Category: Sport

CLUBS in Clare have voted in favour of reducing player registration fees despite warnings that a potential € 20,000 drop in income could halt development at the County Grounds.

Members of the Clare District Soccer League (CDSL) argued that any reduction in registration fees would affect plans to erect a new stand and floodlights at the County Grounds.

However after a lengthy debate at last Monday’s AGM, clubs voted through a motion that will see fees reduced from € 40 to € 30 next season. Kilrush Rangers, Corofin Harps and Shannon Olympic had all proposed reductions in the € 40 player registration fee.

Club representatives including Eoin Madden (Shannon Olympic) and Robert Clancy (Kilrush Rangers) claimed some clubs very existence was being threatened, as players are unable to pay the “high” fees.

“You will see clubs fall by the wayside”, said Clancy

Eoin Madden said the league should explore other means of fundraising to generate income.

In his response, league secretary Oliver Fitzpatrick warned, “Any reduction in registration will result in the league struggling to break even for the season and seriously impact our application for a loan from the bank for the planned development work at our County Grounds. Our application for a loan is based on our current income from registration. This is our only guaranteed source of income for the season”.

Fitzpatrick told the meeting that the CDSL fees compare favourably with other leagues. He said that at the start of every season the Galway league charges € 1500 per team per club; a further charge of € 500 to cover referee costs and € 20 per player registration.

Long serving league official Pa- draig McCullough strongly urged clubs to maintain the current registration fees or jeopardise plans for the County Grounds.

He added, “I know it’s hard for clubs to find that extra few bob. But of we go backwards, we go backwards”.

FAI delegate Jim Madden said it will cost the league € 50,000 to install lights at the Quin road venue.

CDSL affiliation fees in 2011 were € 48,690 but treasurer Michael McInerney warned that a 50% reduction in registration fees could result in a € 20,000 loss in income to the league.

Representatives of Avenue United and Lifford agreed that registration fees should not be reduced.

John O’Malley of Avenue United told the meeting that the County Grounds is “totally underutilised” and needs further development.

John O’Neill of Lifford said the accumulation of fines is a far greater cost concern for clubs. He urged the league to penalise players directly and not clubs.

Gearoid Mannion of Avenue United said he supported keeping current registration fees at their present levels, providing player fines are reduced. However the joint Avenue United / Lifford amendment was defeated with a majority of clubs voting 23 to 11 in favour of Shannon Olympic’s motion to reduce the registration fee to € 30.

CLUBS in Clare have rejected calls for the establishment of a reserve team league.

At last week’s Clare District Soccer League AGM, Lifford AFC put forward two motions calling for club B teams to play in separate league and cup competitions.

In a detailed presentation, Lifford delegate John O’Neill argued the case in favour of a reserve league.

He said the present system is a source of friction within clubs as teams are often competing for players and trophies. “Rivalry displaces unity of purpose”, he added. He said that B teams should be used to develop young players

O’Neill said that no other sport allows B teams, adding that the formation of a reserve league “would be healthy for clubs” and “would definitely increase participation”. He added that by tabling the motion, Lifford were not setting out to “demonise anyone involved in B teams”.

However delegates from a number of the 50 clubs represented at the meeting expressed strong opposition to the proposal.

New CDSL Chairman, Donie Garrihy said it was his opinion that “grievances” between A teams and B teams “are in-house issues for individual clubs”.

A representative of Bridge United, whose B team contested the Clare Cup finals in 2010 and 2011, said the issue of B teams should be dealt with “in-house” by club committees. “I think it would be a big disappointment to put in a reserve league. Players will drift to other clubs. That’s happening already”, he warned.

Mark Moloney of Hermitage AFC echoed these sentiments. He told the meeting that in Hermitage, the A team manager gets priority on players. “The club comes first”, he added. Lifford’s motion was seconded by Kilmaley Fern Celtic. The motion was subsequently defeated by 47 votes to 3.

IT started in GAA 125 year. It was a year of celebration in the county where you could say it all started, just because Carron’s own Michael Cusack who got the whole GAA show on the road back in ‘84.

Domhnall Ó Loinsigh was a key member of the Clare GAA 125 committee, while Naoise Jordan, who is a carpenter by trade came up with his own unique 125 commemoration when carving momento to those who had captained the county senior hurling team since the earliest years of the GAA.

Therein lay the background to Cla re Hurling Ca pta ins – the book penned by Ollie Byrnes, with the considerable help of Ó Loinsigh and Jordan and which will be launched this Friday night in Minogue’s in Tulla.

“Naoise asked Domhnall O’Loingsigh and I to help in researching the names of the captain’s of Clare senior championship teams, going back to 1887,” recalls Byrnes.

