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AS a result of Kilmihil and West Clare Gaels match ending in a draw on Saturday they are joint top of their senior championship group and have to play off this Wendesday night at 6.45pm where extra-time will be played if necessary. The winners will play Fergus Rovers in one semi-final with the losers playing The Banner in the other semi-final. Both semi- finals are scheduled for next Sunday evening while the B semi finals are down for Saturday evening: Coora- clare v Crusheen and Coolmeen v St. Joseph’s, Miltown.

The Intermediate Final, Shannon Gaels v Liscannor is fixed for next Saturday at Miltown at 2p.m., Shan- non Gaels were beaten in last years final by Kilmihil and will be the fa- vourites. Colette Corry is a huge loss to them, she picked up a knee injury with Clare in the Munster Intermed1- ate final v Waterford. Sarah Bohan- non and Doonbeg’s Mairead Madi- gan have been in great goal scoring form all year. Michelle Madigan, Adrieane Nugent, Edel Madigan, Sharon Meaney, Imelda Kennedy, Mary Ruth Neylon, Carmel Bohan- non and Ger Corry are just some members of the panel who have had

a fine season to date. Liscannor have the Considine sisters Carmel and Marie and six years ago contested the senior final where they took Kildoon Gaels (an amalgamation of Kilmihil and Doonbeg) to a replay.

GARDAI in Ennis are continuing to search for a man who attempted to rob a post office in Quin at gunpoint on Saturday afternoon.

The daring would-be raider en- tered the premises in Quin village at around 12.30pm as guests were arriving for a wedding in the local church just 100 yards away.

The man is understood to have pro-

duced what is believed to have been a firearm. However, he left the post office empty-handed.

The man fled from the scene in a car. It is believed that a second per- son drove that vehicle. Nobody was injured in the incident and no cash was taken.

It is thought that the safe in the premises was time-locked.

The post office in Quin opens for a half-day on Saturdays and was due to

close at Ipm.

Dozens of wedding guests had been enjoying drinks outside a local pub as the attempted robbery was taking place.

Most were unaware of the drama. However, one guest did notice some- thing suspicious.

‘I was after parking up close to the Church and was putting on my jacket when a silver car drove past me.

“I didn’t pay much attention but

recognised it as an unmarked Garda car – my buddy 1s in the guards,’ he said.

“T saw it pull up outside the post office and remember walking away none the wiser. At the time I hadn’t a clue what was going on, but later | heard in the pub that someone tried to rob the place.”

Meanwhile, gardai in Ennisty- mon are investigating an incident where four men rammed a car in an

attempt to escape after they were found on a business premises near Fanore in the early hours of Friday morning.

A number of men confronted the trespassers and attempted to block their escape by pulling a car across a gateway.

The gang attacked the car with a crowbar before ramming the vehicle and pushing it out of their way.

As darkness descended on Cusack Park on Friday evening, it welcomely hastened the completion of this life- less struggle of an encounter. For what had preceded it was a substand- ard slog that failed to inspire any claims that either side could realis- tically be contenders for the Canon Hamilton.

Indeed, there was more murmuring of Davy Fitzgerald’s latest coaching role for the Combo and possibly even a Sven Goran Eriksson like director of hurling position than any of the quality on show here. The overall significance of this result however is that Inagh/Kilnamona are finally off the mark and with the Mills’ inspir- ing win over Clonlara succeeding it the following day, the group is now wide open for any of the five sides to claim the two quarter-final spots. Realistically this game could have gone either way and for the majority, it seemed that both sides were des- tined to share the spoils as the match was on level terms no fewer than eight times before Inagh/Kilnamona finally upped the ante with a three point burst in the final quarter.

In the end, the Combo just had more options up front with Ger Arthur, Niall Arthur, Tony Carmody, Tomas Kelly, Cathal Lafferty and Conor Tierney all contributing in patches

whereas Scariff largely relied on Conor McNamara at centre-back, and Ross Horan for inspiration and OK

Ger Arthur was impressive in his new role at midfield; Tony Carmody inspired with four points as well as aiding the defence late on; Kelly was the workhorse; Lafferty was the ball- winner and Niall Arthur was the fin- isher while county Under 21 player Tierney came alive with two of that

three point decisive scoring burst ap- proaching the finish.

The sides went blow for blow in the opening quarter at 0-4 to 0-4 before Scariff got a significant boost with a Diarmuid Nash goal in the 20th minute, finishing off a move that involved Jim Minogue and Kenny McNamara. They didn’t build on it though and by half-time, Carmody and Niall Arthur had grabbed a brace of point each to go in on level terms

at 1-6 to 0-9.

