The Clare People Archive

Wolfe Tones 1-10 – St Senan’s Kilkee 0-09 at Lissycasey

WHERE there’s football there’s hope.

It must have been the mission statement around Rineanna at the start of the year when they took a stock take of the footballers they had left at their disposal.

Privately they may have been talking about safeguarding senior status as their goal for 2011, but now they’re publicly stoking the dream of a landmark first ever county final appearance.

And, why not. Their chance seemed lost when they surrendered a fourpoint lead to the old dogs of Kilkee in the final minutes of the drawn game, but that theory was well and truly cast to the Kilmihil wind on Sunday afternoon as the Tones finally brushed aside the off-colour Blues.

It’s true that the Tones again made life difficult for themselves when racking up 11 sides over the hour and failing to kill the game in the second half when they had enough chances to ease away from their one-dimensional opponents.

But, they still got there, with the final nail driven into the Seasiders’ championship challenge deep in in jury time with a Patsy Keyes point that finally put the Tones into the comfort zone.

Until then there was always the threat of another Harry Houdini act from Aidan O’Keeffe’s charges – by dint of spirit and never-saying-die they had clawed their way to the safety of a draw the first day out and tried valiantly to go down the same road this time out, but lightening didn’t strike once more.

Two David Russell points off his left foot and another from Darragh Kelly had reduced matters to a 1-9 to 0-9 game deep in injury time as the Blues clawed their way back into contention, but it just wasn’t to be.

That this was the case was down to the Tones’ first half display when they were in complete control and racked up an impressive 1-7 to 0-2 interval lead. Midfield dominance from Patsy Keyes and Joe McGauley gave them the platform, while the forwards made light of the absence of the injured Chris ‘Chippy’ Dunning in grabbing the game by the scruff when playing with the breeze.

Full-forward Darren Ryan opened their account with a first minute point, before a seventh minute goal from Daniel Gallery had them on the high road as the blazed away from a lethargic Kilkee side.

A fisted point from the influen- tial Stephen Monaghan in the ninth minute had them 1-2 to no score clear before Chris Williamson finally broke Kilkee’s duck with a 15th minute point.

However, it wasn’t until injury time that Kilkee raised another flag and in between those scores Wolfe Tones tacked on five points, while their cause was further boosted when Michael O’Shea retired injured in the 20th minute.

Monaghan landed a long range point in the 16th minute while Daniel Gallery and Gary Leahy added two each before the Blues finally raised some cheer for themselves with a Barry Harte pointed free just before the break.

Michael O’Shea did re-appear in the second half while a Barry Harte point two minutes after the re-start threatened to spark another trademark Blues revival, but truth told they just hung in until the death on the back of some alarming profligacy by a Wolfe Tones team that lacked the ruthlessness to kill the game long before the end.

Points from free by Stephen Monaghan’s in the 40th minute and Gary Leahy free in the 59th was all they could muster from ample possession, a poor return that gradually enabled the Blues to chip away at their deficit.

A point from Michael O’Shea in 44th minute and two by Barry Harte by the 54th minute really kickstarted the comeback, while points by David Russell (2) and Darragh Kelly in injury time ensured that the Tones were living on their nerves in the final minutes.

Enter Patsy Keyes to ensure that Wolfe Tones’ remarkable journey from the departures lounge of Shannon Airport towards Cusack Park in high October continued.

Wolfe Tones
Jason Casey (7), Stephen Carroll (6), Sean Brennan (6), Craig O’Brien (7), ColmMcCaul (6), Brendan Hughes (7) WilliamFlynn (7), Patsy Keyes (7) (0-1), Joe McGauley (7), Daniel Gallery (8) (1-3), Kevin Cahill (7), Kevin Corbett (6), Gary Leahy (7) (0-3f), Darren Ryan (6) (0-1), Stephen Monaghan (7) (03, 1f).

Subs
Aaron Cunningham(6) for Ryan [29 Mins], Stephen McInerney (7) for O’Brien [HalfTime], Chris Dunning (6) for Corbett [60 Mins].

Clonlara 0-20 – Kilmaley 0-05 at Clooney

AND SO it came to pass. The perfect year of a clean sweep of league and championship honours that encompassed a 15 match winning run was finally realised on Saturday. Even the dogs around Clonlara could have told you that the title was destined for the club, especially after romping to the Junior A league.

And while this wasn’t their most impressive of displays this year, particularly in the opening period when only holding a 0-7 to 0-3 advantage, having benefitted from the aid of a strong breeze, once they opened up on the turnover it was merely a matter of how much the winning margin would eventually be.