“Previous to the idea for the book, Naoise had inscribed a wooden plaque with the names of the 76 men. At the launch of the plaque, unveiled by John Hanly, President of the county board, John stated that it was a shame that so little was known about many of these men from the turn of the 20th century.

“It was decided by us to focus on the captain’s in the senior championship. I want to stress that we are not making a distinction between the championship and other competitions, but we must call a halt somewhere,” he adds.

The result is Cla re Hurling Ca pta ins , a project that Byrnes freely admits had never really crossed his mind until John Hanly, Naoise Jordan and Domhnall Ó Lionsaigh helped sow the seed.

“In 2006, I produced the book Saffron a nd Blue , never thinking that a book on Clare Hurling captain’s would be published. There was a lot of useful material in this book and I was aware of repetition creeping in. But thankfully this hasn’t happened,” he says.

“I wanted something new on these players. For that reason, I went back to scrapbooks that were given to me as a youngster. One of these scrapbooks is 60 years old and is a treasure trove of cuttings from 1950-1955.

“This scrapbook contains material on all the strong hurling counties. It also has a series of articles under the heading ‘Name Waterford’s Greatest Hurler’, ‘Name Clare’s Greatest Hurler’, etc., where Seamus O’Ceallaigh and other journalists invited the public to submit who they thought were their counties greatest player and to explain why they thought so.

“An article on Clare’s greatest appeared in The Sunda yIndependent on April 4th 1954. Some hurling followers suggested John Joe Doyle. Others went for Jimmy Smyth. O’Ceallaigh wrote ‘There was evidence from the first opinion expressed which suggested Jimmy Smyth as deserving of the title of Clare’s Greatest’, and gave as the reason a personal conviction that Smyth aroused the same terror in the minds of opposing defenders as did such great figures as Martin Kennedy (Tipperary), Mattie Power (Kilkenny) and Dinny Barry Murphy (Cork) in earlier days.

“Other older correspondents went on to recall the greatness of Tull and Dodger Considine, ‘Feather’ Henchy, John Shalloo, Dunny O’Callaghan, Seamus Cullinan and ‘Scooper’ Moloney who formed the back bone of Clare’s early hurling endeavours,” Byrnes adds.

The result is essays on all of Clare’s captains since 1887, brought together between the covers on a book, that Fr Harry Bohan is set to launch on Friday.

“Many of the names in Clare Captain’s will be familiar to followers. Others will not be so familiar,” says Byrnes. “There are people like Freddy Garrihy, who emigrated to the United States in 1927, a man who is largely forgotten. Likewise, Pat Hannon from Scariff. He too emigrated to the United States. Newspaper accounts from 1914-1920 credit Pat Hannon as being an outstanding inter-county forward.”

All the players, well known or forgotten about have their place in the pantheon.

WHEN you think about it, it’s been a tough few years for Ennistymon when it comes to senior football. Very tough at times, when losing just always seemed to be their lot when there was some senior silverware at stake.

The 2007 Senior B final and they go down to St Joseph’s Miltown; the 2009 Senior B final and it was Kilmhil’s turn to hold them scoreless in the first half on their way to victory; the hat-trick of defeats came when Wolfe Tones mastered them last year in another Senior B decider.

Sometimes though, enough is enough.

Maybe this will be the day that Ennistymon look back on and say was pivotal in their development as a force in senior. Of course, only time will tell if it’s a real building block for the future, but what it has done already is lend more credence to the belief that the north Clare Magpies are one of the coming teams in Clare football.

They’ve won minor and under 21 titles in recent years – now this Garry Cup as they look to Cusack Cup football for 2012, not that manager Brendan Rouine was getting carried away afterwards.

“To go up to Division 1, having won Division 2 is important for us. For us in Division 2 it has been all about getting promoted. It has taken us the last four or five years to do that. It is nice to go up as winners.

“We are coming from a big struggle. We struggle to get out of our group in the championship every year and we still have two games to play to try and get out of our group. We’re taking one game at a time and are not going to get carried away with this win.

“We are very happy with the win. Éire Óg got off to a good start and had plenty of ball, but we were happy with our overall performance and it was good to get the win.

“We knew that Éire Óg would come back at us in the second half. It was ding-dong at times and we knew that the game could have gone either way. We just edged it on the day, but on another day it could have been a different result. We know that.”

Ennistymon 0-12 – Éire Óg 0-9 at Cooraclare

ENNISTYMON are going places; Éire Óg simply are not.

That’s a summary of this Garry Cup final in one sentence as the north Clare Magpies moved forward to Cusack Cup fare in 2012 as impressive winners of this second tier competition.

