*Clonlara’s Colm O’Meara. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill CLONLARA showed no shortage of spirit as they got their senior championship campaign off to a winning start when accounting for Clare Cup winners O’Callaghans Mills in a most entertaining contest on Saturday evening.
*Ronan Monahan weaves through the Smith O’Briens defence of Evan Connolly, Cian Nolan and Mark Stritch. Photograph: Ruth Griffin TWO MORE teams will be relegated from the senior ranks this season so the opportunity to jump from the intermediate grade to the top tier is all the greater for the fifteen teams in action.
*O’Callaghans Mills’ Conor Cooney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill To say that the recent Clare Cup triumph was a welcome jolt for O’Callaghan’s Mills would pehaps be one of the understatements of the entire year as expectations levels certainly didn’t reflect the reality.
*Sean Cotter, Cormac Murphy, Fionn Hickey and Sean O’Gorman. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill A FIRST Clare Cup crown since 1995 was the perfect end to O’Callaghan’s Mills weekend of celebration to mark the centenary of the official opening of Hamilton Park in Kilkishen.
*O’Callaghans Mills forward, Conor Henry. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill An already momentous weekend for O’Callaghan’s Mills was fittingly completed by a fairytale fin-ish when prevailing by the minimum to garner a first Clare Cup crown in 28 years on home soil on Sunday evening.
*Killian Nugent, Pat O’Brien, Joe Cooney, Robert Frost, Neil O’Brien, Patrick Hogan and Matt Donovan. HAMILTON PARK in Kilkishen marks its centenary this weekend, noted as a beating heart in the East Clare village it will come to life with a number of events taking place, the highpoint being the FutureTicketing Clare Cup final between …
*Bryan Donnellan rolled back the years for the Mills. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill A twenty year gap was bridged at Dr. Daly Park in Tulla on Sunday afternoon when O’Callaghans Mills defeated Scariff to qualify for the FutureTicketing Clare Cup (senior hurling league) final.
CLARE HAD MIXED fortunes during the past week in adult handball.
*Gaelscoil Mhichíl Ciosóg’s Division 1 camogie champions. There was excitement on the double as the Cumann na mBunscol Hurling and Camogie Finals drew to a thrilling conclusion in Cusack Park on Thursday afternoon.
*Jack O’Neill excelled for Clooney/Quin. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill MIDWEEK action in the FutureTicketing Clare Cup saw wins recorded by Broadford in Division 1A and Clooney/Quin in Division 1B.
