Category: Sport

ANGLERS FROM all over the county descended on Fanore last week for the 50th anniversary of the Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club. The event, which was hosted by O’Donohue’s Pub brought together some of the clubs newest and oldest members and also included a collection of awards won by Clare anglers over the last five decades.

The event also included a photographic history of the club and also served as an open day to attract new members to sea angling.

Speaking at the event club secretary, James Linnane, remembers some of the highlights for the club over the years – especially the success of some of the juvenile members.

“Four years ago Paul Norton from Ruan represented the Club in the Munster Juvenile championship, although not winning any medals on that occasion he was really keen to compete again the following year, this time he had real success not only did he qualify for Munster to compete in the Interprovincials but he made the Irish team to compete in Wales and the team came in second on that occasion – major achievement for Paul and the Club,” he said.

“Watching from the sidelines were young Stephen Birney, Cian Egan O’Brien, Sean Geraghty, Brandon Power and Joseph Birney, all who have competed in the Munster Juvenile Championships over the last three years.

“Last February Joseph Birney succeeded in making the Irish Team and will compete for Ireland in the home Internationals next month. Congratulations to him and we wish him well. These Juveniles are the future of our Club and are real role models for any juveniles out there who would like to get involved.”

James also pointed to the quality of the local angling – saying that it is amongst the best in the world.

“Here in north Clare we have some of the best sea angling coastline of anywhere in Europe – it is absolutely essential that we protect and safeguard this,” he said.

“Under no circumstances should we allow pollution, indiscriminate dumping of waste or over commercialised or illegal fishing to take this away from us. We can all see for ourselves the benefits that the promoting of Sea Angling has done for this area. We have a duty to the founder members of this Club and those not members of any club but simply walked the shore for their own pleasure that we leave area in as good or better condition than was handed to us.”

Meanwhile, Inagh and District Angling Club are holding a fishing competition this Sunday at Clonmacken Lake, Inagh. The competition starts at 2pm and will run until 6. Prizes will be awarded for Senior and Juvenile categories. Music and refreshments will be available at Dillon’s Bar and Restaurant after the competition where the Senior prizes will be presented. All are welcome.

THEY SAY defeat is only bitter if you swallow it and by the defiant tones of Fergal Lynch after Sunday’s defeat to Tipperary, the Clooney/ Quin man was not about to accept any moral victories regarding their impressive performance in the face of defeat.

“We are talking about good performances in Clare for the last 25 years since the 1977/78 teams. To be honest, it’s not good enough and we haven’t turned the corner. We need to turn the corner in the next couple of years because lads are going to go. Lads are going to leave the country the ways things are happening in the economy. We need to come up with a victory and we need to take one of the big teams. We are well capable of doing it but sometimes we were a bit naïve today in all areas of the pitch.

“We leaked goals and we should have got goals ourselves. We should have came out fighting fairly strongly in the second half and they seemed to tighten at the back and open the space at the front and they brought the game to us whereas we should have brought it to them.

“It’s a lack of a bit of cuteness and if we can develop that, we can turn the corner and there is no reason why we can’t beat any of the big teams.

Neither was Lynch willing to accept that playing in Division 2 was the main reason that Clare failed to maintain their impressive start throughout the 70 minutes.

“It probably did play some part in the end result alright but at the end of the day, we’re all intelligent people and we know exactly how to prepare for a championship match. All the lads inside know exactly what’s needed to win a championship match. The Under 21’s won an All-Ireland so they know what it takes. It’s back to the drawing board for us and we have this match under our belts and we are looking forward to the next game already. We are going to come out fighting out of this.”

That bout is against neighbours Galway whom Lynch has never faced in championship fare but is eager to redress that in a fortnight’s time in Pearse Stadium.

“We are looking forward to the qualifiers. There is no reason why we can’t perform in the qualifiers and there is no reason why we can’t take the likes of Galway.

