Sports

Cratloe GAA celebrated a truly memorable year in the club’s history at the West County Hotel in Ennis last week when the Clare senior hurling (Hamilton Cup), intermediate football (Talty Stores Cup) and U-21 A football (Jim Marrinan Cup) trophies were on display.

Aidan Moloney will be in charge of Cooraclare for the 2010 season, although the Kilmurry Ibrickane man won’t be joined this time by his former inter-county teammate Tom Morrissey.

Micheál McDermott’s first game in charge of the Clare senior footballers has been deferred for at least a week. Clare were due to play UCC in the quarter-final of the McGrath Cup in Cooraclare on Sunday at 2pm.

IN the first move of its kind by the Irish Greyhound Board, the new greyhound racing stadium in Limerick is following in the footsteps of the Point Depot in Dublin (now the O2) and the Lansdowne Road rugby headquarters (now the Aviva Stadium to be opened later this year) by inviting offers for the naming rights for the new Limerick facility.

THE newly crowned WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seamus O’Shaughnessy, has strong Clare ties. A native of Cabra in Dublin, O’Shaughnessy, whose real name is Stephen Farrelly, is a regular visitor to Miltown Malbay where his grandmother, Mary Skerritt, wife of the late Tommy, lives.  A number of his aunts, uncles and cousins also reside in Miltown Malbay, where the new world champion spent much of his youth. The Skerritts are well known in the world of golf.

JOHN Carmody, who managed Kilmaley to senior hurling championship honours in 2004, has returned as team boss.

WITH schools due to reopen this week after the Christmas holiday break, Gaelic Games officials and players will be paying close attention to the outcome of a Munster Colleges Council meeting this Saturday when the draws for the play-off stages of the Munster competitions will be made.

THE 13th annual Ennis Urban District Council and Marian AC turkey trot took place on New Year’s Day with over 100 competitors taking part. All proceeds go towards the RNLI Lifeboats. Aidan Kearney, Ennis Track was the first man to cross the line with Liam Markham and Darragh Lynch, both Ennis Track, finishing second and third.