Category: Sport

Listowel Celtic 1 – Tulla United 0 at Pat Kennedy Park, Listowel

TULLA’S positive start to the season fell on stoney ground on Sunday as they exited their second competition of the year. Without a Premier Division game to date, the east Clare side had used the league cup as the perfect warm-up and with two wins and a draw, had just missed out on a place in the decider. However, despite dominating possession for the majority of this FAI tie, they were unable to break down the home side who led from the fifth minute to the finish.

Incidentally, Listowel were off the back of a poor start to their league campaign, having been beaten in their opening three games but the form guide appeared to go out the window early on when Celtic broke on the counter-attack before Kevin Bambury slid the ball under goalkeeper Paul Whelan.

Tulla did their upmost to force an equaliser but luck seemed to desert them on their travels. Their best opportunities fell to Colin Nelson and Daragh Corry, with Nelson being released by Sunny Jay, only to be smothered by goalkeeper Chris Mason while Corry also had a one-onone chance denied when his shot was expertly saved.

However, the experience should stand to them as they prepare for the commencement of their league campaign while for Listowel, this victory could be the perfect kickstart to their season.

Listowel Celtic
Chris Mason, Kevin Dillon, TomRahilly, Seamus Keane, Martin Loughnane, Eddie JoeWalsh, Pa Walsh, Cormac Mulvihill, Evan Galvin, Kevin Bambury, Bryan Murphy

Subs
Adam Toomey, James McCarthy

Tulla United
Paul Whelan,Alan Byrnes,Tommy McKeown, Niall Whelan, Denis Murphy, Daragh Corry, PodgeVaughan, Cillian Bane, Sunny Jay, Seosamh O’Loughlin, Colin Nelson

Subs
Ger Hanrahan for O’Loughlin, David McInerney for Byrnes

JOHN Carmody’s name has become synonymous with Kilmaley successes in recent years.

He was manager when they captured only their second ever county title in 2004 and after being part of the backroom team under Patsy Fahey that got to the semi-final two years ago, he took the reins once more last year to lead his side to a nine match unbeaten run that culminated in Sunday’s two point victory over Clonlara.

“The players have put in a huge commitment since the 15th of January so I think it was just rewards for what they have put into it.”

In a tense final quarter, a replay appeared to be on the cards until Kilmaley showed their character late on

“Our experienced players stood up and in fairness to our fitness coach David O’Brien, the team is in good shape.

“In the last couple of matches, we have finished strongly and hopefully we will continue in that vein.”

The Blues will now face county champions Crusheen in the last four and after drawing on the opening day of the championship, Carmody’s men won’t fear the holders.

“Being in a county semi-final, it’s a huge prize to get to a county final. No more than any club that starts out the championship, we want to be there on county final day and we will prepare well for the two weeks.

“We are going in to win, we are certainly not going in to make up the numbers.”

With Carmody’s record, you wouldn’t doubt him for a second.

Shannon Olympic 0 – Castleisland 3 at Olympic Park, Shannon

SHANNON Olympic suffered a defeat at the hands of a strong Castleisland side, in the 1st round of the FAI Junior Cup at the weekend.

Played on Saturday afternoon, at the request of the visitors, Castleisland started the better and were ahead after 18 minutes when midfielder, James Hanafin, swivelled on a dropping ball in the Olympic box to volley a lovely goal into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

The home side played a little better after conceding and were unlucky not to equalise in the 43rd minute when Ray Quigley shot over from 25yds.

Castleisland doubled their lead just 2 minutes into the second half when John McGaley had his free kick come off the upright to allow Aidan Callaghan to tap home from 5yds. It was a bitter goal to swallow as the tall front man seemed to be several yards offside when the free was taken.

Olympic bravely fought to get back into the game and on 57 minutes they managed to cut the margin when the ever impressive midfielder Ray Quigley saw his shot from 16yds find the goal off a Castleisland defender.

The home side continued to attack but were unable to find the equaliser, despite Castleislands influential midfielder Denis Collins being shown a straight red for a dangerous tackle on Olympic’s Sean O’Connor.