“It’s just up to ourselves now how we react to this beating. How we react in training next week. How lads are going injurywise so the most important thing now is to get morale up and Ger [O’Loughlin] should be good at that. He’s good at getting lads going so he’d be very focused on trying to get us back on track because we are going to take a scalp this year and it’s going to be a big one and God help, who it’s going to be.”

It has to be Galway or Clare will have to settle for moral victories for at least another 12 months.

KILRUSH Town Council is to spearhead the development of top-class sports facilities in the heart of the west Clare capital after months of negotiations at securing a key site in the town were brought to a successful conclusion in the past week.

Kilrush Town Manager, Nora Kaye, has revealed that facilities encompassing a flood-lit astro-turf pitch and a number of full size playing pitches are earmarked for the site on the Cooraclare Road.

And, FAI chief executive John Delaney is set to launch the project plan for the new sports facilities when he visits Kilrush on July 12 next when Clare plays host to the FAI annual general meeting first the first time.

The development will be driven by the Town Council in partnership with Clare County Council and sporting organisations in Kilrush and has been made possible after agreement on a lease has been secured with the owners.

“For over 12 months we have been in negotiations with the ESB and Department of Education,” revealed Ms Kaye, “and we have reached agreement on the lease of lands and now hope to have plans drawn up for an astro-turf pitch and a number of other pitches. It is a very positive move”.

“We had a lot of red-tape to get through and we have been working on this for a long time,” said Town Clerk John Corry, “as we needed to convince both owners of the land.

“Now with agreement reached we are in a position to draw up plans. There is no cost to drawing up plans and then when funding becomes available we have plans in place to avail of funding and go ahead with the project,” he added.

“Unless there is grant aid, it won’t be happening,” warned Mayor of Kilrush Liam Williams, “but by having plans in places we’re told that we’ll be in a position to avail of funding”.

“We have met with sporting bodies in Kilrush,” revealed John Corry “and spoke to them about what their priorities would be.

“Now we will draw up a draft plan and go through planning and hopefully that will take place soon. We will drive the project but when it’s completed it will be managed by a working group”.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime for sport in Kilrush,” said Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF).

Cork 3-16 – Clare 0-10 at Clooney

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Crusheen 4-23 – Broadford 2-08 at Crusheen

THE RACE for the top two qualification spots heated up further on Tuesday as Crusheen reclaimed pole position after a four day absence. And there was never any doubt about the county champions extending their unbeaten run after strolling to a facile victory against a Broadford side that failed to muster even the most token of challenges to the home side’s impressive scoring tally of all but six points from play.

The visitors were missing five of their starting line up but Crusheen for their part finished the game with half their second string either starting or entering the fray.

Missing their county contingent and aided by a stiff breeze, Crusheen gave a debut to David McMahon in goal and he had little to trouble him over the game.

Crusheen raced into an early commanding 1-6 to 0-0 lead before Padraig Hickey scored Broadford’s opening score. Conor O’Donnell had the first Crusheen goal with a long range effort that found the net.

Paddy Meaney (2), Fergus Kennedy, Shaun Dillon and Gearoid O’Doherty (2) were the point scorers. Craig Chaplin (2 frees) responded for Broadford before Crusheen went on a scoring spree in the second quarter adding (3-11) in 15 minutes.

Patrick Meaney was scorer in chief with (3-1) as Gearoid O’Doherty (3) Fergus Kennedy (3), Niall Fitzgib- bon (2), Alan Brigdale and Ciaran O’Doherty added points.

There was little Broadford could manage in the second half especially as the Crusheen defence was totally dominant with Alan Brigdale and Ciaran O’Doherty in sparkling form and Gerry O’Grady and Fergus Kennedy controlling midfield. Crusheen scored the first four points of the second half as Patrick Meaney finished the game with a personal tally of (3-6).

Padraig Hickey scored a great goal and added a brace of frees. Alan Kilcoyne (1-1) and Aonghus O Brien (2) in the final five minutes added consolation scores but there was no denying Crusheen their fifth Clare cup win out of six outings.