And, in reality they won this game as they pleased, from the front in the second half as Éire Óg’s tepid performance eventually petered out before the end as their attack failed to make any real impact against a resolute Ennistymon defence.

Contrast this to Ennistymon’s forwards because when it mattered most experienced heads like Joe Dowling and Brian Conway slotted key points from play, while the midfield dominance they enjoyed thanks to David Murphy and Ronan Linnane gave them the platform to win a first ever Garry Cup.

It may have taken Ennistymon 15 minutes to register a score, but that slow start wasn’t bettered that much by an Éire Óg side that failed to translate possession into scores, with a free from Stephen Hickey after three minutes their only return.

Into this vacuum eventually came Ennistymon, with a breakaway point from Joey Rouine mid-way through the half finally getting them going.

That Éire Óg’s best moment of the game came in the 17th minute when Ciaran Russell started and finished a move when he stormed up the field with real intent said much about the overal Townie performance.

They were dire, especially in what was a turgid first half that saw Ennistymon grind out a 0-5 to 0-3 interval lead on the back of the free-taking of Joe Dowling and Brian Conway, who bagged two points each.

A brilliant long range free from David Ryan two minutes before the break did rally the Townies somewhat while another free Stephen Hickey a minute after the resumption had the gap down to the minimum.

Alas, this dawn was a very false one as Ennistymon soon got into the groove once more and effectively closed out the game in the first 12 minutes when a brilliant effort from David Murphy was followed by points by Brian Conway (2), Joe Dowling and Sean McConigely moved them 0-10 to 0-6.

Éire Óg needed a goal, but it never looked like happening as their forwards ran out of ideas long before the end. Another David Ryan point, this time from play in the 43rd minute, again raised their spirits, but by the time Brian Conway resorted their four-point advantage entering the last ten minutes the Garry Cup was firmly destined for a trip up the N67 and not in the Ennis Road.

The Townies did try to take the fight until the last, with substitute David Russell pegging it back to a threepoint game deep in injury time, but had a goal arrived to get them out of the jail, it would have been an injustice – to their own performance and to Ennistymon’s superiority over the 60-something minutes as they finally laid claim to some senior silverware.

It was something that was long overdue.

LAHINCH’S Niall Morrison is the last Clareman left standing in the 110th South of Ireland Amateur Golf Championship taking place in Lahinch this week. The local favourite qualified for the last 16 of the prestigious competition after beating Louth’s Daniel Coyle on the 17th hole on Monday evening.

Morrison advanced to Monday’s second round along with three other Clare men, fellow clubmates Thomas Neenan and Stephen Loftus and Ennis’ Noel Pyne, who despite eventual defeat to Stackstown’s Richard Bridges, carved out his own unique bit of history by playing in his 49th consecutive South of Ireland championship. ROUND1 M.Ryan (Grange) beat M.Mc Alpin (Portrush) 3/2. N. Grant (Knock) beat S. Cannon (Loughrea) 1 Hole. S.Loftus ( Lahinch) beat M.Grimes (Skerries)3/2. I.Murphy (Waterford) beat J.Fox (Portmarnock) 2/1. N. Morrison (Lahinch) beat D. Murphy (Portarlington) 3/1. D. Coyle (Co. Louth) beat T. McDonagh(U.S.A) 1hole. C.Geraghty (L & B ) beat B.Ronan (Co.Louth) 2 holes. M.O’Kelly (Limerick) S.Barry (L & B) 1 hole C.Moulds (Lisburn) beat G.Lenehan(Portmarnock) 4/2. J.Lyons ( Birr) beat C.Molloy (Ardee) 1 hole. J.Hume (Rathsallagh) beat M.Buggy (Castlecomer) 5/4. G.Carew(Edenderry) beat J. Kavanagh ( Castletroy) 2 holes. C.O’Rourke ( Nass/NUIM) beat D.Downie ( Sutton) 2/1. G.Bohill ( Co.Louth) beat E. Smith (Ardee) 2/1. K.McDonagh(Athlone/NUIM) beat D. McInerney 5/3. R. Cannon ( Balbriggan) beat C. McKenna ( Mallow) 3/2. P.Delaney (Arklow) beat L.Hartnett (Milltown) 1 hole. D.Ruddy (Co.Tipperary) beat D.O’Sullivan (Strandhill) 3/2. G.Collins (Rosslare) beat D. Hallissey(Muskerry) 6/5. C.Selfridge(Moyola Park) beat D.O’Donovan(Muskerry) 2/1. J.Pierse (Grange) beat P.Small (Bangor) 1 hole. I.O’Rourke (Cork) beat G.Mungovan (Headfort) 3/2. L.Hutchinson (The Royal Dublin) beat B.Walton(Island) 2/1 R.Bridges (Stackstown) beat P.Murray (Limerick) 1hole. N.Pyne (Ennis) beat D.King (Tramore) 6/4. D.Ryan (Grange) beat E.McCormack (Galway) 4/3. S.Bryan (Delgany) beat N.Goulding (Portmarnock) 4/2. J.Hopkins (Skerries) beat J.Waldron (Muskerry) 3/2. S.Walsh (Baltinglass) beat A. Kelly (Charleville) 5/4. R. Burke (Castle) beat R.O’Sullivan (Cobh) 5/4. T.Neenan (Lahinch) beat S.Moloney(Castletroy) 4/3. ROUND 2 N.Grant (Knock) beat M.Ryan (Grange) 2/1. I.Murphy (Waterford) beat S.Loftus (Lahinch) 4/3. N.Morrisson (Lahinch) beat D.Coyle (Co.Louth) 2/1. A.Hogan ( Newlands) beat C.Geraghty (L & B) 19th. C.Moulds (Lisburn) beat M.O’Kelly (Limerick) 19th. J.Hume (Rathsallagh) beat J.Lyons (Birr) 6/5. C. O’Rourke ( Naas) beat G.Carew( Edenderry) 2/1. K.McDonagh (Athlone/NUIM) beat G. Bohill (Co. Louth) 2/1. R.Cannon (L & B) beat P.Delaney ( Arklow) 4/2. D.Ruddy ( Co.Tipperary) beat G.Collins ( Rosslare) 3/2. C.Selfridge (Moyola Park) beat J.Pierse (Grange) 6/5. L.Hutchinson (The Royal Dublin) beat I.O’Rourke (Cork) 3/1. R.Bridges (Stackstown) beat N.Pyne (Ennis) 5/4. D.Ryan (Grange) beat S.Bryan (Delgany) 2/1. S.Walsh (Baltinglass/UCD) beat J.Hopkins (Skerries) 5/4. R.Burke (Castle) beat T.Neenan (Lahinch) 4/2.