In the 88th minute all of Olympic’s hopes were dashed when a lovely free from Castleisland’s Sean Óg Kirwan curled in from the right wing and bounced teasingly in the Olympic 6 yard box for Vinny Murphy to tap home.

So it’s the Kerry side that advance to the next round, meeting Rathkeale of the Desmond league.

Shannon Olympic
Gary McGettrick, David Collins, Pa Fahy, Karl Fogarty, Ian Hogan, Ciaran Keane, Donncadh Kelly, Ray Quigley, John Ryan, Deaglan McDonald, Jason Regan.

Subs
Sean O’Connor, Kieran Lake, Eamonn O’Neill, Richie Hanly, John Keogh.

Castleisland
Kevin Moran, Donnacha Ryan, John McGaley, Shane Loughlin, Mike McCarthy, Paul Carmody, Sean Óg Kirwan, Mike Hanfin,Aidan Callaghan, Denis Collins, ColmMurphy.

Sixmilebridge 0-17 – Inagh/Kilnamona 0-15 at Cusack Park, Ennis

THERE were some very ugly scenes with hurleys flying and men going to ground before and after the final whistle when Cathal Lafferty saw red for Inagh/Kilnamona, but clichéd as it may read, it wasn’t really that kind of game.

Yeah it was tough, edgy even as a pumped up Combo thundered into the ‘Bridge as if there were 15 Tony Carmodys in saffron and blue, but Christy Chaplin’s emerging side didn’t flinch, gave as good as they got and came out the other end of a pulsating encounter by two points to edge closer to a first county final appearance in nine years.

It’s too simplistic to say that it went the ‘Bridge’s way because of a missed Inagh/Kilnamona goal chance at a crucial stage – but certainly a goal could have made all the difference to the Combo in the second half in their valiant efforts to reel a ‘Bridge side that always kept their noses in front.

In a game of few goal chances, the one that presented itself to Conor Tierney in the 39th minute was a potential turning point. Inagh/Kilnamona were trailing by 0-12 to 0-10 at the time, but opportunity knocked when Cathal Lafferty put Tierney through, and with Derek Fahy advancing he snatched his shot into the side netting with a goal at his mercy.

There were still 20 minutes left, but a goal would have really thrown down the gauntlet to the ‘Bridge, but as it was Inagh/Kilnamona who were always chasing the game in the sec- ond half once points inside the first minute of the second half from Seadna Morey and Shane Golden fired the championship favourites into a 0-10 to 0-8 lead.

Inagh/Kilnamona had their chances in the first half too when playing with the breeze. An even opening saw the sides level on four occasions inside the first 15 minutes before points by Ger Arthur and Conor Tierney edged Inagh/Kilnamona 0-6 to 0-4 clear by the 18th minute.

By this stage Tony Carmody had been shunted from centre-forward to full-forward and back again, but each time he was met with fire as Inagh/ Kilnamona relished his presence on the field and were playing the better hurling as a result.

However, when failing to press home this advantage on the scoreboard the ‘Bridge played the masterstroke of substituting the injured Carmody in the 24th minute and for a few minutes, at least, the passion ebbed from Inagh/Kilnamona’s play and allowed the ‘Bridge pounce for three points.

Two came from the livewire Danny Morey who hit four points in the half and another via a Niall Gilligan free as the ‘Bridge moved 0-7 to 0-6 clear. Niall Arthur stopped the rot with a 65 before Seadna Morey and Cathal Lafferty swapped points in the final minute to leave matters delicately poised at 0-8 apiece at the break.

What followed was essentially a game of cat and mouse – the ‘Bridge buttressed themselves with those early points from Seadna Morey and Shane Golden; Inagh/Kilnamona plugged away thanks to Niall Arthur who hit four points in the first ten minutes of the half, but all the while it was just to keep in touch.

For each of Arthur’s strikes there was a ‘Bridge riposte with Caimin Morey, Niall Gilligan and Rory Shanahan on the mark as they maintained their two-point advantage with 20 minutes remaining.

A scoreline of 0-13 to 0-11 in the ‘Bridge’s favour became 0-15 to 013 after the Arthurs swapped points with John Fennessy and Jamie Shanahan by the 50th minute. A brilliant point by Fennessy in the 53rd minute looked to be decisive but back came Niall Arthur with two more by the 58th minute, while Ger Arthur missed a great chance to level matters in the 59th.

