Sports

  Dublin  2-22  Clare  0-15 FAILURE to match Dublin’s all-round sharpness and big match experience proved costly for Clare in the senior hurling championship qualifier at Croke Park on Saturday. In the end, Dublin won comfortably to secure a date with Antrim this weekend, while it’s back to the drawing board for Clare after this disappointing result.For a while in Saturday’s game, Clare looked like they might progress but, for the majority of the tie, Dublin were the better side.  They won the tactical battle, were the stronger side physically and showed superior fitness.The Clare defence struggled throughout and this was particularly true of the full-back line. Since his elevation to the senior team, Cian Dillon has been superb at full-back but on Saturday he struggled against the outstanding David O’Callaghan.The quality of the ball delivered to O’Callaghan was key to his dominance, particularly in the opening half, when he shot six points from play. It was a day when …

KILKISHEN Handball Club member, Colin Crehan created history last week when he was crowned the national U-16 one-wall handball champion at the tournament final in Castlebar. Colin, who lives in Oatfield, was ranked an outsider for the title particularly when he faced up to world champion Donal Rynne from Leitrim in the decider. However, showing strength of stamina and skill, Colin upset the pre-final favourite triumphing by six aces, 24–18 to claim the title, which was presented to him by president of the Irish Handball Association, Tony Hannon. On his way to the final, he had comfortable wins in the first and second rounds before beating Gavin Crystal, Tyrone and Darren Doherty, Monaghan in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively.

TWO East Clare men, who have given many years to their GAA clubs, believe they have come up with a solution to what is currently proving to be a big problem in GAA games.In the early part of this decade, Feakle native Michael McMahon served as a mentor with the U-12 hurlers in Tulla where he resides.“At this level, young lads tend to follow the ball and not stay in their positions. The mentors with our team used to split up and take different positions in order to keep the players where they should be. I used to be behind the goals dealing with the backs. Referees would rarely have umpires so, more often than not, I would end up being asked to act as umpire as well,” Michael explained this week.He went on to recall, “We were playing the ‘Mills and one of their players came through and I expected that he was going for goal. I was standing …

IT’S often lamented that hurling is in a geographical straitjacket, unable to move beyond the counties where it is strong for over 100 years.There’s less talk about how confined the game can be within the counties where it actually has a strong base, such as Clare. Despite the All-Irelands of the ’90s, the game has failed to penetrate huge tracts of the Banner and many young people grow up without having any opportunity to play. One club showing progress, however, is St Breckan’s of Lisdoonvarna, whose U-14 hurlers this year captured the Bord na nÓg C Championship and the Féile Division 4 title.One of the driving forces behind the success is Peter Casey, who was over the successful side and who began working to revive hurling in the town less than 10 years ago.Before that the game had been dormant; the previous success of Peter’s father John in getting it going some years back having stalled.Peter hurled for Corofin after …

NEWMARKET-on-Fergus man Shane Cusack played the second half on Tuesday’s soccer friendly at Thomond Park when Sunderland played a Munster selection.Cusack, who recently returned from Colchester where he had spent the last year, turned in an impressive display when he was introduced for the second half in a game played as part of the Shane Geoghegan Memorial Day.

CLARECASTLE’S Fergie O’Loughlin is returning to hurling management in Clare and this week he has teamed up with Inagh-Kilnamona.Davy Fitzgerald coached the mid-Clare club after Waterford bowed out of the All-Ireland title race. The Sixmilebridge man was again the club’s first choice as coach for this season but his involvement with Waterford has meant that he has been unable to give his time to date this year.Inagh native Eoin Garvey, who coached Carlow for a number of seasons, agreed to step in for a few weeks but his commitment to a major walk during the coming weeks means that he is not available to continue in this role.This has led to the appointment of Clarecastle man O’Loughlin who is also training Galway side, Castlegar, this year.O’Loughlin trained Ballyea to the Clare senior final a few years back when they came up against his native Clarecastle who he was also training that year. He committed to the Magpies for the final …

CLARE came within minutes of beating Galway in the senior camogie championship on Saturday in Corofin and would have achieved a shock result but for a storming finish by the Galway girls. Having defeated Clare on a scoreline of 3-16 to 1-5 in the league and with wins over Tipperary, Wexford and Cork already secure, Galway were assured and confident as they took to the field in abysmal weather conditions.Points from Therese Maher and Veronica Curtin in the opening minutes saw them get off to the start they expected. Deirdre Murphy pointed for Clare after she collected a long Kate Lynch drive to open Clare’s account.Galway’s Aislinn Connolly responded with a point before Galway were awarded a penalty when Clare goalie Susan Vaughan was penalised for pulling Curtin’s jersey as she attempted to clear her line.Fiona Lafferty saved the resulting penalty before Galway put the rebound wide. Curtin went on to point again five minutes later, before Clare started to …

CLARE failed in their bid to reach their second successive All-Ireland minor semi-final in-a-row, when they were frustratingly edged out by Mayo in the shield semi-final in Mountbellew last Saturday. Clare threw everything at the leaders in the final moments, only to run out of time.On reflection, they will rue missed opportunities especially from play and placed balls in the first half that could have seeing them go in level at half-time.Clare dominated the first quarter, scoring 2-1 to Mayo’s two points. Clare’s scores came from Sinéad Sexton (1-1) and Niamh O’Dea (1-0) but in the final 10 minutes of the half, Mayo completely took over, scoring 2-6. Star of the show was centre-forward Carol Hegarty, who scored 2-3. Both sides added points before half-time to leave the score at Mayo 2-7 Clare 2-3.In the second half, Clare made a number of positional changes, which seemed to work. The sides exchanged points inside 16 minutes, with Clare’s points coming from …