The punch-counterpunch format continued after the break with Ho- ran’s frees cancelling out anything Inagh/Kilnamona could throw at them. Then in a rapid flourish Conor Tierney grabbed two points in a minute and when Niall Arthur con- verted a superb lineball from the “45, the Combo looked to have done enough. Scariff, changed things around pulling out Kenny McNa-

mara to midfield and it was he who grabbed a point along with another from Horan to cut the deficit to the minimum once more.

Tony Carmody had a pull saved by Brendan McNamara but the insur- ance score did finally come through a Niall Arthur free and with daylight finally giving way, with it went Scar- iff’s brave challenge.

BUSINESSES in Ennis and Clare are being urged to get behind Mu- hammad Ali’s visit to the county capital in an effort to ensure as many people as possible hit the streets to see the boxing great.

The call comes from Sports Acad- emy International, who are working with the local authority in hosting Ali’s visit to his ancestral home.

Speaking to

IN the early throes of the champi- onship weekend, some supporters in Cusack Park were debating their accumulator bets. Meticululously sifting through the games, there was much parley over several of the third round matches but all reached com- mon ground that Clonlara were the ‘banker’. In truth, their certainty was not without merit either as the south east Clare side. The current double champions had built up a 17 match unbeaten run along the way over the past year and after two opening vic- tories in this year’s campaign, were odds-on favourites to ease into their second successive quarter-final.

That remarkable run was based on a never-say-die attitude that meant they could never be written off, regardless of the scoreline. But on Saturday, O’Callaghan’s Mills out-Clonlaraed Clonlara at their own game, full of raw desire and determination while the champions appeared to have tem- porarily lost their appetite.

The reason for this turnaround? Well, there is no doubt that the Mills had a point to prove. A young side, it was always going to take time to mature as a squad but after coming so close last year against Clarecastle and Kilmaley and leaking soft goals against Scariff at the beginning of this year’s campaign, they would have felt that they hadn’t done them- selves justice in the top tier. That pent up determination to succeed began to SJeVDaleam Gav KOLer¢d0mBbO MOS (oib am orcIROUDOTcMmelechyy with Tulla last time out but on Satur- day, it finally came to the surface and for once, the defending champions had no answer to the challenge.

It appeared to be all going to plan for Clonlara for the first 35 minutes of this tie, having weathered the early Mills storm to push five points clear after the break, albeit that they were now facing into a stiff breeze. How- ever, uncharacteristically they were only to score one more point until the finish as the Mills added a massive 13 points to their tally and Clonlara went into total meltdown.

In hindsight, there were signs even in the opening half that Clonlara were not at full tilt. A hand injury kept John Conlon out of the starting line-up but while they were always in front in the early stages, the strong wind in their favour should have al- lowed them to tally up a significant lead at the break. However, repeated- ly indiscipline cost them that luxury as Adrian Flaherty kept the Mills in touch with placed balls, pulling level by the 23rd minute. Indeed, the Mills should have been ahead at this stage only for some poor wides and a full length Ger O’Connell save from Brian Donnellan that kept Clonlara ticking over. The Mills did finally breach O’Connell’s goal-line in the 25th minute when Declan Donovan’s low effort broke kindly for James McMahon to pull to the net and give his side a 1-6 to 0-6 lead.

Clonlara didn’t panic and after Donal Madden and Nicky O’Connell had pointed, Darach Honan popped up with yet another stroke of bril-

liance to instinctively seize on a break to pull to the right corner of the net. Another Madden free right on the stroke of half-time resumed their control at 1-9 to 1-6 and another brace from the full-forward on the restart handed Clonlara a healthy five point advantage.

Effectively, that was to prove the end of Clonlara’s afternoon however, as the Mills shuffled the pack, bring- ing Brian Donnellan back to wing back to tighten up the defence and it worked wonders as Donnellan, along with Adrian Healy and Niall Dono- van were not to let the ball pass them

for the next fifteen minutes. Aided by midfielders Diarmuid Hehir and Patrick Donnellan, the Mulls shut up shop and with a constant supply of ball now going into their forward line, Clonlara simply wilted under the pressure.

Adrian Flaherty (3), James Mc-

Mahon, Diarmuid Hehir and Alan Duggan all pointed to overturn the advantage and while Clonlara did attempt to change things around by moving Darach Honan to centre-for- ward and introducing John Conlon on the wing, it couldn’t halt the Mills onslaught.

