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THE first of this year’s 40×20 AII- Ireland handball semi-finals were played over the weekend and while three of the ties had Clare involve- ment, there was Banner success in only one.

Conor Cooney and Cathal Hannon secured their place in the All-Ireland Under 21 Doubles final after an im- pressive semi-final win over Mayo’s Dara Reid and Kieran Burke at Clare- castle on Saturday. After losing the first game 13-21, the O’Callaghans Mills/Tulla pairing fought back to win the next two by a convincing 21- 13 and 21-11.

Cooney will be searching for an Un- der 21 two-in-a-row, having won the

same title last year with his brother John while Hannon is still in the u- 21 singles race, again playing Mayo’s Kieran Burke at Newport this Satur- day in the semi-final.

Cooney and Hannon will play Tyrone’s Padraig McGlinchey and Darragh Daly, after they won their semi-final against Kilkenny over the weekend and the date and venue for this encounter has yet to be con- firmed.

Also in Clarecastle on Saturday, Shannon’s John Cawley was defeat- ed by JJ Farragher of Galway in the All-Ireland Silver Masters B Singles semi-final.

Despite wining the first game 21-8, Cawley could not keep up the pres- sure and Farragher took the next two,

21-12 and 21-9.

In Minor Singles, Diarmaid Nash was defeated by Stephen Cooney of Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final at Ballaghadereen on Saturday.

After pushing Cooney all the way in the first (17-21), the Tuamgraney man was comfortably beaten 21-11 in the second. Nash, also part of the Clare minor hurling panel, had been widely tipped for All-Ireland hon- ours but on the day could not cope with Cooney.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Walsh and PJ Counihan brought another Munster title back to Clare when they defeat- ed Cork’s Michael Jordan and Jim Kennedy in the Diamond Masters ‘A’ final at Galbally (21-7, 21-10).

The coming week sees more of

Clare’s Munster champions attempt to reach All-Ireland finals.

At Newport this Saturday at 5pm Cathal Hannon will play Mayo’s K1- eran Burke in the Under 21 Singles semi-final having already beaten Burke and his partner in the Dou- bles semi-final, while in Roscom- mon town, also this Saturday at 5pm, Sarah Loughnane (Clooney) and Sarah O’Donnell (Tuamgraney) play Roscommon’s Lydia Connolly and Laura Mannion in the Ladies Junior B Doubles semi-final.

Jimmy Walsh and PJ Counihan were due to play their Diamond Mas- ters ‘A’ Doubles semi-final this com- ing weekend but the match has been postponed due an injury to one of their Roscommon opposition. Edel

O’Grady and Ashling Fitzgerald, both from Tuamegraney, will play Roscommon’s Leona Doolin and Hillary Rushe in the All-Ireland Mi- nor Doubles semi-final at a Munster venue.

On the local scene, Clarecastle and Shannon will contest the Clare League Division 4A final after two very close semi-finals last week. Clarecastle overcame Tuamgraney 109-99 while the other semi was even closer, Shannon scraping past O’C. Mills by 108 to 101. In Division 2, Tuamgraney reached the final after a comfortable win over O’Callaghan’s Mills.

The second semi-final between Clooney and Kilkishen was _ post- poned.

ARE we there yet? No, still strug- cling. However, if we realise this it can work to our advantage. Plenty of hard choices for the management. It will be seriously tested in planning for Waterford. Clare exited the league in the same manner as last year. No progress in that area. No knives yet however.

Tony Considine must be smiling. Clare lost their chances of a quarter- final slot in the Limerick game be- cause of sideline inertia in not rest- ing the free-taker when he was off aN ismee-0 8 olen

In addition, when Fergal Lynch was brought in at full-forward in the second half he was persistently given low ball. Lynch doesn’t do low ball

MAN (OR

Earlier there had been a hint of panic when Barrett was red-carded against Galway but in fairness the game against Tipp was a reasonable all-round effort. Yet it proved to be as revealing as I thought it would.