A let-off for the ‘Bridge, with their escape confirmed when Danny Morey hit his fifth from play in the 61st minute.

All that was left was the agro. And plenty of it, with county secretary Pat Fitzgerald and PRO Syl O’Connor intervening to try and broker peace between the warring factions on the field.

Sixmilebridge
Derek Fahy (6),Tadhg Keogh (7),Aidan Quilligan (7), Paul Fitzpatrick (7), Barry O’Connor (7), Padraig Fitzpatrick (7), Robert Conlon (7), Shane Golden (7) (0-1), John Fennessy (8) (0-2), Seadna Morey (7) (0-2),Tony Carmody (6), Caimin Morey (7) (0-1), Jamie Shanahan (7) (0-2), Niall Gilligan (7) (0-3f), Danny Morey (9) (0-5).

Subs
Rory Shanahan (7) (0-1) for Carmody [24 Mins], Stephen Fleming (7) for Fahy [43 Mins],Trevor Purcell (6) for Paul Fitzpatrick [50 Mins].

AS THE 60×30 handball season draws to a close, Clare were involved in three deciders on the last weekend of All-Ireland finals, winning two titles to add to Singles medals already captured by Pat Donellan and John Kirby.

All three finals were played at St. Coman’s in Roscommon Town on Saturday. First up was the Ladies Junior Singles final between Tuamgraney’s Ashling Fitzgerald and Aoife McCarthy of Westmeath. Fitzgerald won a great first game 21-19, but despite putting up a great battle, was defeated 21-11, 21-13 in the next two games.

Pat Donellan and Stephen McInerney played Cavan pair Andy Clarke and Dermot Dolan in the Golden Masters B Doubles final. Similar to Donellan’s epic singles final win two weeks previously, the Clare duo were again forced to go the full distance to claim victory in the third game on a 12-21, 21-9, 21-12 scoreline.

After recovering from losing the first game, the Kilkishen clubmen always looked in control and never looked like losing. Also always in control were John Kirby and Jimmy Walsh who won the Ruby Masters Doubles title. In truth the Dublin pair Michael O’Brien and Pat Ryan were no match and cousins Walsh and Kirby won 21-4, 21-1.

The Annual General Meeting of Clare County Handball Board takes place this Wednesday night in Minogue’s Bar, Tulla, at 8.30pm.

CHRISTY ‘Rusty’ Chaplin was braced. His team too, once the draw pitted a ‘Bridge team with Tony Carmody in its ranks against Inagh/ Kilnmona. Braced for a battle to the last.

Against this backdrop, it’s always about coming out the right side of the battle, something Chaplin hammered home to his players when dragging them up to the Stamer Park end of the field for a talk after that battle was over.

Chaplin wasn’t to know that medical prognosis was that goalkeeper Derek Fahy has fractured cheekbone and right half-back Barry O’Connor a double-break on his wrist and out of the semi-final.

“Look, it’s over, it’s done with,” he says before hearing the bad news. “We move on from here. We are delighted we’re in the next round. What we came up here to do was to get to a semi-final. We’re there. We didn’t play that well and that’s down to In- agh/Kilnamona.

“It was a tough, tough battle. We coming up to his all week that it was going to be a serious battle. We played Inagh/Kilnamona once or twice in the cup and you get nothing easy.

“They have a great bunch of hurlers and they were never going to die. They were going to used everything they could. We played it down, but they were going to use the Tony Carmody thing. They hounded us and won a lot of personal battles all over the field.

“We gave away a lot of stupid frees that were were punished for. That was our ill-discipline and we could have suffered for it. We knew young Arthur would punish us – he did it in the last round against Tubber and we had our lads warned but we gave away stupid frees.

“We turned up a bit flat today and it’s very hard to push the button when you’re not going well. We have two weeks to get ready and have a lot of work to do on that display,” he adds.

But what better way to focus the minds of his players than dangle Cratloe blue in front of them. “The ‘Bridge and Cratloe,” smiles Chaplin. “We’ll be drinking with them tonight and we’ll be enemies in two weeks time. It’s a game of hurling. We live together. We have players with some Cratloe women, they have players with Sixmilebridge women. There’s a lot of families tied up. It’s going to be a battle. We’ll enjoy this but two weeks time will be a different day and a different situation.”

