Clare bow out of senior title race

SENIOR CAMOGIE CHAMPIONSHIP

Kilkenny 4-14
Clare 0-14

CLARE suffered a 12-point defeat at the hands of Kilkenny on Saturday afternoon in the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship at Corofin.

The home side opened the scoring in the first minute with a point from Nora Murphy. Clare battled well in the first half and the concession of two soft goals to handpasses saw them go in at the break trailing on a scoreline of 2-8 to 0-9.
Hopes of a Clare fightback were rocked in the opening minute of the second half when Kilkenny struck for their third goal.
Claire McMahon got Clare’s first score of the half in the seventh minute from a placed ball. With the breeze behind them, Kilkenny’s centre-back Edwina Keane dominated and helped set up many of Kilkenny’s attacks, leaving the Clare backs under enormous pressure but the home side continued to battle.
Kilkenny had their final goal six minutes into injury time to seal their victory on what was a disappointing evening for the home side. This loss, allied to the other results, means they are out of contention.
There are still some games to be played and Clare travel to play Cork on Saturday. The Leesiders beat Wexford last week to seal their place in the play-offs.

Clare: Susan Vaughan (Ogonnelloe); Sinéad Donovan (Wolfe Tones), Kate Lynch (Kilkishen), AnneMarie McMahon (Crusheen); Aiveen O’Shea (Sixmilebridge), Chloe Morey (Sixmilebridge, 0-1f), Eimear Considine (Kilmaley); Róisín McMahon (Newmarket), Kelly MacLean (Clooney/Quin); Claire McMahon (Kilmaley, 0-7), Fiona Lafferty (Kilnamona, 0-1); Deirdre Murphy (Clooney/Quin, 0-1), Claire Ryan (Clooney/Quin), Norah Murphy (Kilkishen, 0-3), Ruth Kaiser (0-1).
Subs: Siobhán Lafferty (Kilnamona) for A O’Shea, Mairéad Scanlon (Scariff) for C Ryan, Helen Guinnane (Truagh) for K MacLean, Sarah Sherlock (Truagh) for A McMahon and Danielle Sheedy (Broadford) for N Murphy.

U-18 semi-final

THE Clare U-18 side will take on Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final next Sunday at Kilmallock at 1.30pm. It will be followed by the meeting of Kilkenny and Galway in the second semi-final at 3.15pm. Clare face into the game with a full squad and will be hoping to reverse the result from the first-round meeting of the sides when Tipperary won by three points.
A victory for Clare would see the county contest the All-Ireland minor final for the third year in-a-row. They lost in the last two finals to Kilkenny.

No joy for U-16 side
CLARE U-16s were outclassed by Tipperary in the Munster final in Nenagh on Sunday. The final score was 5-9 to 0-6, on a day when Clare’s points came from Nikki Kaiser (four frees), Alice Casey and Sinéad Tuohy.