Not even one position, the goalie apart, has been settled in the Clare defence and Gerry O’Grady’s so- journ in his club’s attack doesn’t do him any favours.

He was easily turned by Eoin Kelly and the Mullinahone man scored four points from play. With a dry sod and ball in June or July this tally might well be doubled. Alarm bells surely.

On any given day that I watched there was a patent lack of pace all over the Clare defence. We can ig- nore it at our peril. It was blindingly

obvious when Pat Kerwick the Tipp half forward ran at the Clare backs. Left them going backwards in his slipstream. Imagine the scenario if Eddie Brennan, John Mullane or ei- ther of the O’Connor twins had had his opportunities.

A bit harsh? Not really. Realis- ing one’s limitations is the first step towards improving them. If we were planning for Mullane, Kelly, Molumphy, Flynn and Shanahan in this League it wasn’t much in evi- dence.

Against Tipp the Clare midfield pair hurled their own game, scored a couple of points, and left their oppo- nents to their own devices. The Tipp midfield pairing scored four points between them. Free scoring midfield- ers need marking as much as any for-

ward. Very often it means sacrificing one’s own game to tie them down.

Almost every Clare forward seems to do their own thing nowadays. Ominously, returns such as seven points from play in 70 minutes dem- onstrate forward poverty. Mark Fla- herty did remarkably well from frees but I wonder would he prove more productive from play further out. If Declan O’Rourke could up his work- rate for the entirety of a game he has the strength and hurling to do really well. Gaffney’s return for the cham- pionship will give other free-taking options and lead to badly needed changes up front.

Mike McNamara and his manage- ment team must make some hard choices. Shed the remaining links with the glory days and invest in a

new generation to back those who have some championship experience. Against the Decies we will need pace and hurling all over the field. Pace is the key word. To me it’s seems fool- ish in the extreme for any manage- ment set-up to invest it’s years work on one championship outing.

It is simply providing a rod to beat itself. With all the emphasis on the Waterford game if Clare are beaten, should the sideline fall on its sword? By all means do everything in your power to win in the Gaelic Grounds but don’t back yourself into a corner.

Finally Ger Loughnane is having a good year with the Tribesmen but some players look off the pace and their defensive problems will come back to haunt them before the year Tree) UL

THE idea of a ground up approach to hurling among kids about to enter the game took off last year with the launch of Go Games in Clare, and this weekend, the second season of the initiative was launched.

The idea is simple, but effective. Allow kids the opportunity to de- velop their basic skills before they’re

put into a match situation. Give them the chance to play, to have time on the ball.

There’s a maximum of eight play- ers per team for the Under 8 games, a maximun of ten per team for the Under 10s and four games can take place at any one time on a standard pitch. The other stipulation is that every player — back or forward — must remain in their zone, with the excep-

tion of the midfielders. Players swap positions at regular intervals and the the emphasis is on inclusion: each player will play at least two quarters in every Go Game.

The blitz schedule for the upcom- ing Go Games season has just been drawn up and the project is now se- cure in the landscape of the Clare GAA. It’s obvious that those who participate stand to significantly ben- efit so clubs, really, should embrace the concept. They should ensure eve- ry parent with a kid who 1s interested in game is aware of Go Hurling’s ex- istence.

The initial kick off takes place on Saturday April 19 at a number of venues across Clare. It continues throughout May, June and July.

For further information on_tak- ing part, contact Peter Casey on O86 6000027, Joe Gleeson on 087 1333430, Sean Chaplin on 086 3613779 or John Culligan 085 1744342.

AT LAST, the script changes. It’s been a tough old time not only for Frank Doherty, but also for the small knot of hacks who follow his team around. So far, the posse has been looking for new ways to ask the same old post-game question. “Where did it go wrong, Frank?’ has been our opener for the last two months.

On Sunday, things were different. It was time to address the positives.