Best for the winners was the full back line of the Brigdale brothers and Cronan Dillon with Ciaran O’Doherty in fine form at centre back.

Midfield was dominated by Crusheen whilst up front Patrick Meaney produced a man of the match display aided well by Gearoid O’Donnell, Darragh O’Doherty and Gearoid O’Doherty in the first half.

Broadford are facing a relegation battle from division 1 despite the best efforts of Craig Chaplin, Dara Corcoran, Padraig Hickey, Mark Moloney and Peter O’Brien.

Crusheen

David McMahon, John Brigdale, Cronan Dillon,Alan Brigdale (0-1), Jason Greene, Ciaran O’Doherty (0-2), Brendan McMahon, Fergus Kennedy (0-4), Gerry O’Grady, Gearoid O’Donnell (0-1), Shaun Dillon (0-1), Niall Fitzgibbon (0-2), Conor O’Donnell (1-0), Patrick Meaney (3-6), Gearoid O’Doherty (0-6, 5f, 1 s/l)

Subs
Darragh O’Doherty for CO’Donnell, Patrick O’Grady for Meaney,AlanTouhy for S. Dillon

Broadford
Cian O’Brien, John Corcoran,Aidan O’Brien, Mark Moloney, Peter O’Brien, Craig Chaplin (0-2), Niall Moloney,Alan Kilcoyne (1-1), Dara Corcoran, DeclanTeefy,Aonghus O’Brien (0-2), PaurigTaylor, Padraig Hickey (1-3),Alan McMahon, Donal Whelan

Sub
Willie Hayes for Taylor

Man of the Match
Paddy Meaney (Crusheen) Referee Fergus McDonagh (St Josephs D/B)

Crusheen 3-14 – Clarecastle 2-15 at Clarecastle

CRUSHEEN strengthened their position at the top of the Division 1 table after a late injury-time brace that halted the home side’s dramatic fightback. Four points clear with two minutes of normal time remaining, having led since the 12th minute, Crusheen appeared to be cruising towards their fifth unbeaten game but had to endure a nervy finish after Clarecastle hit 1-1 to level the game up on the hour mark.

Crusheen replied immediately with a Darragh O’Doherty point while Clarecastle did have a glorious opportunity to share the spoils but didn’t avail of it and Crusheen punished them at the other end, again through O’Doherty to cement the points.

Considering the absence of so many first team regulars on both sides, this was a surprisingly entertaining and open game that either side could of won but Crusheen did thanks largely to three opportunistic strikes from Paddy O’Grady who scored his second successive hat-trick of goals against the Magpies this year.

Those strikes were the difference for the majority as they were aptly timed to keep the Magpies at bay. The first came after Clarecastle’s bright start that saw Patrick Kelly point after only 11 seconds and Kieran O’Dwyer add to that tally. There was also a goal chance for Niall Dunne at the back post but his shot was straight at goalkeeper David McMahon.

That save was given greater significance when Paddy O’Grady stole in for the opening goal of the game a minute later and despite three Adam Healy points in riposte, the momentum was now with Crusheen who held that goal advantage until the break at 1-5 to 0-5.

The second goal halted another Magpie fightback on the restart when points from Aaron Considine and Healy had dented Crusheen’s lead. It came after a Shaun Dillon delivery that broke to O’Grady to pull to the net in the 36th minute and open up a five point gap.

Once more, Clarecastle came back at the county champions, this time hitting four points without reply, three from the stick of Tyrone Kearse by the turn of the final quarter to cut the deficit to two.

However, O’Grady’s third major in the 48th minute appeared to have put paid to any hopes of a revival until that late Magpie burst which should have earned a much needed point for the home side but instead Crusheen ground out another trademark victory.

