Sports

THE prowess of champion jockey Derek O’Connor was further recognised when the Tubber rider received the 2009 point-to-point award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland awards ceremony held at Leopardstown Racecourse last Monday.

AN old hurling team photograph in last week’s Clare Champion provoked huge interest and many correctly identified the team as the Spancilhill side that lost to Liscullane in the 1947 junior B final.

Ennis  10   St Mary’s  10 ENNIS and St Mary’s will replay their U-19 tie this Sunday after they played out a 10-10 draw at the Showgrounds last week.

JIM Furyk, the world’s number six ranked golfer and winner of the Chevron World Challenge earlier this month and triple Major champion Ernie Els have confirmed their participation in the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am at Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort on July 5 and 6.

The domestic coursing scene in Clare for 2009-2010 is drawing to a close and the final two fixtures on the list are South Clare on December 26 and 27 and Tradaree that has gone back at the club’s request to the later date of January 9 and 10.

Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-7   Kerins O’Rahillys 0-6 For a few desperate, darkening seconds, Kilmurry Ibrickane’s dream was in smithereens. One minute of second-half injury time had elapsed and Declan Quill had availed of the added time to fist a David Moran free into Dermot O’Brien’s net, as the goalkeeper came off his line. This Kilmurry team would not have recovered if the goal had stood. Definitely not last Sunday and perhaps never. Where would they find the heart for it in 2010, if they had narrowly lost a second successive Munster final?

IT was a very emotional day for Kilmurry-Ibrickane selector Gerard McCarthy and he shed a tear or two as followers of the Clare champions celebrated a famous victory at the Gaelic Grounds.

Ballyea have been stripped of the minor B hurling title after an investigation by Bord na nÓg found that they fielded an illegal team in the final against Bodyke-Tulla, a game which Ballyea won comfortably on a scoreline of 2-12 to 1-5