This article is from page 98 of the 2009-09-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 98 JPG
IF Electric Picnic was the entertain- ment highlight of the weekend, then this was it’s antithesis. Contrary to traditional derbies between this pair and the perilous consequences for the loser, this was far from electric and can only be considered a picnic in the manner that Scariff served up this victory on a plate for local rivals Tulla.
Perhaps that is a little unfair on the 2007 champions who were certainly up for this encounter and could only beat what is put in front of them, but even though they eventually eased to victory, they still had too many poor misses to call this an emphatic per- formance.
On the flip side, Scariff looked woe- fully disinterested and in what was arguably their worst showing in re- cent years, have hit a worrying sticky patch at the worst possible time. The same old failings that have hampered their championship hopes against In- agh/Kilnamona and Clonlara resur- faced, with a lack of firepower and an inability to break even in the midfield sector frustrating them once more.
They started brightly enough, grabbing the opening two points of the afternoon through Damien O’Grady and a Ross Horan free but that was as good as it would get for Mark McKenna’s side over the hour. Instead, three unanswered points from Andrew Quinn (2) and Danny O’Halloran edged Tulla in front for the first time and despite being pegged back through another Horan free soon afterwards, Tulla slipped through the gears to hit another five points without reply in eight minutes to establish a 0-8 to 0-3 advantage.
Scariff were only to score one more point for the remainder of the half, inevitably through Horan but by that stage, they were really up against it,
now trailing by 0-10 to 0-04 at the break.
On the restart, Scariff’s new mid- field pairing of Conor McNamara
and Michael Scanlan fared a little better and it allowed Ross Horan to pull a point back in the 36th minute. However, Tulla soon regained su-
premacy and along with a plethora of wides, they slowly killed off any hopes of a Scariff fightback with further points from Kieran Brennan, Andrew Quinn (2) and the lively Raymond Stewart by the turn of the nUOE Nae [UE Du nom
By now, the fight was all but quenched in Scariff and it allowed Tulla to ease up to their first victory of the campaign, with the 11 point final margin probably flattering to Scariff overall.
Tulla now march towards the Sen- ior B championship whereas Scariff face the slippery slope of a relegation dogfight. Totally contrasting outlooks that’s a bit like comparing Electric Picnic to the the annual Roscommon Lamb festival.