Crusheen
David McMahon, John Brigdale, Cronan Dillon, Alan Brigdale, Jason Greene, Shaun Dillon, Brendan McMahon,Tony Meaney, Gerry O’Grady (0-4 3f, 1’65), Gearoid O’Donnell (0-1), Niall Fitzgibbon (02), David Forde,AlanTuohy (0-1f), Paddy O’Grady (3-0), Darragh O’Doherty (0-5)

Subs
Fergus Kennedy (0-1) for Meaney (23 mins, inj), Padraic O’Malley for Forde (25 mins, inj)

Clarecastle
Donnagh Murphy, Seanie Moloney, Garry Farmer, Kevin Clohessy, Fearghus Ryan, Patrick Kelly (0-1), Eric Flynn,Tyrone Kearse (0-4 1f, 1’65),Andrew Page, Jamie O’Connor, Kieran O’Dwyer (0-2), AdamHealy (0-5 1f), Niall Dunne,Alan O’Loughlin, Aaron Considine (1-2 1f)

Subs
SeanTalty (1-0) for Dunne (HT), David Green (0-1) for O’Loughlin (48 mins)

Man of the Match
Paddy O’Grady (Crusheen) Referee Seanie McMahon (Newmarket-on-Fergus)

Kilmaley 1-25 – Sixmilebridge 0-12 at Kilmaley

KILMALEY maintained their unbeaten start to the Clare Cup and moved a step closer to bouncing back to Division 2A after an expected victory over Sixmilebridge’s second string on Thursday evening. The senior side led by 1-14 to 0-6 at the interval with the goal coming from Brian McMahon and they contin- ued that freeflowing scoring after the break with McMahon and Daire Keane contributed a good chunk in the scoring stakes.

Kilmaley
Kieran Dillon; Colin McGuane,Anthony Cahill, Sean Talty; Noel Casey, Conor McMahon, Eoin O’Malley; Kenneth Kennedy, John Clohessy; Daire Keane,

Brian McMahon, John Cabey; Niall McGuane, Seamus Hurley, PadraigTalty

Subs
Shane Culligan, Mikey O’Neill.

Sixmilebridge
Sean Chaplin; Jayme Keogh, Eoin Quinn, David O’Meara; Jonathan Downes, SamO’Sullivan (0-4f), Cathal Walsh; Christy Griffin (0-1), Donald Devanney;Thomas Liddy (0-5f), Stiofán Fitzpatrick, Michael O’Halloran (0-1);Adrian Chaplin, Ronan Hayes (0-1), Rory Liddane.

Sub
Wayne Kennedy for Keogh

Referee
Fergie McDonagh (St Joseph’;s D/B)

Clarecastle 0-15 – Wolfe Tones 0-13 at Shannon

TWO SIDES badly in need of a lift after disappointing starts to the season and in the end, it was the Magpies who got over the line but only just. Nine points up entering the final quarter, Clarecastle appeared to be cruising but their failure to hit the target for the remainder allied to a spirited wind assisted recovery from the home side ensured an extremely nervy finish before finally collecting the points.

Confidence was blatantly low on both sides and no wonder as Wolfe Tones had yet to register a competitive victory all season while the Magpies fared only mildly better with one victory in seven outings.

Player losses have devastated Tones’ senior set-up but after an inspirational opening victory in the senior football championship, it was hoped that it might rub off on the hurling side as well.

Clarecastle for their part were also severely understrength, being without eight of the 17 players used against Tulla last time out, along with long term casualties Conor Plunkett and Mark McNamara but while they were the more dominant side for long periods, they will be very disappointed to rack up 21 wides over the hour, most of which were struck from close range.

In between that plethora of missed chances, the majority of Clarecastle scores came in three separate purple patches. Firstly when recovering from a 0-2 to 0-1 defecit after four minutes to hit the next six points in a ten minute period through Tyrone Kearse (2), Eamon Callinan, Patrick Kelly, Alan O’Loughlin and Aaron Considine. They also had two glorious goal opportunities in the same period but Aaron Considine’s shot was straight at goalkeeper Paul Hogan while at the end of the first quarter, Alan O’Loughlin made a superb catch but was off balance when striking his shot just wide.