Growing in confidence with every score, the Mills punished the in- creasingly ragged Clonlara with Fla- herty (2), Fergus Donovan (2), Alan Duggan (2) and Declan Donovan all pointing with ease, and with no ex- pected kick from the champions, the Mills easily ran out seven point vic- tors.

Still, they cannot get carried away with the win as they still need some- thing out of their final game against Inagh/Kilnamona if they are to make this result count. For Clonlara, this was realistically a blip and like the Crusheen group game last year, could be the catalyst they need to re- gain their championship hunger. And as for the accumulators, they are long since resigned to the bin.

Clare TDs fail to defend free education

FOR a while now, Darach Honan’s name and word of his talent has been seeping through to the wider hurling public. That goal against Waterford confirmed Honan as a genuine hurler of class on the big stage and even though that passage of play spoke volumes of his character and ability, it would be unfair to usher Honan as some sort of saviour for Clare hurl- ing, as some kind of great hope.

Those who have watched him progress through the grades will tell you he has yet to even come close to his potential and with the calm and wise influence of his father, Colm, it’s unlikely that he will be rushed through to the senior set up.

Right now, it’s enough to bask in the sizzle of excitement that rumbles when Honan is in possession for the Clare Under 21s or for his club, Clon- lara. That sizzle 1s something which Jim Gully, manager of Clonlara when they won the senior title last year, has seen first hand.

‘“He’s a unique hurler in that there’s always the potential of a goal with

him,” says Gully. “I’ve actually never seen a finisher like him. When he’s on the ball, it reminds me of when DJ Carey was playing. There’s the same rumble of excitement from the crowd. Even the opposition know what he’s capable of now, so there’s a sense that when he’s in possession, he can make things happen.”

Having been over the Clonlara when Honan first lined out for the club sen- iors, Gully says he was not surprised by his decision to go for goal against Waterford in the Munster final.

“Once he made that turn, I knew he had goal on his mind. And the thing is, he doesn’t score a bad goal. Even the goal he scored on Saturday [against O’Callaghan’s Mills in the club championship] was a cracker.”

That goal was born out of a wristy and instinctive finish and powerful wrists are a commodity that Honan enjoys and makes great use from. On top of this, a background in bas- ketball has also provided him with a sense of space and the ability to turn into and away from the tackle.

‘He has a very fast sprint,’ contin- ues Gully. “Those big strides of his

can leave a defender for dead. And the thing is, Darach can be out of a game for 58 or 59 minutes and he can still end up with a couple of goals. When he’s on the field, you’re never out of the game.

“T remember when we played Lor- rha in the intermediate Munster semi final. He mightn’t have touched the ball for 15 minutes or so and I heard later that some of the Tipperary sup- porters who had heard of him were wondering what all the fuss was about. Well, he finished that game with 2-4 and helped us get to the final and none of those Tipp sup- porters are going to forget the name Darach Honan.”

This weekend sees Honan on yet another large stage but you somehow get the feeling that the journey is only Starting and though his name will be up in lights one day, he will take his time in getting to that place.

ANDREA Corr may be hosting the most expensive wedding of the year when she ties the knot with mil- lionaire boyfriend Brett Desmond in Doonbeg this weekend, but the award for the most unique wedding will be staying in north Clare.

North Clare couple Marianne Pot- terton and James Slevin celebrated their marriage last Friday with a pa- gan ceremony in Doolin, followed by a fancy dress reception in Ennisty- mon. The theme for the wedding was ‘kind people from history’, with each of the guests dressing up as a person like Gandhi or Mother Teresa.

“We do things a little bit different anyway so we decided to turn the whole thing into a very creative af- fair. The idea of the wedding was a bit of an art piece, to be honest with you,’ said Marianne.

“Art is very important to my part- ner and myself so we figured, why not bring it all together and have an extra special, crazy fun day? My dress is a kind of bridalwear but it is not conventional bridalwear.

“We had several different elements to the wedding itself. We got married at a registry office in the morning. After that, the ceremony took place in our garden. We had a man and a woman who performed a blessing for the wedding and James has written a lovely ceremony himself.

“We had a sword ceremony, a ring ceremony and a part where each

guest at the wedding brought up a stone to the front of the ceremony and said a few words about us.”

