Clare 2-24   Limerick 1-13   WHEN Clare trailed by five points 20 minutes into their Division 1B National Hurling League first-round game at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on Saturday night, few would have predicted a 14-point victory for the visitors.Scoring 1-8 without reply in an 11-minute spell in the second quarter turned this game in Clare’s favour.Clearly the fitter side, Clare showed the greater hunger for victory and were full value for their win. However, it’s difficult to accurately assess Clare’s strengths at this stage because of the manner in which the Limerick challenge crumbled.The Shannonsiders were dealt a blow before the game when Declan Hannon was ruled out due to a groin injury. Named at wing-forward, the Adare man was a huge loss to the side, who were dealt a further blow 10 minutes into the game when midfielder James Ryan was forced out of the game after suffering what appeared to be an ankle injury. Gavin O’Mahoney …

IF Clare start thinking they are brilliant after their victory over Limerick, they will be in trouble, warned Clare hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald after his side’s 14-point win.“We can’t afford to be lackadaisical or lie down. We have to work very hard. It’s important the public don’t get carried away with that result. There will be one or two days down the line and people will be disappointed. It’s important to keep the focus. I do believe in these guys and I do believe there could be something in them,” the Sixmilebridge man said.Fitzgerald didn’t hide his delight at the victory but stressed, “It’s only the first round of the league. There is no point in Clare people getting carried away. I said from day one this will be a hard-working team and that’s all the public can expect. We will have dips but they won’t be too far away and it will take time. We are on the right …

Clare and Waterford GAA officials will ask Munster council secretary Pat Fitzgerald to back up comments made in his annual report – about how grants allocated to the counties weren’t always spent on specific projects – at this Friday’s provincial convention.In a report issued this week ahead of the convention at Lawlors Hotel in Dungarvan (7.30pm), the Munster secretary says, “Over the years this council has allocated grants to Clare and Waterford towards maintenance and upkeep of their respective county grounds. I am somehow sceptical that this funding was at all times spent on such projects and I believe that in future, before allocating such grants, we should work with these counties to decide how these monies are spent and identify what issues or work we want prioritised.”Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, the Munster official sought to clarify the statement, “we give an annual grant to Clare and Waterford in lieu of field rent. It recognises that Clare …

If ever Clare centre-forward Shane McGrath needs time to dwell on life, all he has to do is sit into his car and face west. He gets plenty of opportunity to do just that while driving from the capital for Clare training or matches. When the ball is thrown in at 2.30pm in Cusack Park on Sunday, the Thomas Davis clubman will start his third game for his adopted county. Although born and reared in Dublin, the Harcourt Terrace-based garda is as much of a Clare man as he is a Dub. His father John is from Kilmurry McMahon while his mother Mary is a native of Cranny. So when Shane opted for Clare under the parentage rule, it wasn’t as if he needed to consult Google maps for directions. “All the family are from Clare. I’d say 90% of the aunts, uncles and cousins are from the county. So I have a real affiliation with Clare,” McGrath told The …

GERRY O’Mahony and his crew are thinking ahead – specifically to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The 20-member Miltown Malbay Weightlifting Club was established in May 2010 and as recently as February 18, the club won five gold and three silver medals at the National Championships in Dublin. The club is based in the old St Joseph’s Miltown GAA Club dressing rooms at Hennessy Memorial Park.“Our plan is to take them to the 2016 Olympics. They’re training four days a week and that’s one of their little dreams. If we can get one or two of the lads to that level, that would be unbelievable,” Gerry confided.The club founder, who won European titles in the 125kg class in 1993 and 1994, has invested €9,000 of his own money in buying equipment. He is originally from Miltown but lived away from West Clare for several years.“I left in 1969 and went up to Meath. Then I went to England …

Kilmaley 5-11   Inagh-Kilnamona 0-10 It was a baptism of fire for newcomers, Inagh-Kilnamona on Sunday afternoon when they faced league champions Kilmaley in their first game at senior level. Following on from the dizzy heights of last year’s success, it was back to earth with a bang as Kilmaley gave them a lesson in senior camogie. Inagh-Kilnamona had the better start, and raced into a three-point lead in the opening five minutes while holding off the Kilmaley attack. Kilmaley achieved parity in the next 10 minutes before Fiona Lafferty converted a free for Inagh-Kilnamona to put her side ahead. Emma O’Driscoll punished Bríd McCarthy when she came off her line to clear a long, driving shot from Claire McMahon, when she flicked the sliotar past McCarthy to the net. Two more points from Inagh-Kilnamona saw that lead reduced to a point before Ailish Considine raised both white and green flags within a minute, leaving the last score of the half …

