Home » Tag Archives: All-Ireland (page 3)

Tag Archives: All-Ireland

Ballyea all set for Thomas’ challenge

As the Clare and Galway champions gear up for the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship semi-final at Semple Stadium on Saturday at 5pm, there is huge speculation as to the roles of the inter-county players on either side. Other questions are what effect playing under lights will have, while returning to competitive action after a break of over two months is also up for discussion. While it will be the first time that either side will play a competitive game under lights, both sides have been training under lights since October and have played challenge games, so neither side is making an issue of the throw-in time. On the way to their first county title, Ballyea produced some stunning performances in October and November. Many believe they would have benefitted had the championship continued throghout December. Whatever one’s view on that break, however, the Galway title-holders have had a longer spell without a competitive game. St Thomas’ won their second county …

Read More »

Scariff-Ogonnelloe facing huge task

SUPPORTERS of Scariff-Ogonnelloe Camogie Club will travel to St Brendan’s Park in Birr on Sunday hoping to see their team go a step further than in 2013, when they compete in the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Club Championship final. Leinster champions will again provide the opposition and this time Johnstownbridge stand between them and the All-Ireland title. Three years ago, Myshall from Carlow proved too strong for the Clare side. Johnstownbridge will carry the favourites’ tag, as they are the defending champions but Scariff-Ogonnelloe have shown impressive form all season and their supporters are confident that the Clare girls will give a good account of themselves in Sunday’s game, which throws in at 2pm. In the semi-final two weeks ago, the Clare intermediate champions recorded a facile win over the Ulster champions, Ballysaran, and they will have learned little from that outing. Johnstownbridge, on the other hand, had to fight all the way for victory in their match against a strong …

Read More »

Kilkenny’s first half goals too much for Clare

Kilkenny 5-16 Clare 1-16 Kilkenny’s dominance of the inter county hurling season looks set to continue after their convincing win over Clare in the All-Ireland intermediate final at Semple stadium this evening. Before an attendance of 1,401, their ability to get through for goals proved too much for Clare and the noresiders deservingly took the honours Five points up after ten minutes when they had 1-2 on the scoreboard despite having lost centre back Shane Taylor to injury in the very first minute, things looked good for Clare. Then, in the space of six minutes they conceded three goals after some poor defensive play and when the half time whistle sounded they found themselves seven points in arrears with the score at 4-5 to 1-7. Throughout the pitch Clare struggled to cope with Kilkenny’s physicality and this was particularly true of the Clare full back line. Being forced into an early change didn’t help Clare who lost centre back Shane …

Read More »

Clare outclassed by Kerry in Croke Park

Kerry 2-16 Clare 0-11 CLARE’S 2016 championship season ground to a very definite halt in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon, with Kerry advancing to an All-Ireland semi-final meeting with either Dublin or Donegal. Kerry’s eleven point win was their 14th All-Ireland quarter-final win in 16 games and their ninth successive championship win over Clare since 1992. Clare did not lack for effort but there was a clear gap in quality between the teams. Clare lacked the zip and support play evident in their wins over Laois, Sligo and Roscommon while poor decision making on the ball cost them regularly against Kerry. The attendance was 29,251. Clare had been going reasonably well until they conceded a very soft goal to Donnchadh Walsh in the 20th minute of the opening half. Kerry intercepted a Martin McMahon pass and although Dean Ryan tried valiantly to somehow direct the ball away from goal, it broke for Walsh who could not miss from close range. …

Read More »

Clare’s All-Ireland dream is over for another year

Galway 2-17 Clare 0-17 Clare’s dream of adding the All-Ireland senior hurling championship title to the national league crown won earlier in the season is over. Before an attendance of 31,690 at Semple stadium in Thurles yesterday, they went under to neighbours Galway on a day when the Tribesmen’s aerial supremacy proved decisive. Clare failed to match Galway’s physicality and can have no complaints with the result. Joe Canning, not for the first time, proved a key figure in Galway’s victory, the Portumna man’s goal twenty seconds into the second half putting the winners ten points clear and leaving Clare with a mountain to climb. A Conor Cooney goal after fifteen minutes helped Galway to a 1-10 to 0-6 half time lead after they had played with the aid of a fresh wind. It was a lead they deserved as they had dominated the exchanges in a majority of positions. Clare recorded the opening score when Tony Kelly converted a …

Read More »

Historic first All-Ireland title for St Anne’s, Killaloe

St Anne’s Killaloe 4-6 De La Salle, Bagnalstown 0-4 Bonfires are blazing in Killaloe this Friday evening after the local secondary school, St Anne’s captured their first All-Ireland camogie title. A merited win over Peresentation De La Salle from Bagnalstown in Carlow has earned the Killaloe side the All-Ireland junior D colleges title. A tally of 3-3 from full forward Maeve Óg O’Leary earned her the player of the game award at the end of a contest n which they led from the outset. Playing with the aid if the breeze in the first half, they took the lead through team captain Aoife Power in the third minute and went on to be 1-6 to 0-2 in front at half time, O’Leary’s opening goal coming in the thirteenth minute. The player of the game struck for her second goal in the opening minute of the second half and this score really rocked their opponents and she had her third goal …

Read More »

All so easy for Scariff CC

Scariff Community College 7-14 Claregalway Community College 0-0 Scariff Community College proved much too strong for Claregalway Community College in the All-Ireland junior C camogie championship semi-final played at Whitegate this Saturday afternoon. [doptg id=”101″] In very difficult weather conditions, the East Clare side dominated from the outset and had two goals registered inside the opening two minutes. Centre forward Ciara Doyle was in sparkling form for the winners and finished the game with a tally of 4-9, 2-4 coming in the opening half. It was 3-7 to 0-0 at the interval, the winner’s third goal coming from full forward Aoife O’Brien. In fairness to the Connacht champions, it must be pointed out that they had a quarter final tie just forty eight hours earlier and this, clearly, had taken its toll. Three points in as many minutes at the start of the second half from Ciara Doyle killed off any slim hopes of a fight back by the Galway …

Read More »

Golden memories of ’95 will never fade

HE spent just 17 minutes on the field in Croke Park on September 3, 1995 and only once hit the ball. Yet that seismic Eamon Taaffe goal, four minutes from time, still resonates in Clare. It was the moment that propelled the county to a first All-Ireland win since 1914, bridging an 81-year gap. The Tubber man was one of that 1995 panel present for Clare County Council’s 20th anniversary civic reception in council headquarters on Monday night. He looks fit and fresh, which indicates why he’s the only one of that panel still playing competitive hurling. “Go handy,” he urged when asked if he had yet reached 41 or thereabouts. “I’m only 40, although I’m not far from 41. I’ll be 41 in February,” Taaffe confirmed. Twenty years after that extraordinary afternoon, which altered the history of Clare hurling forever, Taaffe remembers everything. “I can remember it as if it was yesterday. I can still remember Ger coming to …

Read More »