“Wicklow are a nice county team, probably on a par with ourselves,” Doherty says from under the Cusack Park stand. “Forget about London and Kilkenny — no disrespect to ei- ther of them — but this was a solid county team today and we had to step up to the mark. So I’m happy, delighted to get the win to be honest because I knew we had to score well and we had to up the intensity.

“I’m tired of saying it but we have a young team and there were a couple of lads out injured again today. But it was great to see the likes of David Russell coming back. He gives that bit of experience and is a help to

those young lads. At the start of the league I looked at Wicklow and said this was a game that we had to win if we had any aspirations at all. It was a game I targeted.

“We had David [Russell] back which was a boost – he’s been a great asset to Clare football down through the years and looking forward, we’ll need the likes of him to help the young lads progress. And Niall [Considine — also back from suspen- sion] had a good first half as well.”

Already, there are other targets on the horizon and there are stepping stones to get Clare there. The first arrives, Doherty says, with Offaly’s visit in a fortnight.

“Offaly will be another challenge, that’s for sure. They’re the serious team in this group, along with An- trim.

“The two of those will be battling it out to win the division. Offaly is a step up, but today’s win was im- portant because winning becomes a habit. As does losing.

“But against Offaly we have to stand up and be counted. If we can get a good result it brings us into the

London game and then it’s just a cou- ple of weeks to the Waterford cham- pionship match.”

For afew minutes, it looked like this win could have been placed in doubt as a result of Ger Quinlan’s sending off, but according to the manager, the mental strength of Clare to come through what could have been a diffi- cult quarter of an hour was pleasing.

“I didn’t see the sending off, I was doing something else at the time, but once Ger [Quinlan] was gone, we worked damn hard and showed some good initiative. There was a lot of determination there to win the ball and that possibly wasn’t there a few weeks ago.

“IT definitely think this win 1s a shot in the arm for the lads and hopefully it’s going to put them in a positive frame of mind. We’ve worked hard in training over the past two weeks, something we couldn’t do with the seven games we had before this one and we stayed the full 70-minutes to- day, which was great.”

He walks off into the dressing room, out of the rain. A smile on his face for the first time in some while.

WITH only two games remaining in the National League, the make-up of the Clare football panel has been re- structured and streamlined over the past number of weeks with manager Frank Doherty now targeting the Munster championship opener with Waterford in Dungarvan on May 25, less than eight weeks away.

Last Sunday, Clare played with purpose and persistence and record- ed their first victory of significance

in the league campaign, heralding an upswing in their fortunes.

Prior to the beginning of the Cu- sack Cup, Doherty made it clear that players could still play their way into the panel and though that maxim re- mains true, the panel has continued to evolve with Waterford in mind.

Shortly after Clare’s win over Kil- kenny, Kevin Dilleen, who had been expected to have a role to play for the footballers, informed the county football management he was leav- ing the set-up to concentrate on club

eva b bares

Fintan Conway and Kevin Larkin, who both featured prominently in the McGrath Cup, are no longer part of the panel and Kevin’s brother, Jim- my, who had also featured at the start of the year, has moved abroad.

Dara Blake was also recently re- leased from the panel, as Doherty continues to shape his squad.

Neither Dara Kelly nor Laurence Healy were available for selection on Sunday due to injury and with both backs likely to push hard for a start-

ing place, it’s becoming clear that Clare will have sufficient defensive cover for the Waterford trip. In terms of the forwards,though, it’s still un- clear if management have made their minds up on the most effective six.

Speaking after the win on Sunday, Doherty was looking to the visit of league leaders Offaly to provide an opporunity for Clare to build on the Wicklow victory.

“If we can get a good result then it’s just a couple of weeks to the Water- ford championship game,” he said.

THERE was mounting speculation yesterday that the proposed €7.2 million sale of Clare FM to Radio Kerry had fallen through.

The rumoured collapse of the sale will disappoint hundreds of share- holders across the county who were set for small windfalls as a result of investing in the station in the early Les

The shareholders last had contact from the station’s board in Decem- ber when they were told that the sta- tion had decided to accept a €20 per share offer from Radio Kerry.