Banner 6-10   Liscannor 0-3   County champions and league holders Banner Ladies had little difficulty in overcoming Liscannor at Lisdoonvarna last Saturday last in this Division 1 encounter, which was a 14-a-side game. Banner were in control all through and ran out easy winners. Louise Woods, Naomi Carroll and Niamh O’Dea, none of whom are on the Clare senior ladies’ panel at the moment, all lined out for their club. Banner Ladies: Emma O’Driscoll; Laurie Ryan, Claire Walsh, Eva O’Dea, Sinéad O’Keeffe, Louise Woods, Orlaith Lynch, Aoife Keane, Naomi Carroll, Aoife Cavanagh, Niamh Keane, Niamh O’Brien, Gráinne Nolan, Niamh O’Dea.Liscannor: Emma Slattery; Treas Shannon, Róisín Rouine, Sinéad Considine, Carmel Considine, Fiona Considine, Marie Considine, Áine Greene, Olivia Lucas, Áine Burke, Aisling Torpey, Róisín Considine, Yvonne Flaherty, Suzanne Cagney.Referee: Michael Talty (Kilmurry-Ibrickane). Newmarket-on-Fergus 5-11   Cooraclare 1-14 The home club picked up a brace of early league points when they overcame Cooraclare last Saturday. Niki Kaiser scored 3-1 for the winners while …

ST Joseph’s Secondary School in Tulla hosted the Clare Community Games draughts finals last Saturday. It was a great day for the Tulla branch, as they captured gold in all three categories.At U-10 level, they won from Tulla B with Sixmilebridge B third and Sixmilebridge A in fourth place. The members of the winning team are Liam McInerney, Daniel Withycombe, Jack McSweeney, Stephen Maloney, Eabha McInerney, Dualta McGrath and Ben Ryan.Tulla B included Leagh Hunt, Diarmuid Molloy, Wiktor Murphy, Sean Withycombe, Sarah Butler, Shane Donoughue and Eoin Donnellan.Bronze medallists Sixmilebridge/Kilmurry B included Conor Morey, Luke O’Halloran, Rachel Barron, Matthew O’Halloran, Oran O’Reilly, Aisling Morey and Sarah Keogh, while fourth placed Sixmilebridge-Kilmurry A included Michael Morey, Alan Murphy, Meabh Holland, Cillian Joyce , Sean O’Reilly and Aoibhinn Kennedy.In the U-12 competition, the Tulla winning team comprised Brian McSweeney, Orna Mulconroy, Kiera Minogue, Aisling Clarke, Gráinne Kelly, Kaylee Cahill and Shane Regan. The silver medal winners Sixmilebridge-Kilmurry included Cian O’Reilly, Richie Barron, …

Clare players will feature in three of the four teams that remain in the race for the Fitzgibbon Cup (inter-varsity senior hurling). This is the centenary year of the competition and this weekend the semi-finals and final are being hosted by University College Cork, who are still in the hunt for the title.Nine matches will be played at the recently redeveloped Mardyke Sports Grounds and Curraheen Road Sports Grounds (aka The Farm). The Cork and Limerick Institutes and Universities renew rivalries in Friday’s semi-finals where Cork IT take on Limerick IT at 1.30pm followed by the clash of UL and UCC at 3.30pm.Tubber’s Patrick O’Connor is part of the Cork IT side and is expected to line-out at wing-back. Limerick IT, managed by Davy Fitzgerald, will include Whitegate’s Andrew Fahy, the Glynn brothers, Eamonn and Brian, from Inagh-Kilnamona, Cratloe’s Sean Collins and Cathal McInerney and Clonlara’s Cathal O’Connell in their starting line-up. There are also a number of Clare players …

  FRIDAY evening and Saturday last saw a festival of swimming at Ennis Leisure Complex as Ennis Swimming and Lifesaving Club celebrated 70 years afloat with their annual invitation gala. Ennis Swimming and Lifesaving Club is and has always been run on an entirely voluntary basis. The club has been actively involved since its beginning with the development and progression of swimming in Ennis and the county. In its early years, members of the club were the driving force behind the building of the original Ennis pool, which was officially opened in October 1969 and again in the late 1990s and early 2000s in its redevelopment to form Ennis Leisure Complex. Swimmers from Waterford, Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Fermoy, Mallow, Limerick, Askeaton and Ennis arrived for the annual invitation gala. A total of 140 swimmers competed over the two-day period.The standard of swimming was very high, with Bernard Cahill, Ennis Swim Club, achieving a Munster record in the 400 individual medley event. …