The entire wedding party also made their way into the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon where former Mayor of Clare, Madeleine Taylor- Quinn launched the ‘Merging 3’ exhibition, featuring a selection of Marianne’s paintings, along with works from Madeleine Irene Smyth and Mary Foudy O’Halloran.

“I decided to go back to painting about a year and a half ago or so and

it’s been very interesting so far. I end up using a lot of text in my work – words that I find interesting or that relate to the ideas that I have,’ she nee

‘We often see words in a very plain way. I like to make the words into the painting and make them more inter- esting in that way.”

DAVY Fitzgerald was never going to have an idle autumn following Waterford’s exit from the All-Ire- land championship at the semi-final stage to Kilkenny, but his return to the Clare fold had come much sooner than many expected.

He wasn’t in Cusack Park last Fri- day for Inagh/Kilnamona’s meeting with Scariff in the second round of the Clare Senior Championship, but he’ll be manning the sideline for the team affectionately known as “The Combo’.

Fitzgerald has agreed to join the Inagh/Kilnamona backroom team as they crank up their campaign to

reach the quarter-final stages of the competition for the second succes- sive year.

After an opening round defeat to county champions Clonlara_ they bounced back with a 0-16 to 1-11 win over Scariff and now face into their crunch final two games against Tulla and O’Callaghan’s Mills armed with the coaching acumen Fitzgerald will bring to their preparations.

And, Fitzgerald’s involvement with Inagh/Kilnamona could just be the first step of a much greater involve- ment with Clare hurling, with specu- lation rife that he could form one half of a partnership with Mike Mc- Namara to lead Clare senior hurling in 2009.

Fitzgerald himself has moved to distance himself such speculation, dismissing it as “gossip”, but such an arrangement would not be unprec- edented in the history of Clare hurl- ing.

In 1993 Ger Loughnane agreed to come on board as a Clare senior se- lector under Len Gaynor’s watch as manager on the understanding that he would automatically succeed the Tipperary man as manager. That changeover occurred a year later when Gaynor stepped down after Clare’s defeat to Limerick in the 1994 Munster final.

Now a similar arrangement could be brokered between McNamara and Fitzgerald. McNamara has said that

2009 “will definitely be my last year” if he’s reappointed for the coming season, while Fitzgerald has made no secret of this desire to become Clare manager.

Add to this that current senior se- lectors Alan Cunningham and Ollie Baker could be on the cusp of leav- ing the Clare fold and the door to Fitzgerald’s involvement is opened further. Fitzgerald has another year left on a two year arrangement with Waterford that was struck after the Deise reached the 2008 All-Ireland nue

Both the Clare senior hurling and football management positions are to be the subject of a special county board meeting later this month.

A PRECAUTIONARY boil notice 1s set to remain in place on the Ennis water supply after further problems were encountered with the town’s new €8 million water treatment plant.

In statement released last week, Sean Ward, Senior Executive Engi- neer with Clare County Council, said “The new treatment plant has been in full production since August 7, but there is further work to be done before the 30-day commissioning period can recommence. A full 30 days without interruption must be completed before the plant can be deemed to be fully in operation. On completion of this, the council can have discussions with the Health Services Executive about possible removal of the current precautionary oe) 0m te) 8 (een

“The new plant started treating water on 2nd March 2009, and since that date it has treated all the water supplied to the consumers in Ennis town and the surrounding supply area. The quality of the treated wa- ter has been consistently high. Dur- ing times of heavy rainfall, in March and April, the plant experienced dif- ficulty in treating a sufficient quan- tity of water to meet the consumers’ needs. The contractor designing and operating the plant, EPS Ltd, made a number of alterations to overcome these problems, and the first speci- fied eight-day period of commission-

ing was successfully completed dur- ing June 2009,” Mr Ward explained.

“The second specified period of commissioning, for 30 days, started on Wednesday 22nd July 2009. How- ever due to a mechanical problem this had to be interrupted on 26th July. The problem was not related to the quality of the incoming raw water, but it affected the throughput of the plant. The interim treatment plant, located beside the Drumcliff spring, was used for 12 days (26th July to 6th August) to back up the new plant, and there was no effect at any time on either the quality or quantity of water being supplied to our consumers,” he added.

This is the second time in the space of four months that the plant has failed during the commissioning process. In May, problems emerged regarding the long-term capability of the plant to produce both the required quantity and quality of water.

A boil notice has been in place on the Ennis water supply since an out- break of cryptosporidium in 2005. The boil notice advises that for peo- ple regarded as immuno-compro- mised, infants, pre-school children and visitors, water should be boiled.