and levelled but with the game in injury time, the Kerry side won a 13m free, which led to the winning score.St Flannan’s will now play Clonmel High School at the end of November and the winners of this tie will qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition. Coláiste na Sceilge beat Clonmel in …

Stradbally 0-7 Doonbeg 0-4 A POWERFUL first-half performance with a half-time lead of 10 points laid the foundations for St Breckan’s win over Kilsheelan-Kilcash in the opening round of the Munster Intermediate Football Championship at Lisdoonvarna on Sunday. The win means they are off to Dungarvan on Sunday for a semi-final date with Waterford champions Clashmore.On an excellent pitch, the North Clare side took control of the game from the start and kicked some quality scores over the hour.They played with the aid of the wind in the first half and when the Tipperary champions had the wind to their backs in the second half, they put on a lot of pressure. However, there is no denying the merit of the Clare champions’ victory, which is reflected in the fact that the visitors scored 1-2 between the 59th and 61st minutes, their goal being the final score of the game at the end of the first minute of injury time.Sean …

It will be a night of champions next month in Ennis as three kickboxing titles – two national and one European – are up for grabs in the West County Hotel.The main fight on the night, which will be hosted by Ennis Kickboxing Club, will be a ladies super heavyweight tilt for the WIMAAO European +70kg title between Dublin club, Fight Club Kickboxing’s Alex Ward and Lianne McAree-Murphy from Carrickmacross Kickboxing.Ward is a tough, young up-and-comer who has held the Irish Kickboxing Federation junior light contact title and who became double British light heavyweight champion in her first full-contact fight.  She is the current IKF woman’s heavyweight title-holder.Closer to home, local fighters Niall O’Donnell and Billy Kelly will be up against tough competition when they look to bring light middleweight and light heavyweight titles back to the Ennis club.O’Donnell, a rangy light middleweight with ferocious punching power and superior boxing ability is 7-0 in the kickboxing ring, with one international …

Three years ago, Oliver O’Loughlin and Patrick Ryan, both playing members of Corofin GAA club, were persuaded to take charge of training the local intermediate camogie team.On Sunday they will take charge of the side as they chase a place in the All-Ireland Junior Club Championship final. This is, without doubt, the biggest day to date in the history of the Clare club as they take on Tir na nÓg from Andersonstown in Belfast in the camogie semi-final at Corofin at 1pm.“It’s a huge day for the club and to have it on our own pitch is tremendous, particularly as a major upgrading was carried out on our pitch at the beginning of the year,” Oliver O’Loughlin said this week.He went on to explain that it was at the request of Carmel Tierney that he and Patrick Ryan agreed to conduct a few sessions three years ago and it just went from there. “We have contested the intermediate final for …

ENNIS teenager Dylan Casey is a talented young sportsman who is in big demand. In 2008, he was a leading light for Éire Óg’s U-14 hurlers and footballers and also with Avenue United schoolboys section.Indeed, his prowess as a soccer player led to an interest from Leicester City and over the past year he has travelled over to Leicester on a number of occasions for coaching and games at the club.This weekend, he will make his fourth trip to Leicester this season to play with Leicester City’s U-16 side. They have two games this weekend, against Manchester United and Bristol City and Casey is expected to play at least one, if not both games.Before that, however, he will be part of the St Flannan’s College Dean  Ryan team, which will play St Colman’s, Fermoy in the semi-final of the Munster Colleges Junior A Hurling Championship on Thursday in Charleville.The game was originally scheduled for Friday but earlier this week, the …

THE first Clare GAA team into competitive action in 2011 will be the senior footballers, who will begin their challenge for the McGrath Cup on January 9 against UCC.Twelve teams will participate in the competition, which will be played on successive weekends, with the final set for January 30, the week before the national league campaign begins.Should Clare manage to overcome the challenge of UCC, they will go through to a quarter-final date with Cork IT.The Clare senior hurlers will have their first competitive outing of 2011 on January 16, when they take on Tralee IT in the opening round of the Waterford Crystal Tournament. A quarter-final date against Limerick IT awaits the winner.Dates for the start of the season annual tournaments, along with the draws and dates for the provincial minor, U-21, junior (football) and intermediate (hurling) were made at a council meeting last week when the dates and venues for the senior championship games were finalised.Clare hurlers will …