The second flurry came in the five minute period either side of half-time when hitting another five without reply to open up a 0-12 0-04 advantage by the 33rd minute. Despite now playing into the sizeable breeze, the visitors appeared comfortable and had the dominance of Seanie Moloney, Patrick Kelly, Tyrone Kearse and Aaron Considine to thank for their cushion at that stage. However, even though they grabbed three more points through Darragh Moloney, Kearse and Considine to push 0-15 to 0-06 clear by the 45th minute, they were to be severely tested in the final quarter.

The switch of Daithi O’Connell to midfield was a masterstroke as the former county senior struck Wolfe Tones first point in 20 minutes in the 40th minute and followed up with three more as they slowly grew in confidence with every chip at the deficit.

Clarecastle didn’t help themselves as they were not to score for the final 19 minutes of the contest despite a host of opportunities while the Tones hit seven points without reply by the 57th minute. However, having dispatched a pack of cats to play among a flock of pigeons, Wolfe Tones were unable to find the goal that would complete a memorable turnaround, with the best chance falling to Declan O’Rourke whose pull was cleared off the line by Eric Flynn late on.

The Magpies may not have been firing on all cylinders up front but some dogged defending, particularly from Seanie Moloney, the aforementioned Flynn and Kelly ensured the visitors would hold onto the points and ease their relegation worries. However, their championship clash in August could be equally anxious.

Clarecastle
Donnagh Murphy, Seanie Moloney, Garrett Barry, Kevin Clohessy, Fearghus Ryan (0-1), Patrick Kelly (0-1), Eric Flynn,Tyrone Kearse (0-3 1f), Eamon Callinan (0-2 1f), Darragh Moloney (0-2), Jamie O’Connor,AdamHealy (0-1), Niall Dunne,Alan O’Loughlin (0-1),Aaron Considine (0-4 1f)

Sub
AndrewPage for O’Connor (43 mins)

Wolfe Tones
Paul Hogan, Joe McGauley, Patsy Keyes, Eamon O’Neill, Shane Chambers, Bobby McPhillips (0-5 4f), Barry Loughnane, Brendan Hughes, Niall Murphy,Alan Hehir, Declan O’Rourke, Garret McPhillips (0-2 1f), Paul Walsh (0-1), Ronan Hehir, Daithi O’Connell (0-4)

Subs
Mark Regan (0-1) for Murphy (37 mins), Gary Leahy for A. Hehir (48 mins), Richie Lillis for Walsh (48 mins)

Man of the Match
Seanie Moloney (Clarecastle) Referee JimHickey (Cratloe)

Kilmurry Ibrickane 2-6 – St Joseph’s Miltown 0-7 at Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown

KILMURRY Ibrickane’s unbeaten run in this year’s Cusack Cup continued with this local derby victory on Sunday morning as goals by Noel Downes and Stephen Moloney steered them to a deserved five-point victory over a Miltown side, playing their second game inside 48 hours.

The main business of Miltown’s hectic weekend was championship on Friday – proof, not that anyone needed it, came when their matchwinner from their meeting with Doora-Barefield, Dessie Molohan was marked absent.

He was missed, as were the likes of Eoin Curtin and Darragh McMahon as a much-changed St Joseph’s succumbed to a Kilmurry side playing well within themselves to record their fifth successive league win.

Miltown started well with the wind and three Kevin Keavey points inside the first 13 minutes had them in control, but their early advantage was wiped out by a 1-1 Kilmurry blast by the 19th minute.

Stephen Moloney opened their account with a point in the 18th minute, while a minute later a great run from deep by Paul O’Connor carved open the Miltown defence before Noel Downes clinically finished to the net beyond Niall Quinn to put Kilmurry 1-1 to 0-3 clear.

