Sports

Spancilhill owner-trainer Noel Glynn had good reason to celebrate after his Becauseicouldntsee justified good support when landing the €17,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Beginners’ Chase at Fairyhouse last Saturday.Second on two of his four previous outings over the larger obstacles, Becauseicouldntsee made no mistake this time round as he strode to a hugely impressive win that catapults him into the upcoming Cheltenham Festival picture in a big way. Sent off 3-1 joint-favourite, the seven-year-old by Beneficial, who won a point-to-point at Killaloe in 2008, was always in the van and, jumping really well in the hands of top jockey Davy Russell, he turned into the home straight in this two and three-quarter mile contest with a healthy lead. Facing up to the final fence, the opposition had been well and truly burned off as Becauseicouldntsee went on to beat fellow joint-favourite Corkskeagh Royale by a distance. Glynn, who has over 20 horses in training at his Durra House yard, where …

This year’s Fitzgibbon Cup hosts, NUI Galway, booked a place in the semi-final when they scored a 1-24 to 1-12 win over St Patrick’s, College, Drumcondra, at Dangan on Wednesday.Seven Clare men were in the starting line-up and an eighth was introduced in the second half. They were again without the injured Cormac O’Donovan (Clonlara) and Caimin Morey (Sixmilebridge).Scariff’s Diarmuid Nash turned in another outstanding performance at corner-back while Patrick Kelly from Clarecastle had his best game in this season’s campaign at wing-back. Other Claremen in the starting line-up were goalkeeper Donal Tuohy (Crusheen), full-back Noel Casey (Kilmaley), midfielder Domhnaill O’Donovan (Clonlara), wing-forward David Barrett (Newmarket) and full-forward John Conlon (Clonlara). Kevin Heagney from Corofin was introduced during the course of the game.The winners were three points in front at half time when the score was 0-12 to 1-6 and they went on to hold the upper hand in the second period.In the semi-final, NUI Galway will play either Limerick …

The finals of the Clare Cumann na mBunscol indoor camogie and hurling competitions were staged in Cratloe on Wednesday.As was the case last year, two new schools were added to the roll of honour. This brings to seven in camogie and nine in hurling the number of different schools that have been victorious since the inception of the competitions in 2000.There were some tremendous contests in both competitions in the past number of weeks.  The camogie competition comprised 32 teams and the group winners were Inagh/Cloonanaha, Quin, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, Ennis NS, Clonlara, Kilnamona and Feakle. Kilnamona and Feakle progressed to the final. Thirty-three teams signed up for the hurling competition group stages. The group winners were Inagh/Cloonanaha, Barefield, Ennis CBS, Kilmurry, Clarecastle, Cratloe, Clooney, Clonlara and Feakle. Clonlara and Cratloe were involved in a play-off to see who would progress to the second round proper. Clonlara won that particular game before Kilmurry and Barefield emerged to contest the final. Kilnamona …

Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-14   Portlaoise 0-8 Sensational. Kilmurry Ibrickane crossed the footballing Rubicon in Limerick last Sunday on an afternoon that culminated with a Clare club reaching an All-Ireland club football final for the first time. Portlaoise’s indiscipline definitely helped but the Clare and Munster champions best ever display contributed more significantly to Kilmurry reaching the national decider on March 17 in Croke Park. Tactically, Kilmurry out-thought Portlaoise, who were perhaps slightly complacent. Michael O’Dwyer and Noel Downes, who scored a combined 1-5 from play, largely operated in a two man full-forward line, with Johnny Daly playing a deeper role. Blossoming in the space available in the Gaelic Grounds O’Dwyer ran riot, kicking three points from play and contributing to at least four further points, via frees won or from open play. Downes showed that he hasn’t lost his class or big-match temperament, kicking 1-2 from play. The goal, 13 minutes into the second half and a minute after Downes had …

PUTTING Portlaoise on the back foot had been a priority for Kilmurry Ibrickane, according to midfielder Peter O’Dwyer. “They’re a real running team, they’re a flair team and they move the ball quickly. We felt we had to take the game to them and get a good start. We didn’t want to be chasing the game against Portlaoise, they’re a confidence team. We just wanted to move the ball quick, be in their faces, tackle hard, get it into the full-forward line quickly and get scores, which is what we did.”Often teams struggle to make the best use of a numerical advantage and he felt that during the second half they had been guilty of some over-elaboration. “Sometimes a team that goes a man down can be galvanised by it and play a bit better. They’ve a bit more room and they move the ball a bit quicker because they have to. When you’ve an extra man you can end …

ONE of the talking points on Sunday afternoon was the abuse heaped on referee Michael Duffy at half-time as he made his way to the dressing room.Portlaoise manager John Mulligan was clearly irate as the Sligo official left the field but afterwards he said the first-minute sending off of his son wasn’t the issue. “All I asked was what do you have to do to give a proper hand-pass. He was saying we were throwing the ball. In fairness, he has a job to do and he wasn’t going to entertain me.”He claimed that Duffy seemed to have been implementing the experimental rules being used in the National League. He also disagreed with the first red card. “The game was on, the guy went for a tackle and he caught him a bit high. It was certainly a foul, maybe a yellow card. If the ref is going to be consistent, and I don’t want to sound like a bad …

Kilmurry Ibrickane captain Enda Coughlan was the primary beneficiary of Brian Mulligan’s first-minute sending off. The All-Ireland finalists’ centre-back became the loose man and he took immediate advantage, rampaging up field and kicking an inspirational third-minute point.“It was a hard call to make for the ref, very early on in the game,” Coughlan said of Mulligan’s red card. “It was a high tackle but if it got a yellow card you wouldn’t have heard too many roaring on our behalf. When he walked it was a bit of a shock to all of us,” he acknowledged. The county and Munster championship-winning captain felt that Kilmurry learned from their own indiscipline in the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final. They had two men dismissed that day in Ballinasloe, when they lost to Ballina. “We know how they feel. We lost our discipline in 2005 and we lost the game. We learned from that. They, unfortunately, lost their discipline today,” he said. Kilmurry’s 1-4 to …

Impressive performances against Galway and Kilkenny in the Walsh Cup and Walsh Shield in Leinster in recent weeks suggest that Laois will prove difficult opponents for Clare in round two of the National Hurling League (Division 2) at Portlaoise on Sunday (throw-in 2.30pm).The Midlanders didn’t have a game last week when the race for the title got underway, as their scheduled game with Kildare was cancelled due to inclement weather. It has, like most of the other games that fell foul to the weather last weekend, been re-scheduled for Saturday week.The last competitive meeting of the counties at senior level was in round two of the league two years ago when both were in Division 1. That game was played in Scariff and Mark Flaherty, top scorer against Down last week, was also the top scorer on that occasion, with 1-12 to his credit.While the team to face Niall Rigney’s Midlanders wasn’t announced at the time of writing, it is …