CLARE’S history making minor team should be given a two-week lead in to prepare for key championship games so as to maximise the potential the team has to bring further honours to the county.

That was the message delivered to last Thursday’s Clare County Board meeting that was specially convened to try and bring some resolution to the fixtures crisis that the county now finds itself in due to an overlap and clash of club and inter-county championship matches.

County minor team Joint-manager, Donal Moloney, told delegates that a two-week preparation period was vital to the teams’ chances,

“If we are out on the 14th, “ said Moloney, “it will be a case that 16 of the first 20 would be playing the week before. The majority of our players will be playing senior the week before, because they are very important to their clubs.

“If you go back to last year’s AllIreland semi-final against Dublin, we nearly got caught, because we couldn’t get the preparation right. If you look at it all our best performances over the past three years have come when we have had a two week lead in.

“If we are out on the 14 and the senior championship is on on the 6/7 of August, we won’t have our players for that week. We would not be able to plan properly because the week leading up to the match is essentially a rest week.

“It’s a major drawback to us getting to an All-Ireland final. Players are very ambitious and we are requesting that they get a fair crack of the whip,” added Moloney.

However, PJ Fitzpatrick, who preceded Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor in the minor management hotseat rejected the notion of a twoweek run-in, telling delegates that it wasn’t realistic.

“To have these kinds of problems are great problems to have,” said Fitzpatrick. “We are always crying out when we don’t have inter-county success and it absolutely fantastic that the county minors did so well and are going so well.

“I congratulate them whole-heartedly and I congratulate the intermediates. Having said all that we are all sharing the same bed and club hurling has to survive and club football has to survive.

“If it means, when you know what’s coming down the line after Tuesday, having to play some matches the over the weekend of the 7th of August that aren’t affected by the minor – if they’re to be played Monday or Tuesday night, play them.

“There can be no such thing as a team getting a clear run of a fortnight up to a match. That’s not reality. If all the matches were put back it’s going to mean in September that you’d have young lads playing minor for the clubs and Friday and senior on Saturday and schools starting in September. Putting off all matches doesn’t sort things either.

“We will have to play our club matches. That’s my view as a hurling person. We cannot neglect the bedrock of it which is the clubs. It’s not going to be an ideal world for anyone and the pie has to be shared,” he added.

CLARE’S Chris Bryan had a fantastic eighth place finish in the 5k open water event at the World Championships in Shanghai on Friday, clocking in at 56 minutes and 28 seconds – just 11 seconds behind winner Thomas Lurz of Germany. There were 51 starters in total. The result represented Ireland’s first top 8 finish at a World Championships since 2004.