MUNSTER Colleges Dean Ryan Hurling champions St. Flannan’s will open their challenge to hold onto the title on Wednesday next when they travel to Cashel to play De La Salle at 1.30p.m.

The contest is a repeat of last year’s semi-final which took place at the same venue where St. Flannan’s scored a 2-11 to 1-6 to top the roll of honour with Thurles CBS.

In recent years, De La Salle has been prominent at all levels within colleges hurling and they are expected to be strong challengers for this title.

Mike McInerney and Mike Kelly are again in charge of the Flannan’s side, who will be looking to Mark McGuane (Clarecastle) and Cian Moloney (Kilmaley) from last year’s side to lead their challenge

Ard Scoil Rís from Limerick are expected to include some Clare players when they open their challenge for honours against Gaelcholaiste Mhuire from Cork at Charleville at 1:30pm on Wednesday.

In the B competition St.Anne’s from Killaloe will play Bandon in Mallow at 1:30pm on Wednesday. While St.Caimin’s from Shannon will travel to Ballygran on Tuesday to play Rochestown and this tie has a 12:15pm throw in time. St. Joseph’s Tulla await the winners of this tie in round two.

Three Clare schools are also challenging for the C title. Rice College Ennis got there challenge off to a winning start when they defeated St.Munchin’s on Tuesday on Cratloe. They will play Killmallock on Bullngarry in their next outing in October 12.

Cratloe will be the venue on Wednesday at 1.30pm for the meeting of Ennistymon CBS and Hospital from Limerick while on Friday of next week, Scarrif Community College will play Pallaskenry at 12.30pm.

Scariff’s senior team will play NewcastleWest in the opening round of the senior C hurling at Patrickswell on Wednesday at 1.30pm.

In the U-15 C football competition, St.Anne’s Killaloe will travel to Kildimo on Wednesday next to play Mounthawk from Tralee while, at Clareabbey, Mary Immaculate College from Lisdoonvarna will play St.Pat’s from Shannon. Both football games will not get underway at 1.30pm.

The open rounds in the race for the Dr Harty cup and Corn Phadraigh (Senior B will take place on Wednesday, October 5. First round games in the race for the senior football titles which will take place a week later, October.

Cratloe 4-12 – Tulla 0-15 at Cusack Park, Ennis

WITH three minutes of normal time left – not to mind the four injury time minutes to be added – it’s safe to say that Tulla scented an escape to victory. They still trailed by three, but had just reeled off hat-trick of points from the mercurial Andrew Quinn (2) and David McInerney and had Cratloe shaken.

But not stirred – they never are and by game’s end they had rattled the Tulla net twice more to cruise to a nine-point win and into their third successive county senior semi-final.

It’s true that the final scoreline flattered Cratloe and did a grave disservice to a battling Tulla, but at the same time the 2009 county champions certainly rediscovered their swagger as they closed to within 60 minutes of a remarkable third county final appearance in a row.

Just reward too because Cratloe’s class up front was visible all through and it meant that Tulla seemed to be chasing the game for most of the hour – building their challenge of raw intensity, while Cratloe had the craft.

Early on Cratloe raced into a 1-3 to no score lead after only six minutes – the goal coming when Podge Collins teed up Cathal McInerney the first of his hat-trick that ultimately ripped the heart out of Tulla’s brave resistance.

It looked routine enough for Cratloe at that stage in they way they’d hit back from Aidan Lynch’s opener for Tulla with points by Conor McGrath (2) and McInerney before the latter struck for his goal.

However, Tulla were resolute all through, slowly cranking to life thanks to an effort from play by Cathal Dinan and two placed balls from Andrew Quinn as the game settled down into a really competitive contest.

Tulla’s tour de force continued with points from Andrew Quinn (2), Danny O’Halloran, David McInerney and Darragh Corry. With the only riposte coming by way of points from Martin ‘Ogie’ Murphy and Conor McGrath, it meant that the 2007 champions had overcome their dreadful start to move 0-9 to 1-5 ahead by the 25th minute.