In a letter to shareholders, the chair- man of Clare Community Radio Holdings plc, Michael Evans, stated that the sale was conditional on 95 per cent shareholder approval.

Mr Evans stated that the sale should be completed by the end of March mau eres

However, there has been no further communication from the board to shareholders since then.

One major shareholder said yes- terday, “I understand that the deal has fallen through and this has been communicated to the Clare FM board, though we have heard nothing official as yet.”

Both sides are declining to com- ment. The Clare FM chief executive, Liam O’Shea, failed to respond to

e-mailed queries on the matter last Thursday and Friday, while Radio Kerry also failed to return a phone query.

However, even if the deal has col- lapsed, it will alert others in the marketplace that the station is up for grabs. It is believed that Radio Kerry was not the only station interested in purchasing Clare FM.

If the deal has fallen through, the station’s senior management and the CPIM SDrmeE-DesveAAmny some;

WITH the days fast counting down to the beginning of the new Depart- ment of Agriculture scheme to cross- check the milk testing by co-ops, the IFA has come in with its support for the initiative.

According to IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Richard Kennedy, the scheme, due to begin on April 1, is in line with the Gov- ernment’s Partnership commitment to the IFA.

This protocol of verification will cover the testing of all constituents used for payment, audit of lab pro- cedures, check calibration of ma- ATEN Tom AMV ICM URANO OComBUch UO LRCMECTo OL! back to farmers. Results of the cross-

checks will be published by the De- partment.

Kennedy commented that while this new protocol was welcome, it was only the first step in raising the standards of Irish milk testing to in- ternational best practice, paving the way for full accreditation of central, independent milk testing laborato- ju Coe

“I believe this move will help focus the minds of all in the dairy industry on the importance of proper stand- ards in milk testing, from sample taking, all the way to the returning of results to both farmers and proc- essors, he said.

‘However, I see it as merely the first step towards world-class ISO 17025 accreditation of a small number of

centralised milk laboratories, shared by all milk processors, which could easily be established on an independ- ent footing.”

Kennedy said the chances of achieving fully accredited, and ulti- mately independent, milk testing in one or a few central laboratories for all of Ireland’s milk have never been aoa Koa

“Dairygold have committed to out- sourcing their milk testing needs to a fully accredited third party lab by 2009,” he said.

“The West Cork Co-ops have de- cided to centralise all their milk test- ing into one, accredited laboratory. Connacht Gold are preparing to in- vest in new, accredited facilities and are willing to share those with other

neighbouring co-ops. The Chair- man of Lakeland Co-op has publicly expressed his support for a single, world-class milk testing lab.

‘Many other co-ops have declared to us they were seriously looking into accreditation for milk testing, and an increasing number of them have now recognised the importance for farm management purposes as well as accuracy of results, of testing every collection.

‘These strands all go in the right direction, but now they must come together. Co-ops must agree to share the use of a small number of fully accredited, world class standard fa- cilities – eventually ensuring that those are operated independently,’ Kennedy concluded.

AN TAISCE has re-affirmed its op- position to the planned €10 million plan for an explosives factory on the Shannon Estuary.

A decision is expected in relation to the current plan in the next number of weeks. A previous planning ap- plication was refused by An Bord Pleanala.

It is now almost two years since Shannon Explosives submitted re- vised plans for an explosives factory at Cahercon pier in Kildysart. The company has already furnished the

council with substantial further 1n- formation. However, An Taisce, the Kildysart

Explosives Factory Opposition Group (KEFOG) and others oppose the project.

In a submission on the latest in- formation lodged by Shannon Ex- plosives, An Taisce’s Heritage Of- ficer, Ian Lumley states, ““We do not consider that the applicants have re- solved the key conflict posed by this development with the policy provi- sions of the West Clare Local Area Plan, 2003, including the specific ob- jectives for Kildysart to develop the

harbour area as a local amenity, tour- ism and leisure facility which will contribute to the tourism product.