“I approached it differently from the 10k and took it out a lot faster. I managed to stay within the top 15 swimmers for most of the race then towards the end myself and the French swimmer broke away and took a slightly different route than the pack. When I re-joined the pack I was in about eighth position and just stayed calm and pushed hard with 15 minutes to go,” commented Bryan after the race.

“The last 400 metres of the race was rough – everyone was on top of each other, there was a lot of fighting and kicking. I got an elbow in the head but stayed calm and relaxed and really gave it my all to the finish.”

Unlike the 10k race which Chris competed in on Wednesday, the 5k is not an Olympic event. Despite this, today’s race will give Chris a tremendous amount of confidence to continue to perform well on the International stage as he travels to Holland next week to compete in the final leg of the European Open Water Cup.

“This race is going to give me a lot of confidence going forwards and I’m excited to see what I can do in conditions that suit me well, unlike the water today. The 31 degree water temperature here was probably the hottest I’ve ever raced in and it didn’t suit an Irishman!”

Chris finished 27th overall in the 5k event at last year’s European long course Championships (Budapest) and since then has been showing great form on the European circuit, at one stage leading the rankings after the Antalya, Turkey leg.

“A top 8 finish is fantastic. One of Swim Ireland’s targets for this meet is to get two top 8 finishes so this knocks out one of those goals. Last year Chris finished 27th in the 5k event at the European Championships so he has improved a lot in one year. We were hoping for a top 20 finish in the 5k at this meet and it was a very strong field – so top 8 is brilliant,” said Chris’s coach at Swim Ireland’s Limerick High Performance Centre, Ronald Claes.

National Performance Director Peter Banks said “Chris’s top 8 finish is a great start for the team and gives Chris a lot of confidence going forwards when he has another opportunity to qualify for the Olympics in Portugal next year at the Olympic qualifier.”

A WAR of words over the chaos that threatened club championship fixtures over the next month broke out at last Thursday’s county board meeting convened specially to try to deal with what full-time secretary Pat Fitzgerald a “doomsday” situation.

The robust exchanges were between Doonbeg delegate Michael Neenan and county board chairman Michael O’Neill as they clashed over the Masters Fixtures Plan and its failure to make any provision for club championship games to take place in July

“The night we ratified this Masters Fitxtures plan, I suggested that night that when the county teams would be out of the championships, we would play a round of the championship,” said Neenan in leading his charge against the county board.

“You Mr Chairman ruled it out that week. You ruled it out quite strongly from the top table. You said the Masters Fitxtures plan was there and that it wouldn’t be changed. What has changed since?

“Who called this meeting? Did any delegate ring you up to call this meeting? Was it managers from county teams that called it? Was it you from the top table who called the meeting?,” added Mr Neenan.

“I called the meeting as chairman of the Clare County Board,” responded O’Neill, while board secretary Pat Fitzgerald said “there was no point calling you all in when Doomsday is here. It’s now”.

However, Neenan then resumed his stinging criticism of the fixtures blueprint. “There is a Master Fitxtures Plan here Mr Chairman and you shot me down quite strongly when I suggested when all teams would be out of Munster and Qualifiers that we would come back and look at it,” he said.

“We are looking at something blind here tonight. We could have played games that would have helped out managers going forward, if we had played our club championships over the past three weeks.

“I am looking at three weekends in July when games could have been played. How come you couldn’t see this happening. You left three weekends in July when nothing happened.

“You called us in here a big late. You are right on top of the semi-finals of the minor and intermediate now. There were three weekends when we could have been playing hurling and football championship. I pointed that out to you quite clearly,” he said.

“Things happen,” responded the board chairman. “We are where we are. We are in two All-Ireland semifinals and one Munster semi-final.

“I’m not God, I’m only chairman of the Clare County Board. I can’t pre-empt what’s going to happen,” O’Neill added.

THE sweat and toil of pre-season beckons for Ennis Rugby Club as they prepare for a new season.

The club’s adult teams return for training next week as they look to build on the progress made last season.

Ennis finished in mid-table of division two of the Munster junior league and will be hoping to kick on after some encouraging displays.

Former Garryowen head coach, Dara O’Sullivan will begin his second season at the helm. This year the club will field two adult teams so all new players are welcome. Anyone interested in joining the club can contact Brian Farrell (captain) 087 9610968 or Richard Murphy (chairman of rugby) 085 1166298.

The club would also like to thank all people who came out to support for a recent golf classic at Ennis Golf Club. Pre-season training begins at Ennis Rugby Club on Tuesday August 2 at 7pm.