Members and supporters of the Banner Ladies Football Club assembled at the Woodstock Hotel last week to celebrate its most successful year since its formation in 1994. Last year was a bumper year for the Banner, as they secured top honours in every grade of the domestic scene and on one day in September, the U-14 and senior teams competed in All-Ireland seven-a-side finals simultaneously, the seniors missing out by a point. The Féile panel also progressed to the All-Ireland semi-final before exiting while the seniors fought their way to a historic first appearance in the Munster senior final. The club acknowledged the selection of Niamh O’Dea, Louise Henchy and Niamh Keane in the Division 3 team of the league along with county colleagues Eimear Considine and Lorraine Kelly. The club added nine new mentors during the year, six completing their Fundamentals coaching course recently. Former chairperson Pat O’Driscoll presented awards to 20 mentors and all the players.  

In bitterly cold conditions at Craughwell on Saturday, St Flannan’s senior camogie team bowed out of the All-Ireland Colleges Championship when suffering a heavy defeat to Loughrea team St Brigid’s. The scoreline doesn’t reflect fairly on the Flannan’s girls and their coaches, Laura Linnane and Claire Ryan, whose performance, especially in the second half, should have seen them closer to their opponents on the scoreboard when the final whistle sounded.St Brigid’s opened the scoring with a point in the second minute, after keeper Suzy O’Shea deflected a shot on goal over the bar. O’Shea was kept busy in those opening minutes and pulled off another of couple of saves, giving her side time to settle. Both sides traded points before the Galway side finally got the better of O’Shea when Rachel Monaghan breached the Flannan’s defence for the opening goal. Monaghan added another two points before Aoibheann Malone pointed again for St Flannan’s. Monaghan, who was a thorn in Flannan’s …

In the Schools Junior C Munster final, Kilrush Community College, looking for their second title since 1993, were beaten by Loreto of Clonmel last Friday. Played at Neville Park, Rathkeale, the game was won in the first half when a very sharp Loreto side had racked up 3-5 before the girls from West Clare got on the board after 25 minutes. Kilrush opened nervously, conceding several frees and Clonmel had two goals inside the first five minutes. Kilrush launched several forays into the Loreto danger zone with captain Aoife O’Gorman, Ronya Baumann, Áine Ryan and Jenny Browne leading the way but Kilrush failed to capitalise, letting the Tipp side pull away. They pushed the gap to 3-5 before Kilrush decided enough was enough and finished the half with a strong passage of play. The resulting two frees were converted by Áine Browne, leaving a 12-point gap, 3-5 to 0-2, when Kerry referee Sean Joy blew for the break.  To underpin …

THE inclement weather of recent weeks has disrupted many sporting fixtures and this was the case again last weekend when the Munster Junior Rugby Cup games were amongst the fixtures cancelled.Division 1 side, St Senan’s were due to have home advantage against Richmond, while Ennis were to entertain Scariff for the second week in succession, having beaten them on the previous Sunday in the league.Continuous heavy rain in the 24 hours preceding the fixtures resulted in the ties being cancelled.It is understood these games have been refixed for February 19. This Saturday, Scariff will have Richmond as visitors in the Webb Cup at 2.30pm.It will be back to league action on Sunday week when St Senan’s will entertain Tralee in Division 1, while Scariff will take on Kinsale in Division 2. In Division 3, Kilrush will travel to play Shandon. On Saturday week, St Senan’s will host visitors, St Mary’s, in a Webb Cup fixture.  

THIS year’s Safety Direct Galway International Rally will take place this weekend and rally headquarters will be at the Clayton Hotel in Ballybrit.The Galway International Rally has a proud history, which includes being the first ever round of the Irish Tarmac Championship in 1978. The rally is still the traditional season opener, drawing top competitors and huge crowds of spectators to Galway every year.The event will run in a format that will help to significantly minimise costs for all competitors. All the stages, including a city-based “super special” will be contained in a compact one day format this Sunday. The competitive element of the event will be run over 10 competitive special stages. The route will start on Sunday morning with the Dyke Road Spectator Stage in Galway City which was last run in 1998. There will be a centralised service area, followed by three stages, which will be repeated three times in the Headford area. There will be a …

