Nearly 200 people attended the Clare Camogie presentation night at the Auburn Lodge Hotel last Saturday.

Crusheen and Clare hurling star Cian Dillon was the special guest and he made the presentations. He presented Munster medals to the members of Clare’s minor camogie team, which reached the All-Ireland final where they lost, in a replay, to Galway. He also presented the association’s awards to the chosen players in the various categories.
This was the second year of the club star awards, which are awarded to club players across all grades from U-12 to senior. 
There is also a contribution-to-camogie award presented to someone who has dedicated much of their time to the development of camogie, both at club and county level. 
This year’s winner was Maura Sheedy from Ogonnelloe, who has filled a variety of positions in Clare camogie over many years.
The overall winner in the volunteer-of-the-year awards section was Brendan Noonan from Kilkishen. In this category, clubs were invited to submit nominations and a committee then adjudicated their submissions.
This committee narrowed this down to three, Mary Griffey (Kilmaley), Marie Louise Kaiser (Newmarket) along with Brendan Noonan. Both ladies served as their club secretaries during the past year.
Two years ago, Kilkishen were unable to field a team at adult level. Last year, they won the intermediate title and this year, they fielded two adult teams. Much of the credit for this was attributed to Mr Noonan, which led to his selection as the overall winner.
The winners of the club awards are listed below.
U-12A: Rachel Kelleher, Newmarket; U- 12B, Regan Conway, Feakle; U-12C, Chloe O’Neil, Kilnamona; U-14A, Rebecca Devine, St Joseph’s; U-14B, Orlaith Devitt, Éire Óg; U-14C, Aoife Keane, Kilnamona; U-16A, Aislinn Keogh, Newmarket; U-16B, Aoife Daly, Ballyea; U-16C, Aoife Sheehan, Éire Óg; U-18A, Trisha Fawl, Sixmilebridge; U-16B, Marie Collins, Kilkishen; U-18C, Sharon Coffey, Ballyea; junior, Sonya Maher, Kilnamona; intermediate, Carmel Tierney, Corofin; senior, Carol Twomey, Newmarket.
Presentations were also made to Clare Féile chairman Ger Hickey and secretary Declan Hogan for their work in ensuring the staging of Féile na nGael was a huge success in Clare during the summer of 2010.
County camogie secretary Mary Hogan will not be seeking re-election at the annual convention next week and, in recognition of her work over the past four and a half years, a presentation was made to the Tulla woman at Saturday’s function.
Marie Louise Kaiser from Newmarket is favourite to be the new secretary.
Next Monday’s convention, which will take place at the Auburn Lodge Hotel at 7.30pm, will also elect a new president to succeed the late Fr Liam Murray. Michael O’Halloran (Corofin), Kitty McNicholas (Éire Óg) and Chris Doyle (Whitegate) have all been nominated for this position.

Busy championship schedule for Clare camogie

The Clare senior camogie team faces a tough championship schedule in the summer of 2011 when they will play their seven games in the competition on successive weekends.
Beginning on Saturday, June 11 with a home tie against Cork, the Clare girls, who will again be managed by Patsy Fahy, won’t have a break until the weekend of July 30 at the earliest.
This is the weekend reserved for play-off, if they are required, so Clare could be in action for an eighth successive week.
In between, the county’s U-18 team, which is sure to include a number of the senior panel, will play Kilkenny in the All-Ireland minor championship, a game that is scheduled for Wednesday, June 29.
The camogie association’s master fixture schedule was released earlier this week and it reveals that Clare’s opening game of the new season will be a National League fixture against Offaly on February 13.
Clare will have further league fixtures on February 27 (away to Galway) and March 13 (away to Wexford). Play-offs, if required, are scheduled for March 20 with semi-finals on April 3 and the final on April 17.
On March 5, Clare will play Cork in the All-Ireland U-16 championship and they will play Dublin in the same competition on April 2. The semi-finals are on April 23.
Clare’s championship schedule is: Saturday June 11 at home to Cork; June 18 away to Galway; June 25 at home to Tipperary; July 2 at home to Wexford; July 9 away to Kilkenny; July 16 at home to Dublin; July 23 away to Offaly. Play-offs, if required, will be on July 30 with the semi-finals set for August 13 and the final on September 11.