However, crucial to the outcome was Cratloe’s response before the break when they reeled off three on the trot from Conor McGrath, Podge Collins and Cathal McInerney to edge 1-8 to 0-9 clear.

Cathal McInerney’s second goal two minutes into the second half when he pounced on a rebound after Philip Brennan foiled Conor McGrath moved Cratloe 2-8 to 0-10 clear but try as they might they couldn’t shake off Tulla’s dogged pursuit for much of the half.

A brilliant display of point taking from Andrew Quinn helped keep Jim McInerney’s charges alive, while points from Danny O’Halloran and David McInerney also aided their cause as they chased the game in the second half.

Quinn’s eighth in the 50th minute, which was followed by an inspirational effort from McInerney seven minutes later had the game back in the balance, with Tulla threatening to steamroll past Cratloe’s faltering challenge.

However, they needed to take every chance that came their way, meaning that Brian Lynch’s 58th minute wide was the break that Cratloe needed – a fact they hammered home less than 30 seconds later when Conor McGrath stroked the sliotar home to an empty net was another Brennan save, this time from Cathal McInerney, fell invitingly into his path.

Game over, but the highlight was yet to come, when McInerney crowned his brilliant individual display with a wonder goal.

Controlling a high delivery with his hurley, the dual star then eschewed handling the sliotar and instead met the dropped ball with a full volley into the top left corner of the net.

What Cathal McInerney the footballer would give for a few of those against Kilmurry Ibrickane on Saturday.

Cratloe
Sean Hayes (7), John O’Gorman (7), Barry Duggan (7), David Ryan (8), Enda Boyce (7), Michael Hawes (7), LiamMarkham(7), Sean Chaplin (7), Martin ‘Ogie’ Murphy (7) (0-1), Damian Browne (6) (0-1),

Sean Collins (6), Conor Ryan (7), Cathal McInerney (9) (3-2), Conor McGrath (8) (1-6, 5f), Podge Collins (8) (0-2).

Subs
Tomás O’Connor (6) for Browne [50 Mins], Padraigh Chaplin (6) for Collins [59 Mins], Gearóid Ryan (6) for Conor Ryan [62 Mins]

Tulla

IT WAS A double helping of top tier seven-a-side football for the Banner Ladies last weekend when the Senior and Under 14 teams appeared in the prestigious All-Ireland finals.

The Under 14 panel, most appearing in their third seven’s tournament, were well up for it this year and topped their group taking wins over Kildare, Down and Offally teams.

In the knockout stages, they dashed the hosts dreams when Grainne Nolan rallied the Banner with a couple of fine goals to defeat them by two points, aided by two crucial Niamh O’Brien saves. Then they dismantled the Emyvale, Monaghan machine by 2-9 to 3-0 before their semi-final meeting with Sarsfields, who were much fancied.

The Kildare side were rattled by the Banner’s blistering start, with scores from Eva O’Dea, Aoife Keane, Gráinne Nolan, and Aoibheann Malone. The second half belonged to Sarsfields, but the Banner were too far ahead to be stopped at 5-5 to 4-3 with solid performances from Elaine Casey, Emma Neylon and Aisling Maher.

An All-Ireland final meeting with Féile rivals and two-in-a-row champions Claregalway, was a very competitive affair with Clare Hehir and Laura Chesser showing great determination. The Banner held the advantage in the first half until Claregalway got two late goals to lead by two points at half–time.

The second half was all Claregalway with the Banner feeling the effects of their seven game marathon and a flurry of goals sealed it for the Galway side.

Banner Under 14
Elaine Casey, Emma Neylon, Eva O’Dea,Aoife Keane, Niamh O’Brien,Aisling Maher, Clare Hehir, Laura Chesser and captains Grainne Nolan and Aoibheann Malone. THE BANNER senior squad, AllIreland intermediate champions in 2010, went into senior grade action for the first time and reached the final with a perfect record too. They topped their group with wins over Down, Meath, Galway and Dublin sides.

An expected crucial decider with St. Ultan’s of Meath was averted when Down side Bryansford, came out on top in their game with Utlan’s.

The Ennis girls met Carrickmore in the All-Ireland semi-final and a sterling team performance delivered a big win over the Tyrone side 12-4 to 7-2.