HISTORY was made at Lahinch at the weekend when the winners of the Saturday and Sunday singles competitions were two members of the junior section. This was the first time two juniors won the Saturday and Sunday competitions in the same weekend and their success is a further boost to the club’s highly rated junior section. Fifteen-year-old, Cathal Hegarty (12) was the winner of the men’s singles Stableford competition on Saturday with 38 points. He had three to spare over John Dillon (6), with third spot filled by Paul O’Brien (3), with a similar score.In a similar competition on Sunday, 14-year-old Conall Haugh (18) was the winner with 40 points from Michael Lynch (18) with 39 points and Vincent Leigh (11) with 39 points. Clare-Galway seniors leagueTHE inclement weather of recent months has resulted in major disruption of golf competitions in most clubs. This has also been the case for the hugely successful and popular Clare-Galway Seniors Winter League.It is …

  Avenue United  5 Avondale United 1 Avenue United are through to the quarter-finals of the FAI U-17 Cup following this victory over a highly rated and fancied Avondale United side at the County Grounds in Doora on Saturday. The game produced some excellent football and while Avenue emerged as deserving winners, a four-goal margin is a bit unfair on the visitors who deserved to be closer.With Dylan Casey back in action having recovered from injury, Avenue went into the game determined to continue to follow the example of the club’s youths side who had recorded impressive victories in recent weeks.They took the lead after 15 minutes when Lee Quirke hit the target and they should have doubled their advantage shortly after when Segun Junaid beat his marker but just could not get the ball over the line.Avondale were back in terms at the mid-point of the first half when Conor O’Driscoll, just back from a two week trial in …

While not in record-breaking form on this occasion – she set a new time of 28.27 for the venue last week – Calling Spice was nonetheless the star of the show again when setting the fastest clock for second-round heats of the Vetsearch Recharge Open 525 at the Limerick Greyhound Racing Stadium last Saturday night.Trained by Graham Holland for Pat O’Donovan, Mallow, the daughter of Ballymac Mave-No Joke Spice (trap one) was led in the early stages by the Paul Hennessy-trained Colourful Champ, in trap two. However, she then stepped up a gear to go clear of the rest into the back straight and the race was as good as over at this stage. The runner-up was the Paul Hennessy-trained Airforce Newyork who, after a very slow start, made inroads by the rail and his flying finish earned him runner-up spot, six-and-a-half lengths behind Calling Spice, who had a clock of 28.31.The next best on the clock was the Rachel …

  The Clare Community Games basketball U-11 mixed and U-13 boys’ competitions took place last Saturday in St Flannan’s College. The event was co-ordinated by Emer Considine and Gráinne Ryan, with referees Sean Stack and Damian Power. Only five teams took part in the U-11 competition but what it lacked in quantity it made up for in quality as there were some fantastic matches. In the first round, Cooraclare/Cree A team beat the Clarecastle/Ballyea side 10-4. In the semi-finals, Doora/Barefield beat Cooraclare/Cree B team 8-2, while Quin/Clooney pipped the Cooraclare/Cree A team by just two baskets, 10-6. In the play-off, the two Cooraclare teams met, with the A team just pipping the B side by one basket for the bronze medals. In the final, Quin/Clooney won the gold medals by just one point from near neighbours Doora/Barefield, 13-12. The members of the teams are listed below.1. Quin-Clooney: Cliodhna Ryan, Kirsty Begg, Alice Larkin, Juliette Cantwell, Sara Hassett, David Barbotin, Adam …

A large and enthusiastic crowd turned out for county senior hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald’s boxing fund raiser for the Clare hurlers in the Queens Hotel last Friday night.Davy was involved in a similar venture in Waterford when he was manager of the Decies and felt he might replicate the sell-out boxing show and raise funds for the Clare training and coaching programme. The players went about their tasks through the past few weeks and with the help of the coaches and fighters in the Ennis Boxing Club they honed their skills and sought to condition themselves for the ring. “A visit to the dressing room for a pre-fight appraisal left me wondering if the combatants were beginning to doubt their invincibility and if, perhaps, they were wishing that they were preparing for a league game or an All Ireland play-off,” said Ennis boxing coach, Colum Flynn.“Some looked bemused and listened intently to the pre-fight instruction from the coaches but it …