It was the winning of the game really, even though closing Miltown points from Gary Egan and Micheál Malone in response to an Ian McInerney free in the 21st minute, left the side deadlocked at the interval.

It was because of the wind advantage that Kilmurry eventually drove home in the second half. They opened the scoring through a Noel Downes effort from play in the 35th minute, only for Miltown to hit back with points from Gary Egan and Kevin Keavey by the 45th minute.

However, Miltown failed to raise another flag and a brilliant Seamus Lynch point in the 47th minute levelled the sides, before Ian McInerney put the winners ahead with another free in the 50th minute.

Then they killed off the game in the 54th minute when Downes cut through the Miltown rearguard to tee up Stephen Moloney for his matchwinning goal.

Kilmurry Ibrickane
Peter O’Dwyer, JohnWillie Sexton, Darren Hickey, Declan Callinan, Martin McMahon, Evan Talty,Thomas Lernihan, Mark McCarthy, Paul O’Connor, Stephen Moloney (1-0), Michael Hogan, Ian McInerney (0-2f), Noel Downes (1-1), Enda Coughlan (0-1), Seamus Lynch (0-1).

Subs
Seamus Murrihy for Hogan.

St Joseph’s Miltown

Niall Quinn, David Cleary, Kevin Burke, Enda Malone, Gearóid Curtin, Gordon Kelly, Ian Sexton, Peter Cleary, John Meade, GrahamKelly, Micheál Malone (0-1), Gary Egan (0-2f),Thomas Flynn, Kevin Keavey (0-4, 3f), DavidTalty.

Subs
Gearóid Malone for GrahamKelly.

Man of the Match
Declan Callinan (Kilmurry Ibrickane) Referee TomStackpoole (Ennistymon)

Doonbeg 2-10 – Liscannor 0-07 at Liscannor

DOONBEG were already assured of the semi-final berth before making the journey up the N67 for this 2010 county final re-match against Liscannor, but there was still no letting up as they comfortably claimed their fifth win of the campaign.

Liscannor were without their midfield talisman Brian Considine because of a broken nose, while the Magpies fielded 12 of the side that started the championship opener the previous weekend against Lissycasey.

In truth they had the points wrapped up by half-time as they stormed into a 1-7 to 0-3 interval lead – David Tubridy showing the way with points, while Paul Dillon further staked his claim for a permanent starting spot with a goal that helped open up that seven-point gap.

Liscannor looked to the half-forward line for scores, with Niall Considine chipping in with two points over the hour, while Alan Clohessy hit five. However, any hope of retrieving the situation in the second half was killed off by a David Tubridy goal as the Magpies eased to a nine-point victory.

The defeat keeps Liscannor in relegation trouble ahead of their final game this weekend against Kilmurry Ibrickane. However, victory could still catapult them to safety and into a semifinal at the semi-final. That’s the thin line they’re walking on.

Doonbeg
Nigel Dillon, Joe Blake, Padraig Gallagher, Conor Whelan, Brian Dillon, Padraig Aherne, Richie Vaughan, ColmDillon, Enda Doyle, Conor Downes (0-2), Brian Egan, Frank O’Dea (0-1), JamieWhelan, DavidTubridy (1-4, 3f), Paul Dillon (1-2).

Subs
Jim Bob Griffin for Conor Whelan, EamonTubridy (01) for O’Dea, Philip Smith for JamieWhelan.

Liscannor
Noel Kilmartin, Shane Canavan, Davy McDonagh, Darragh Blake, Robbie Lucas, Ronan Slattery, Denis Murphy,Alan Flaherty, Michael Foley, Davy Commane, Niall Considine (0-2),Alan Clohessy (0-5, 3f), Paul Guerin, Kieran Considine,Alan McDonagh.

Subs
Johnny Considine for Commane, Declan Fawl for Kieran Considine, Gerry Considine for Lucas, Joe Considine for Flaherty.

Man of the Match
Paul Dillon (Doonbeg) Referee Michael Talty (Kilmurry Ibrickane)