Kilmaley for their part, fought the good fight in the opening half but against such a clinical outfit, they simply needed to take every opportunity and missed frees ultimately proved costly, six in the first half alone.

That said, it’s unlikely it would have mattered to the overall result as Clonlara were devastating in the second half with Barry Moloney unerring through frees while captain Alan O’Connell tacked on three points to cap off another masterful display.

Junior A championship beware.

Clonlara
Patrick Stritch, Patrick Conlon, Fergal

Barron, Owen Hackett, Patrick Clancy, Brian Woods, Ronan Carey, Diarmuid O’Meara (0-1 s/l), Barry Moloney (0-9f), Harry Horgan, Jason Murphy (0-1), Michael Collins, Ryan Morris (0-2), Paul Barry (0-2),Alan O’Connell (0-4)

Subs
Kieran Murphy for Clancy,TomBegley (0-1) for Horgan, Kenneth Haskett for Collins, Eoin Meehan for Conlon, Padraig Hession for Morris

Kilmaley
Eoin Meehan, ColmLynch, James Murphy, Darragh McMahon, Jacko Neylon (0-1), Gerard O’Sullivan, Sean Hogan, Ciaran O’Loughlin, DavidTalty, John McMahon, Dick Pyne, Darragh Gregan (0-1), Eamon Bracken (0-1), Gerry Kennedy (0-2), Dermot Queally

Subs
James O’Rourke for Queally, Eibhear Slattery for Pyne, Shane O’Malley for O’Loughlin, Dermot Maher for J. McMahon, Flan Queally for Talty

Man of the Match
Barry Moloney (Clonlara) Referee Michael Fitzgerald (Ballyea)

Kilmihil 0-11 – Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-07 at Shanahan McNamara Memorial Park, Doonbeg

THE club’s senior team may be walking a tight rope when they go into a relegation decider against St Joseph’s Miltown in Quilty this weekend, but it could be Kilmihil’s year at minor level.

They’re in a county final against Ennistymon thanks to this dramatic win over favourites Kilmurry Ibrickane – the fourth time in the campaign to date that they’ve secured a one-point win, against Clondegad, Cooraclare, St Joseph’s and now Kilmurry Ibrickane.

And they did this the hard way, coming from 1-6 to 0-1 adrift early in the second half to storm to victory on the back of a brilliant scoring performance from dual star Martin O’Leary who hit eight points over the hour to put his club to within 60 minutes of a first Minor A title since 1995.

Kilmurry Ibrickane played with the wind in the first half after winning the toss, but were slow to get into their stride and only led by 0-2 to 0-1 after the opening 15 minutes.

However, a penalty that was converted by Darren Sexton was the tonic Kilmurry needed and it helped them into a 1-5 to 0-1 interval lead. Darren Sexton bagged 1-1 in the half for Kilmurry, while three Niall Hickey frees and an effort from play by Aaron Murrihy ensured they enjoyed a healthy seven-point interval lead.

Within a minute of resumption Kilmurry Ibrickane added a further point but from there on Kilmihil took control. Inspired by their Captain Stan Lineen, Kilmihil began to take control and with 10 minutes to go they had reduced the lead to a single point. Up front Martin O’Leary was causing all kinds of problems for the Kilmurry Ibrickane backs, he kicked the four points in a row to give Kilmihil a two-point lead entering the final minutes.

With less than a minute on the clock Kilmurry Ibrickane launched a final attack which resulted in a point leaving just a point between the sides at the death.

Kilmihil
MatthewKeane, Conor O’Flaherty (0-1),Alan Dalton, Stephen Coughlan, David Coughlan, Jack

Browne, Diarmuid Lorigan, Stan Lineen, Niall Pender (0-1), Conor Egan (0-1), David Blake, Conor Dennehy, Conor Finucane, Martin O’Leary (0-8, 2f) Geróid Johnson.

Sub
Ronan Flaherty for Johnson.

Kilmurry Ibrickane
Dara Pender, Ciaran O’Neill, Ciaran Morrissey, Shane Kavanagh (0-1), Danny Murphy, Padraig Lynch, Conor Killeen, Niall Hickey (0-4f), John McNamara, Gary Sexton,Adrian Murrihy, Diarmuid Downes,Aaron Murrihy (0-1), Darren Sexton (11), Keith Sexton.

Sub
Darren Callinan for Downes.

Man of the Match
Martin O’Leary (Kilmihil) Referee Michael McGann (Michael Cusacks)

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

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.

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.

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.

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