RACING fans in the Mid-West are in for a real treat this weekend with the County Clare Hunt Point-to-Point meeting at Belharbour on Sunday set to attract huge crowds to the popular Burren venue. This well-appointed track on the lands of Dermot and Jennifer Linnane has been the subject of very favourable reports from owners, trainers and jockeys alike since what was the old Quin meeting moved there back in 2002 and this is reflected in the interest that has been generated on the build-up to this year’s fixture.Regional secretary, Frankie Ward, has been very busy handling the entries for the six-race card which kicks off at 1pm.The first race is a four-year-old maiden over two and a half miles, which will be followed by the always popular confined maiden. Half an hour later, it will be the turn of the five-year-old geldings to strut their stuff with a similar event for six-year-old geldings next on the list. The penultimate …

THE North Munster Schools Cross Country Championships were held in very cold weather conditions at Salesian Secondary College, Pallaskenry, County Limerick where Clare athletes dominated all eight races. Aisling Kelly (Spanish Point) won the minor ladies with Elaine Shannon (Scoil Mhuire Ennistymon) taking the bronze medal. In the minor boys, gold went to Eoin Looney (Spanish Point) with Jamie Roche (St Flannan’s) taking the silver medal.Niamh Markham (St Flannan’s) won the senior ladies’ title, while Laura Egan (St Michael’s, Kilmihil) captured the bronze medal.In the minor girls’ 1,500m, Aisling Kelly (Spanish Point) and Elaine Shannon (Scoil Mhuire Ennistymon) took command from the start. In heavy underfoot conditions, Aisling took control with 600m to go and held the lead to the finish line with Elaine Yelverton (Newport) just getting in ahead of Elaine Shannon with Sharon Egan (St Michael’s, Kilmihil) fourth.The team title went to St Michael’s, Kilmihil on 34 points followed in second by St Flannan’s on 39 points and …

THE road from Doonbeg to Kilkee was filled with hundreds of cancer care fundraisers last Sunday as the 14th West Clare Mini Marathon and walk wound its way along the 10km trek. The walkers and runners were bussed to Doonbeg, with the walk starting at 1pm and the run an hour later.The mini marathon committee spent close to €150,000 in 2011 and running costs are expected to reach a similar level in 2012. The mini marathon has raised more than €1.2m since the event was first held in 1998. A minibus service, funded by the committee, currently operates from West Clare to Limerick five days per week. The bus brings patients to Limerick for cancer treatment, while taxi services, again supplied by the mini marathon committee, operate from Kilmihil, Miltown and Ennistymon.The West Clare Cancer Centre is open Monday to Thursday from 11am to 2pm and on Saturdays from 2pm to 3pm. The centre, which is located just off O’Curry …

Martin Flanagan has seen the best of them come and go. Footballers, hurlers, camogie players have had their moments in the sun, rain and hail at Cusack Park and moved on. Caretaker Martin Flanagan has, however, been a constant figure at The Park for the past 22 years. He’s seen a hell of a lot of action – great games, tense games, awful games at club and county level – and it’s been his responsibility to have the pitch in top notch condition before and after.A few weeks ago, Martin retired from his post at Clare GAA headquarters having started initially on a FÁS scheme. His time there coincided with some great success stories for both the county’s hurlers and footballers. It was the era when Clare hurling manager Ger Loughnane infuriated the media by regularly naming dummy teams ahead of big games. It was also a time when Martin had to map out Cusack Park to replicate measurements at …

THE final margin in this senior hurling challenge at Gort on Saturday was two points but Clare will know that failure to convert good second-half possession into scores cost them a more comfortable margin.Ahead by two points at half-time, Clare turned over to have the assistance of the wind but, despite having the better opportunities, failed to convert these into scores. A late goal from impressive Gort substitute Michael Mullins left just two points between the teams at the final whistle.With most of the third-level students unavailable due to commitments with their college sides, Clare fielded a team likely to be similar to that which will line out in the opening round of the Waterford Crystal tournament on Sunday when Waterford IT will provide the opposition at O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge.Gort, preparing for their All-Ireland semi-final clash against Coolderry on February 11, lined out without two regulars, full-back Michael McMahon and full-forward Ollie Fahy. McMahon entered the action at the …