Tag Archives: clare

IT’S an indication of the standing enjoyed by the teams involved that Sunday’s National Hurling League relegation play-off between Clare and Kilkenny is to be televised live by TG4 ahead of a number of quarter-final games and ahead of a number of attractive football league ties. Prior to the commencement of the league, few would have thought that the All-Ireland champions of the past two years, Clare and Kilkenny would now be preparing to do battle to decide who will remain in Division 1A for next season. Kilkenny will carry the favourites’ tag. They will welcome back a number of their leading lights, who missed last week’s game due to injuries and the fact that management decided to rest some players ahead of the crucial play-off. They were boosted on Monday when they won the toss for venue, which means that Clare must make the journey to the Marble City for the second time in seven days. While the Noresiders …

TWO men in their forties are in hospital in Cork following an explosion at Thormac Engineering in the Shannon Industrial estate yesterday. The men were aged 44 and 49, one was from Shannon and the other from Limerick.It is understood that they suffered head,hand and leg injuries and were in intense pain at the scene. Observers believed one of them had sustained worse injuries than the other. The incident occurred at around 3.15pm yesterday, while the pair were working with a machine used to inject plastic into moulds. A colleague of theirs made the initial moves to bring the situation under control. The men were treated at the scene, before being brought by ambulance to the Shannon based coast guard helicopter  and flown from there to the burns unit in Cork.   Owen Ryan

Clare hurler Brendan Bugler has lost his appeal against a two-match ban imposed by the Central Hearings Committee, following his sending-off against Dublin in the league. The Whitegate hurler was shown a straight red card by Cork’s Cathal McAllister following an off-the-ball incident in the first-half. He was subsequently given a two-match ban, as he had been previously shown a red card inside the last 12 months. The appeal was heard by the Central Appeals Committee last evening. “Having heard and considered all submissions and evidence of witnesses on behalf of the appellant and the decision-maker, the CAC upheld the decision of the CHC and rejected the appeal”, according to a statement issued by Croke Park. The decision is a further blow to Clare’s hopes of retaining Division 1 status for next season, as he will now miss Sunday’s relegation play-off with Kilkenny. By Seamus Hayes    

TWENTY-one winters after winning a Fitzgibbon Cup medal on the field with UL, Brian Lohan was delighted and relieved to lead his Alma Mater to the 2015 title after a replay win over Waterford IT last week in Cork. Amongst the Clare contingent who played key roles were Tony Kelly, David McInerney, Jack Browne, Cathal McInerney and Gearóid Ryan. The double All-Ireland winning full-back and four-time All-Star felt the Fitzgibbon Cup helped him to develop as a player more than two decades ago and is now aiding his management career. “I played in three Fitzgibbons before eventually winning a fourth one. It was a huge learning curve for me as a player. Even though I wasn’t saying it, I felt that having been involved in the management set-up for three years already, you’d want to be learning in the fourth year. Without saying too much about it, I felt that this year we had to do it,” the 2015 Fitzgibbon …

Despite the generally overcast skies over County Clare this morning, in a number of locations people did witness the solar eclipse phenomenon. The moon almost fully blocked out the sunlight, the first time that has occurred in this part of the work since 1999. Our image was taken by local photographer, Jarek Dudek in the Woodstock area of Ennis, who was delighted to get a break in the cloud to capture the event.  

Tipperary       0-15 Clare                0-7 DESPITE a valiant effort in Thurles on Wednesday evening, Clare exited the Munster U-21 Football Championship at the semi-final stage. Clare did not lack effort or commitment but the fact that none of their starting forwards scored from play underlines where they primarily fell short. Although beaten by eight points in the end, 11 minutes from time Tipperary led by just four, 0-11 to 0-7, and Clare were still competitive. Tipperary, however, kicked four points in the remaining minutes to pull away from Clare, who would have lost by more were it not for the goalkeeping excellence of Killian Normoyle. He made two excellent first-half saves and one late in the second period. The winners led 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time, with Keelan Sexton scoring three of Clare’s points from frees, while Paddy O’Malley put the remaining point over from a dead ball. An incisive move, in the 19th minute, instigated by Cian O’Dea and carried …

Armagh 3-11 Clare 1-11 TEN points down at half-time, Clare produced a stirring second half display to drag themselves to within two points of Armagh half way through the second half. However it wasn’t sufficient to reel in the visiting county and joint division 3 table toppers. A second Tony Kernan goal, four minutes from time, sealed the win for Kieran McGeeney’s team who had lead 2-8 to 0-4 at the interval having comprehensively outplayed Clare in the opening half. Ironically the home county started very well and led 0-2 to 0-0 seven minutes with Shane Brennan and Jamie Malone pointing from play. Armagh however preceded to take over and kicked 2-5 without reply. In fact Clare were held scoreless for 17 minutes. In the interim full forward Ethan Rafferty, held off Clare full back Kevin Harnett to bury Armagh’s first goal, which was also their opening score. Thereafter Andy Mallon, one of three Armagh players to be black carded, …

Clare 2-11 Waterford 0-3 Clare coasted into next Wednesday’s Munster U-21 football semi-final meeting with Tipperary in Thurles, following a facile win over Waterford in Miltown. Played in front of an attendance of 518, Clare restricted Waterford to just a single second-half point. Clare put the game away in the opening three minutes of the second half, when Jamie Malone raced through for a superb goal. Prior to that, Keelan Sexton had put over a nice point from play, set up by Dale Masterson. Malone won the subsequent kick-out and buried his second goal. Sexton followed up with a superb left-footed score, putting Clare into a 2-6 to 0-2 lead. Waterford had battled gamely in the opening half but following Clare’s burst after half-time, the confidence and ambition visibly drained from their opponents. Malone’s first goal, six minutes before half-time, helped Clare into a 1-4 to 0-2 interval lead. The goal opportunity was presented to the Corofin man following excellent …