CLARE boxers were in action in the finals of the Munster Youths Championships in Nenagh last weekend and found the going tough in this the penultimate test before the nationals in a fortnight. Many of the Banner aspirants fell by the wayside in the quarter and semi-finals but the bigger names came through unscathed with Keelan Sexton and Lee Sherlock nailing down their fourth provincial titles respectively and the ladies of Kilfenora, in particular, making inroads, with Caoilinn McCormack looking particularly sharp in her final.Kilfenora boxers have been hitting a vein of good form of late and the ladies have become a major entity, with 60kg prospect, Niamh Ahearne, and 86kg, Louise O’Regan, making it a hat-trick for their club at the Munsters.Lee Sherlock is showing a welcome return to form in the Ennis colours and, with Keelan Sexton should be amongst the medals in the upcoming Irish championships. Sherlock was devastating in his semi-final of the 60kg Youths, beating …

As the 2012 Munster 40×20 Adult Handball Championships come to a close, Clare can be happy with a return of eight provincial titles. Munster final wins over the last week included minor doubles, U-21 doubles, silver masters B doubles and ladies junior B doubles, while Diarmaid Nash has qualified for the All-Ireland senior singles semi-finals.Scariff native Diarmaid Nash has, over the past few years, marked himself out as one of the best young handballers in Ireland and in 2012 is continuing to scale new heights. Following All-Ireland intermediate singles and doubles (with Niall Malone) wins last year, Nash moved up to senior grade handball, the first Clareman to do so in decades. The Tuamgraney clubman has exceeded the expectations of many handball followers to reach the last four of the All-Ireland Senior Singles Championship. Nash overcame Mayo man Joe McCann, who sits at third in the official Irish handball rankings, when the two clashed in their quarter-final tie on Sunday. …

  Kilfeackle 28   Scariff 21 (AET) SCARIFF were unlucky to go down 28-21 after extra time to Kilfeakle in the Junior Cup on Sunday at Scariff.The visitors went ahead early on with a try and a penalty but Scariff responded well with good pressure from Marcus O’Neill and Kenny Mason. This pressure paid off when Steven Madden went over in corner to make the score 8-5 to the away side midway through the first half. Scariff drew level with a Tom Cronin penalty. One more penalty each was scored before the break to leave the score 11-11 at half-time. Scariff went on the attack from the start of the second half and were rewarded with an excellent try from James Kelly, which Tom Cronin converted. A further Cronin penalty left the score 21-11 to the home side with 20 minutes to go. Kilfeakle responded with a penalty to reduce the gap to seven with 10 minutes to go. After sustained …

Clare schoolboys/girls soccer has a new chairman. Ennis native Tommy Molloy, a member of Corofin Harps club, was elected to the position at Monday’s annual general meeting, beating the holder Ronnie Pyne on a vote of 35 to 28.The election of officers came near the end of a three-hour meeting, which attracted a huge attendance. According to the outgoing chairman Pyne, “This is the biggest attendance at an AGM since I came on the committee over 10 years ago.”The only contest was for the post of chairman and after his election Molloy thanked the club for their support before promising that he “will work with all and I will answer my phone”.Former chairman Frankie Gormley is the new vice-chairman. He was the only candidate for the post after Tom Egan withdrew while Leonard Meaney had indicated in advance that he would not be seeking re-election to the committee this year.Davy Kerin (secretary) from Avenue United and Flan Hehir (treasurer) from …

The opening round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel Rally, was won by the Kerry crew of Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Subaru WRC).In an absorbing tussle through all nine stages, they finished 17 seconds ahead of the Cork/Mayo combination of Brian O’Mahony/John Higgins, also in a Subaru WRC. Monaghan pair Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry (Subaru WRC), were third, 44 seconds further adrift.The Group N category was won by Robert Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman (Skoda Fabia S2000) and Frank Kelly/Liam Brennan (Ford Escort) took victory in the Modified section.Fitzmaurice (Subaru WRC) made a great start and punched in the best time on the opening stage – three seconds ahead of both Brian O’Mahony (Subaru WRC) and Niall Maguire (Subaru WRC), who tied for second. Robert Barrable (Skoda Fabia S2000) was fourth – eight seconds further behind and two ahead of the MG S2000 of Roy White. Colm Murphy (Subaru) held sixth overall. Fitzmaurice also set the pace on the …