‘No need has been identified for an additional explosives manufacturing facility in Ireland or no argument has been advanced that the capacity of the existing permitted manufactur- ing facility near Enfield in County Meath is not adequate to meet na- tional needs. . .

“We consider that the site because of its location sensitivity is, irrespec- tive of any proposal for an explosives factory, unsuitable for quarrying be- cause of its topography and relation

to this sensitive part of the Shannon Estuary. For this reason and in view of the unsuitability of the site on lo- cation grounds, we do not consider it necessary to comment on the other specific issues submitted by the ap- plicant, including the revised habitat and bat assessment. We recommend that this application be refused.”

In their objection, KEPOG state, “Development and day to day use of this land will be curtailed by the applicant. This is unacceptable. Pub- lic perception of the dangers of ex- plosives must be taken into account when considering the issue.

TWO of snooker’s greatest legends go head-to-head in an exhibition match in Ennis on Saturday. Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White and Alex ‘Hur- ricane’ Higgins brew up a storm for charity at the West County Hotel. The event has been organised to help raise funds for the Niall Mel- lon Township Trust which was es- tablished in 2002 to provide homes to the impoverished communities in

the townships in South Africa. Three locals from Clarecastle will travel to South Africa later this year to assist in the ongoing work there.

Jimmy White, who has played in Ennis before, has won a total of 23 professional titles. He has also been runner-up six times in the World Championship. As an amateur, he won the 1979 English Amateur Championship and the 1980 World Amateur Championship.

Alex Higgins, from Belfast, was

twice World Champion and twice runner-up. One of the best-known faces in snooker for many years, Hig- gins was famous for his frequent ar- guments, both on and off the snooker table. One of the most serious of these clashes was when he head-butt- ed a tournament official at the UK championship in 1986.

Although the Niall Mellon Town- ship Trust has only been in existence for six years, it is the largest provider of low-cost homes in South Africa,

producing 20% of such houses in Cape Town and 15% in the Gauteng region. Since 2002, over 3000 volun- teers have travelled to work on their projects in South Africa.

Next November, three volunteers from Clarecastle – Fiona Donnellan, Emma Clancy and Amy McEnery – will head to Cape Town South Africa as part of a 2000 strong team to build houses in the Shanty towns.

This weekend’s event will be spon- sored by KECO construction and

the Shannon Masters Snooker Club. Tickets are €25 while VIP passes are available for €50 from the West County or by contacting Kevin on 086-3034043 or Fiona on 086- TOW ieee

VIP tickets will entitle holders to a champagne reception and to meet and greet the players before the match. There will also be an auction on the night for a chance to play a frame against either of the two. The event will begin at 8pm.

CLARE’S efforts to preserve the past for future generations have been given a major boost with the announcement that the fund for con- serving the county’s built heritage is to be increased by more than 20% this year.

Environment Minister John Gorm- ley has announced funding of €172,000 to Clare County Council under the 2008 Built Heritage Capi- tal Works Programme. This will be OTe mle leikore mm oy am se lommecel ous COUMUTN(eloMmLES Architectural Conservation Grants Scheme which supports the repair and conservation of buildings on the Record of Protected Structures.

The money is part of a funding package amounting to almost €25 Million to support built heritage projects in 2008. The provision rep- resents an increase of 42% nationally on the amount spent last year.

The Minister commented, “Invest-

ment in built heritage conservation is vital for the safeguarding of our architectural heritage, and the in- creased level of funding which I have secured this year underlines the Gov- ernment’s commitment in this area. | am confident the increased package of funding measures will encourage an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to built heritage conserva- tion as a whole.”

“The conservation of our historic buildings makes our towns and vil- lages more attractive to tourists and locals alike and can often act as a catalyst for further heritage projects in an area as it enhances local aware- ness in our built heritage”, said jun- ior Environment Minister and Clare TD Tony Killeen.

“Tam very happy to announce this funding for Clare County Council, an increase of over 20% on last year’s allocation. This allocation will sup- port the conservation of significant buildings all around Clare.”