When debutants Banner faced seven time champions Ballymacarbury of Waterford in the All-Ireland final they were unphased and were leading by the minimum at half-time. Ballymacarbury opened with two points but Niamh Keane started with a point, followed by a Niamh O’Dea goal and Louise Henchy tacked on a point shortly after for the Saffron and Blues.

The Waterford side had two more points scored when Niamh O’Dea goaled again and she replicated it when they went over and under the bar before the break at 2-3 to 1-5 in favour of the Banner.

Ballymacarbury started the second half with a point but Henchy was back with a penalty to go three points up. Captain O’Driscoll had them at sixes and sevens with long and short range kick-outs while Louise Woods, Laurie Ryan and Sinead O’Keeffe were outstanding in defence. Katie Cahill, Shonagh Enright and Louise Henchy in the middle were very strong.

The third quarter was frantic as O’Dea, Carroll and Orlaith Lynch tried to open up a solid Waterford defence but some harsh decisions and a couple of missed opportunities let the Déise through for 2-1 to leave the Clare side four points adrift.

In the last Banner attack of the day, Naomi Carroll buried to bring it back to the minimum but the whistle went up on the dot and Ballymacarbury were lucky to escape with the Cup.

Overall, it was a good day’s work for the Banner club with two teams in All-Ireland finals and surely they will feel they can return next year for seniors honours.

Banner
Emma O’Driscoll (Capt), LouiseWoods, Niamh Keane, Sinead O’Keeffe, Katie Cahill, Rebecca Culligan, Louise Henchy, Niamh O’Dea, Shonagh Enright, Naomi Carroll, Orlaith Lynch, Laurie Ryan County Junior A champions Doonbeg also reached the knock-out stages of the All-Ireland Junior Seven’s on Saturday after an perfect group stage campaign. The Magpies won all four of their opening games against Carryduff (Down), Aghada (Cork), Beagh (Galway) and Dublin’s Clontarf to reach the last eight but unfortunately, their hopes of emulating the Banner ended at the first hurdle when coming up against a clinical St Bridget’s squad from Mayo who advanced on a 7-2 to 1-5 scoreline.

Doonbeg
Edel Conway,Amanda Ryan, Caroline Haugh,Yvonne Downes, Patricia Nugent, Sarah Cahill,Aoife Conway, Siobhan Beehan, Linda Russell, Kevina Kenny, Rachel Ryan, Mairead Madigan Munst er Senior Club semi fina l Pr eview

ON it goes. The Cratloe carousel where players flit between kicking ball one week and pucking it the next.

Occasionally the lines become blurred, like they did when Cathal McInerney showcased his prodigious talent with one swing of his left leg on the sliotar to finally kill off Tulla’s challenge, but in Cratloe’s case it’s always a case of one game com- plimenting the other.

So it is that they’ve two county semi-finals to look forward too, and an under 21 final too. “It is like 2009,” admitted manager Mike Deegan, “but this year we’re used to it because we’ve done it before. We have more experience and hopefully that will pay to us in the end.

“All we want to do is keeping winning. It’s basically the same panel of players for both. Every day you win you get confidence and hopefully they’ll be able to carry that through to the next round.”

The footballers got to their penultimate round with a facile win over Lissycasey – the margin of victory here may have been nine points, but it was far from facile, as Deegan was quick to admit.

“It’s championship hurling and you’re not going to win a match very easily. The couple of goals at the end weren’t really fair on Tulla because they played really well and were very tough in the second half.

“Our guys started very well and then dropped off a small bit. When you go out in championship you hope that there will be an improvement everyday and we’ll be hoping for that the next day.”

Cratloe only managed 0-7 in their final group game against Inagh/Kilnamona – to say a haul 4-12 represented a massive improvement is putting it mildly. When asked for an explanation Deegan put it down to “the real important end” of the 2011 hurling year.

“Every match counts. The nervousness was there in the last couple of matches that we played, especially after the bad start we got against Tubber. After being beaten by Tubber we knew what we had to do. Every match we played was a knock-out game for us – obviously there were nerves there because we were afraid to lose but now it’s great to be back in a semi-final.”