Derg girls take U-15 All-Ireland title in style

Indeed, it was a significant day for the Nash family with Clodagh following in the footsteps of brothers Diarmaid and Barry, who were on previous winning teams.
Next stop for the girls will be the Féile na Gael event in Dublin in early July. Tuamgraney will also send a boys’ team and a number of clubs across Clare will be represented. Clarecastle’s Doireann Murphy and Tiernan Agnew from the Kikishen club will compete in the Féile skills competition.
Preparations are well under way in Clare for this year’s Munster Adult 60×30 Championships which commence this week. The Banner County will, as always, be well represented across the different grades and hopes for success are high. The provincial championships kicked off over the weekend with the Munster Open singles event, while fixtures in other grades will start next week.
Clarecastle man Declan Frawley made his debut in the 60×30 senior open singles when he took on Limerick’s Paul Hedderman in Ballina on Friday last, with the Limerick man coming out on top. Trial games for some of the other grades continue under the watchful eyes of county selectors Mike Kelly and John Cawley and hopes are high that provincial silverware can make its way back to Clare this summer. The 60×30 Juvenile Munster Championships start on the weekend of July 14.
On the local handball scene, the Michael O’Neill Perpetual Cup Tournament, hosted by the Tuamgraney club is well underway with semi-finals and finals being played this week. The cup was donated by the O’Neill family in memory of the late Michael, who was a stalwart of the Tuamgraney club in bygone days and was instrumental in the development of underage handball in the community. Shane and Ciarán Walsh are through to the final against the winners of the semi-final between Mike Hayes/Tommy Hegarty and Mike Baker/Jim Close. Big alley handball, formerly so strong in Clare, is seeing something of a resurgence in the Banner County following on from last year’s redevelopment of the Tuamgraney 60×30 court and with the added interest in this year’s tournament, a second section is also being run off. Here, the players will compete for the Teach Uí Bhriain Cup, the final of which will also be played this week. Anne Marie and Ashling Fitzgerald will take on either John Nihill and Tom Stack or Dermot and Jody Kirby.