Sports

Avenue Utd 1Rhine Rovers 3 Lees Road hosted a cracking Munster Junior Cup tie last Sunday morning and it took two goals from the O’Brien brothers, Johnny and David, in the final 15 minutes to finally end the resistance of an experienced Avenue B outfit.  

TOP chaser, Kauto Star will be the headline act when Paul Nicholls’ dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner lines up in the Grade 1 JNwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday.

MEMBERS of the Colossal syndicate from Ennis and Kilmaley had a rewarding trip to the Trim coursing meeting last Sunday when they won the Gilroy Cup (16 dogs) with Colossal Storm (Cillowen Harbour-Lantern Girl).

Killanena 1-10 Ruan 1-9 The Clare Intermediate Hurling Championship Final of 2010 certainly won’t be remembered for the quality of hurling but that won’t worry Killanena too much this week as they celebrate their historic first success in the competition.Before the biggest attendance of the season at a domestic fixture outside of the senior final, the East Clare outfit finally got over the line.Beaten finalists in 2006 and 2007 and beaten semi-finalists for the past two years, they refused to throw in the towel and got their reward at headquarters on Sunday.While hurling followers across the county will be delighted for Killanena, they will agree this tie could have gone either way. Indeed, Ruan certainly had chances to win their first title at this level in 32 years. For long periods on Sunday, a draw looked the likely result which would certainly have caused headaches for all involved as the opening round of the Munster championship is scheduled for this …

WEST Clare Gaels Ladies’ Football Club will make further history for Clare ladies’ football next weekend when they travel to the UK to contest the Intermediate All-Ireland quarter-final. This is the first time a Clare club has travelled abroad for a game as well as the first time a Clare ladies’ club will contest an intermediate All-Ireland quarter-final.For the West Clare outfit, this involves a huge financial undertaking as the trip to Ruislip is costing in excess of €11,000. Officials at the club however, are not happy with the contribution they have received from the Clare board towards the cost of this trip.“West Clare Gaels Ladies have received the sum of €1,000 from the Clare Ladies’ County Board, a sum which we believe to be insufficient to deal with the huge cost of the trip, considering the substantial revenue received by the county board from West Clare Gaels games at all levels,” according to club PRO, Deirdre McGrath in a …

CRUSHEEN feel strongly about representing Clare and they intend to let neither club nor county down. That’s the message from team boss Michael Browne this week as they complete their preparations for Sunday’s Munster Club Championship quarter-final clash with Kilmallock from Limerick at Cusack Park where the throw-in will be at 2pm.“It’s a huge honour to represent your county and it’s also very big for our club to be able to play on such a big stage,” according to Browne. “We returned to training on the Wednesday after our Clare final win and we trained on Friday and again on Sunday. This is a first for Crusheen and it is a big honour. It’s a great honour to look outside the county and it gives lads a bit more freedom to go out and show what they can do,” the Crusheen coach added.Browne and his fellow selectors, Gerry Kearney, Eddie Fitzgibbon and Niall Griffin, will have a full squad from …

FOLLOWING Ireland’s disappointing performance in the first International Rules test against Australia last Saturday in Limerick, Clare followers were predicting this week that county senior footballer Gary Brennan will be called up for Saturday’s second test at Croke Park.The Clondegad man didn’t make the panel for last week’s game but was included in a standby list. He has taken part in much of the training for the series over the past two months.Another Clare man who was in the running for this year’s panel was Miltown’s Gordon Kelly, last year’s county senior captain. He didn’t make the final cut.A call-up for Brennan for this week’s test might go some way towards easing the disappointment he suffered when favourites Clondegad lost out to St Breckan’s in the intermediate football final recently.

Ennis teenager Cormac Hennessy is on top of the world this week after winning a gold medal at the Karate World Cup in Cyprus. Hennessey travelled to the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, on the back of a very good run of form and, from the off, showed that he was up for the challenge. On the first day of competition in the U-19 boys kumite, an un-weighted category, he was unlucky to be beaten into second and had to settle for the silver medal. Later that day he was back on the mat again, this time in the U-84kg/U-21 division. Having eased his way into the final, he overpowered his opponent with little fuss to take the win. “I am just ecstatic,” said the CIT musoc student. “I have fought at this level before, in Tokyo, Bucharest and Manchester, but these are my first international medals.” Hennessey’s near neighbour, Patrick Tierney, also came away with two medals. On day one of …