The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Invited to play in the Féile at the 11th hour following the withdrawal of the Leitrim representatives, Kilmaley are this week celebrating Féile success, having won the Division 5 title.
In a Clare final, played at Mungret on Sunday, they defeated Éire Óg.
Kilmaley 3-3 Éire Óg 0-3
Kilmaley and Éire Óg won their way through to a meeting in the Division 5 final, which was played at Mungret on Sunday.
Kilmaley secured a win in their semi-final on Saturday over St Brid’s of Louth and Éire Óg beat another Clare team, Parteen.
There was a large attendance at the final and the pairing created huge interest among camogie followers. Kilmaley opened with a point from corner-forward Caoimhe Carmody and this helped to settle the nerves.
The Kilmaley centrefield partnership of Emily Cahill and Laoise Hurley give it everything and battled endlessly for every ball. This workrate paid off when Caoimhe Carmody got on to a breaking ball, which was driven in from the wing-forward, Adeline O’Malley. Carmody took possession and she got the opening goal of the game. Éire Óg answered with a point from a placed ball.
One of the Féile rules is that a minimum of five substitutes have to be played in each game. On resuming for the second half, Sinéad Rooney replaced Kilmaley’s Laoise Hurley. Rooney’s delivery resulted in a goal from Lana Brown.
This was only one of Brown’s many goals over the Féile weekend. This gave a score of 2-1 to 0-1 in favour of Kilmaley. Éire Óg rallied and added an additional point from a placed ball. Another long ball in from Sinéad Rooney dropped at the feet of substitute Chloe Neylon and she found the net.
Kilmaley: Eilish Cahill; Martina Keane, Caroline Casey, Gráinne Glynn; Eimear Kennedy, Caitlin Fitzpatrick, Fia Coote; Laoise Hurley, Emily Cahill; Catriona Callinan, Siobhán Fitzpatrick, Adeline O’Malley; Caoimhe Carmody, Lana Brown, Chloe Boon.
Subs: Sinéad Rooney for Laoise Hurley, Chloe Neylon for Chloe Boon, Megan White for Lana Brown, Lucy O’Halloran for Martina Keane and Sarah Ní Ceallaigh for Gráinne Glynn.
Éire Óg: Chloe Barry; Saoirse Warren, Eva Whyte (c), Amy Russell, Maria Redmond, Mary Tiernan, Ciara Kennedy; Leanne Russell, Alana McInerney, Róisín Martin, Elizabeth Russell, Erin Hehir; Leah Ryan, Lia Kelly, Eabha Keane, Kate Neylon, Emma Burke, Jenni Corry, Leanne Considine, Dearbhla Kennedy, Aimee Daniels.
Truagh-Clonlara
Competing in Division 1, Clare champions Truagh-Clonlara were very unlucky to lose out in their final group game to Dicksboro from Kilkenny, who went on to win the national title.
The Clare champions beat Crecora from Limerick in their opening game on Friday and they followed this with victory over neighbours, Kilkishen, on Saturday. Later on Saturday they failed by the minimum margin to Dicksboro
Sixmilebridge
Sixmilebridge and Birr shared the spoils in Friday’s opening game. Birr had the better of the early exchanges and led 0-3 to 0-0 at half-time.
A determined ’Bridge team came out strong in the second half and they earned a deserved share of the spoils.
There was another slow start for the ’Bridge in their game with Na Fianna from Meath, who raced ahead.
The ’Bridge rallied and came close to drawing but a ball rebound off the post left them a goal behind (2-2 to 3-2) at the final whistle.
Neighbours Clooney-Quin got the scoring underway in this nail-biting match, the outcome of which was in doubt right to the final whistle, when the ’Bridge had two points to spare (5-1 to 4-2).
Clooney-Quin
Clooney-Quin, while not winning any of their games at Féile 2013, will still mark their involvement in the event down as an experience that was an out-and-out success.
Playing in Division 2 was always going to be a challenge but the Clooney-Quin girls rose above the occasion. They hosted a strong Meath outfit in Na Fianna and were grouped with Offaly champions Birr, who were hosted by Sixmilebridge.
The opening game saw Clooney-Quin run out of time as Na Fianna were 3-2 to 1-2 winners, with Clooney coming to grips with the game as it wore on.
In their first game of day two against Birr, Clooney put up a great challenge and even Brian Whelahan on the Birr sideline was nervous as Clooney pressed for the winner but Birr held on for a two-point win.
They then faced Sixmilebridge, who had given them a heavy beating in the U-14A shield final two weeks before.
The Clooney girls were most unlucky though, as with the last play of the game, Sixmilebridge goaled to seal the win, with Clooney again losing by two points.
Over the course of the games Ciara Grogan, Amy Moloney, Sinéad Considine, Aoife Barry, Mary Liddy, Emma Deegan all got on the score board. Many girls stepped up to the mark and played consistently well as the panel of 19 girls available all worked very hard.
