Sports

TWO Clare people have been honoured at the NUI Galway annual sports awards.Ollie O’Flaherty from Lahinch, one of the country’s most consistent surfers in recent years, has been presented with the surfing award.He was part of the Irish team that finished eighth at last year’s European Championships and he followed his runner-up spot in the 2009 Intervarsity Championships with a win in this year’s edition. Fifth at last year’s national championships, Ollie’s choice of course Earth and Ocean Sciences complements his passion for surfing. Jose Ramirez from Scariff has been presented with the club’s captain award. He is captain of the Muay Thai club and he shares the award with David O’Reilly Healy from the snow sports club. Jose is a second-year arts student.The NUI Galway Awards were presented at a special ceremony last week in the Ardilaun House Hotel, Galway.It was a successful year for NUI Galway sport that included many international caps for students, a Fitzgibbon Cup win …

St Flannan’s College 2-17St Louis Grammar School 2-3 HISTORY was made at Ratoath in Meath on Sunday when St Flannan’s College captured a national camogie title for the first time in the school’s history.The foundations for the win against St Louis Grammer School, Ballymena were laid early on when Flannan’s raced into a 1-6 to 0-0 lead in the opening ten minutes. Full-forward Rebecca Culligan was the goalscorer with points from Nikki Kaiser, Sara O’Keeffe, Orla Devitt and Culligan.The northern outfit came into contention for a while but St Flannan’s finished the half strongly and another goal from Culligan left them 2-10 to 1-1 in front at the mid point in the game.The Ulster champions scored 1-2 in the opening minutes of the second half as they threatened a comeback but Flannan’s regained the upperhand and they finished the game with the last six scores.Midfielders Ashling Darcy and Rachel Mulcaire dominated throughout, while Orla Devitt, Rebecca Culligan, Sarah O’Keeffe, Nikki …

NOW that the dust has settled on last week’s Cheltenham’s Festival, it is time to look back at the fantastic meeting that was, thankfully, sprinkled with a good deal of success for representatives from the Banner County. Without doubt, the victory of A New Story in Tuesday’s Glenfarclas Cross-County Chase was the highlight from a local point of view and his success was very much deserved as the now 12-year-old has been a model of consistency for his Ennis owners, Christy Guerin and Sean Moran, who make up the victorious Storey’s Over Syndicate.  Sent off at 25/1, A New Story was by no means ignored in the market having been as high as 50/1 at one stage and the betting shops in the Ennis area were reported to be hard-hit with a flurry of bets on the successful son of Fourstars Allstar. Fourth over hurdles to his stable companion, Dancing Tornado at Naas just nine days earlier, A New Story, …

Tulla 1-15 Abbey CBS 0-6 ST Joseph’s Tulla qualified for the Munster U-15 B hurling final with victory over Abbey CBS, Tipperary on Tuesday last in Ballybricken. St Joseph’s played against the wind in the first-half when they laid the foundation for the win. Eoin Touhy, who ended up scoring eight points, had his first in the third minute. Abbey replied with points from corner-forwards Seamus Kinnane and Sean Kiernan, before Mark Lynch got the crucial goal which settled Tulla, after great work from Shane Taylor and John O’Brien. The Tulla backs were well on top, particularly the half-back line of Damien Keniry, Niall Bolton and Taylor, along with Michael Burke in goal. O’Brien and Diarmuid Bane added two points before Colm Ryan got a pointed free to close Abbey’s first-half scoring, leaving it 1-4 to 0-3 in favour of the East Clare school.Abbey came out with a very physical approach in the second half but this was met head …

AN achievable, realistic but still very ambitious plan was how GAA president Christy Cooney described the development plan produced by the Smith O’Brien’s club in Killaloe, which he launched on Sunday last.Addressing the gathering, he said he is delighted to be associated with the launch of development plans for clubs and he praised the Smith O’Brien’s officials for drawing up a plan which encompassed “the entire community”.Club member Michael Culhane gave a presentation on the plan for all present. It includes the construction of a hurling alley, the upgrading and extension of the clubhouse, upgrading the existing playing facilities, the purchase of more land to develop further playing pitches and the construction of a covered stand and scoreboard and increased car parking.Club secretary Tony O’Brien was MC for the occasion, while club chairman Naoise Lawlor welcomed all to Killaloe.“The response from the community has been very positive to date,” according to secretary O’Brien this week.The first in a series of …

Clare 0-13Antrim 1-9

RELIEF was evident in Ger O’Loughlin’s voice when he spoke to the media shortly after Sunday’s victory over Antrim at Casement Park. The Clarecastle man acknowledged that his side was fortunate to secure this latest victory on a day when many of the players failed to produce their best form.“We are very relieved to get the two points on a day when, if right was right, we should have been beaten by eight or nine,” according to O’Loughlin.“What we have seen today shows that we need everybody on board, even at Division 2 level to be able to go out and get the results. Antrim had enough chances to have won that game. Speaking with the Antrim manager, Dinny Cahill, he said that he is only getting to know the players over the last eight or nine weeks and he has a lot of work to do but you could see their determination in the way they battled,” he added.“That …

Clare 1-13 Carlow 0-15 A THIRD one-point win, from their five league games to date, kept Clare on top of Division 4 with three games left. While Michael O’Shea kicked the winning point three minutes into injury time, having linked with Brian Carrig, Doonbeg’s David Tubridy was the man of the hour. A couple of months ago, Clare coach Liam McHale likened Tubridy to Maurice Fitzgerald. Last Sunday. anybody who doubted the comparison had to think again. Playing at corner-forward, in a revamped full-forward line with Gary Brennan and O’ Shea, Tubridy scored Clare’s entire 1-8 first half total. His first four points from open play underlined his class, with three of them kicked off the left foot. Tubridy netted the goal after six minutes when Paul Reidy and Brennan combined to put him one-on-one with Carlow goalkeeper James Clarke. His opening three points were from frees won by Michael O’Shea and Chris Dunning. 1-3 to 0-1 up after eight …