Sports

Thurles CBS  0-17   St Flannan’s  2-10 HARTY Cup holders Thurles CBS are still in line to retain a title they won after a lapse of 53 years last March following a one-point win over St Flannan’s at Claughaun on Wednesday. However, the Ennis side have every reason to be disappointed with this result as they certainly had the chances to at least have drawn if not won the game. The roll-of-honour leaders shot a total of 14 wides in what was quite an entertaining game with some fine hurling and some very good individual displays. At the end of the day, however, the failure of St Flannan’s forward line to capitalise on good possession proved costly and was a major contributory factor to their defeat.They were level for the first of four times after eight minutes before Brian Hehir put St Flannan’s ahead in the 11th minute. A minute later, they struck for the game’s first goal when Niall Arthur …

IN the world of showjumping, the Paul Darragh Memorial Special Recognition Award is a big honour, so there was understandable elation recently when Shane Carey from Clooney was named as its winner. Shane was presented with the award by Dave Darragh, brother of the late Paul, at the Showjumpers’ Club ball in Kildare.“To be associated with such a prestigious award means so much to Shane. It is an acknowledgement of what he has achieved,” commented his mother, Ann, this week.Shane, who is now 26, is profoundly deaf and according to his mother, “For someone with a disability to be able to do what he loves is brilliant. His whole life is horses and I could not explain how much it means to him to be associated with the name of Paul Darragh. It is really fantastic that his achievements have been recognised,” she said.According to Ann, award winner Shane focused on being a farrier from a young age but he …

NINETY-five people attended this week’s meeting organised by the Clare Féile na nGael committee at which initial plans for the hosting of the national festival were discussed.The Féile finals will be held in Clare on the weekend of June 18 to 20 and the competition will involve all hurling clubs in the county. All Clare clubs will participate in the event as will the county U-14 hurling champions from all 32 counties.  Féile na nGael also caters for camogie and handball.Clare previously hosted the finals back in 1987 when the event proved to be an outstanding success.The organising committee is under the chairmanship of Ger Hickey from Feakle. He is Clare’s Central Council representative. Tulla’s Declan Hogan is the committee secretary while Pat McInerney from Éire Óg is committee treasurer. Other members of the committee include Tommy Hegarty (handball); Mary Hogan (camogie); Michael O’Regan (referees); John Fawl (parade); Seán Chaplin (games development officer); John O’Sullivan (IT officer); Sandra Reynolds (vetting …

UCC  0-12   Clare  0-9 Although Clare led 0-4 to 0-0 after just nine minutes of last Sunday’s McGrath Cup quarter-final in Cooraclare, lack of fitness, teamwork, forward movement and ability to regularly win their own kick-outs caught up with the home county. Early points from Gary Brennan, Ger Quinlan, Alan Clohessy and David Tubridy eased Clare into a commanding lead as UCC started very tentatively and were particularly confused by the introduction of the closed fist pass rule. Clare’s onslaught proved to be a temporary one though. Once the Cork college settled, their understanding, finishing and fitness helped them into a 0-6 to 0-4 interval lead. Their best forward, David Kearney, scored three first-half points from play with his marker Dean Ryan nowhere near sharp enough for his man. Gary Brennan caught a couple balls at midfield but Clare lost six-in-a-row of their own kick outs at one period in the opening half. At no stage did the Clare wing-backs, …

Clare  0-15   Waterford IT  1-9 NEW Clare hurling boss Ger O’Loughlin got his inter-county career as a manager off to a winning start at Meelick on Sunday when his charges accounted for Waterford IT in the opening round of the Waterford Crystal tournament. Despite the fact that the squad has only been together for the past three weeks, during which they have been unable to get in any hurling practice because of the inclement weather conditions, Clare looked quite sharp.That they wanted to impress and progress to the next round was evident from the word go and the home side recorded a merited win to set up a second-round clash with Tipperary, in what will be a repeat of last year’s final.Supporters in the good sized attendance were pleased with the performance on a day when Cian Dillon, Domhnall O’Donovan, Ogie Murphy, John Conlon and Aonghus O’Brien were amongst those to impress. Indeed, O’Donovan put in a match-saving tackle in …

  Tulla hurling club’s AGM was held recently in the courthouse where outgoing chairman, Declan Hogan presided. The minutes of last year’s AGM were read before secretary Noel Mulconroy gave a detailed account of the club’s activities over the past year. Treasurer Ray McInerney presented details of the club accounts, while minor club chairman, Gerry Lynch also addressed the meeting.The chairman acknowledged all those who helped out with the running of the club over the past year.The following officers were elected: president, Charles Murphy; vice president, Willie Boland; chairman, Declan Hogan; vice-chairman, Jim McInerney; secretary, Noel Mulconroy; assistant secretary, Dave Moloney; county board delegate, Thomas Hogan; Irish officer, Dave Moloney; PRO, Brian Culloo.The meeting agreed that membership would remain the same as last year and that only fully paid up members would be entitled to avail of club facilities. Team management for 2010 are to be put in place in the coming weeks. RuanThere was a big attendance at the …

NEWLY-appointed Clare senior camogie manager, Patsy Fahy, will have his first competitive outing with the team on February 28 when they take on neighbours Galway in the opening round of Division 1 of the National League. There are reports this week that Galway will have last year’s Clare boss, Bertie Sherlock at the helm this season. Clare’s other league ties will be against Dublin on March 6 and against Wexford on March 14.In the All-Ireland senior championship, Dublin will be Clare’s first opponents on June 12 and they will follow this with games against Tipperary on June 26, against Wexford on July 3, against Galway on July 10, against Kilkenny on July 17 and against Cork on July 24.The All-Ireland semi-finals are set for August 15 with the final scheduled for September 12. A boost for ClareCratloe native Naomi Carroll is expected line out for Clare for the 2010 season. In recent years Naomi has been playing club camogie with …

The recession is hitting GAA teams throughout Clare very hard but in Australia it has resulted in a huge gain for new and existing clubs who are keen to promote hurling and football.