West Munster title for Lahinch boys

by Seamus Hayes news@clareecho.ie

Lahinch Golf Club:

IT WAS a historic day for Lahinch junior boys at Castletroy golf club on Thursday when they won their first pennant for the club, defeating Ballybunion in the boys inter-club West Munster area final.

With the best three scores to count from five playing off their own handicap (range 5 to 24) Lahinch were always in control of the match. Their next outing will be in the All-Ireland finals which will be hosted by Castletroy in August.

The panel members are James Blackwell, Matthew Braja, James Cogan, Daniel Healy, Ciaran Hennigan, Niall Kelly, Cathal McNulty and Ralph Whelehan; their team managers are Kevin Glynn and Johnny Reynolds and coach Shane Carey.

Glynn has managed they club’s junior boys programme for the past twenty-seven years.

This week, the Fred Daly boys will hope to make it a double when they play Killarney in their area final at Ballybunion.

Meanwhile preparations are nearing completion for this year’s Pierse Motors VW Ireland sponsored South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship which commences on Wednesday next.

Kilrush Golf Club:

The lady captain's (Stephanie Roughan) prize to the men was played for at the weekend when the top three all returned 39 points.

On a countback Bernard Coleman (17) emerged as the winner from Feargal S. Crowley (13) with third spot filled by Pat Shannon (18) from Cranny. The category winners were Malcolm McCarthy (10) with 35 points, Patrick Coleman (14) with 37 points and Sean Moran (21) with 35 points.

The Gleeson's sponsored ladies stableford competition was won by Margaret Donnelly (20) with 33 points from Mary Lyons (20) with 31 points with third spot filled by Mary Downes (32) with 31 points. The category winners were Anne Brennan (12) with 29 points, Claire Pyne (21) with 30 points and Mary McCarthy (30) with 29 points.

Dromoland Golf Club:

Gordon Daffy won the men’s 18 hole stableford competition at Dromoland at the weekend with 43 points. He had one to spare over Sean Hayes with Brian Aherne a point further back in third place with Patrick Vaughan in fourth place with 39 points. Enda Heneghan won the gross with 33.

The men’s 9 hole midweek competition was won by Cian Moloney with 23 points from Niall Woods with 20 points and Sean Hayes with 19 points.

In the ladies 18 hole stroke medal qualifier Mairead Toomey won with 67 from Carola Wixted with 72, Ann Nix with 73 and Joan Ryan with 74. Leslie O’Flynn won the gross with 84.

Kitty Quinn won the ladies 9 hole stroke competition while the ladies 9 hole stableford competition was won by Jo Linnane with Martina McInerney winning the ladies stableford with 39 points.

East Clare Golf Club:

Lady captain Rachel Whelan (17) was the category 1 winner of the ladies 18 hole stroke competition with 73. Category 2 was won by Ursula Hogan

(31) with 78 while the category 3 winner was Ann Harte (46) with 75. The overall winner was Catherine Minogue (25) with 72.

The ladies Wednesday competition was won by Jenny Ryan, Nancy Starr and Margaret O Brien from Mary Hogan, Mary Collins and Siobhan Mulcahy. The men’s open Thursday comp was won by Joe Geoghegan with 42 points from Mark Sweeney with 40 points. Eoin Magill won the gross.

Last week’s men’s 18 hole stableford competition was won by Paul Madden with 41 points from Colm Kelly with 40 points and Adrian Casey, also with 40 points. Eoin Magill won the gross.

Terry Coughlan, Martin McKeogh and Jim Fahy were the winner of the senior men’s competition last week.

Woodstock Golf Club:

Last week’s open singles at Woodstock was won by Mark Roche (18) from Slievenamon with 41 points Kieran Browne (18) was second with 41 points while David Keane (12), Kilrush was third and he also scored 41 points.

The July Medal that was scheduled for this weekend has been postponed to another date and will be replaced by a singles stableford compeition off the green markers.

Ennis Golf Club:

The ladies team of four competition last week was won by Flor Coffey, Monica Finnerty, Una O’Reilly and Peggie Costello with 89 points. They had four to spare over Helen and Ann Gallery, Mary Nagle and Mary T McMahon while third place was filled by Jean Molony, Geraldine O’Rourke, Ethna Murphy and Rose Enright with 79 points,

The 9 hole team of four winners with 39 points were Carmel Cummins, Elaine Kelly, Gina Stokes, Toni Droney. They had two to spare over Margaret McEnery, Alice D’Arcy, Jackie Quinlan and Audrey McEnery with third filled by Helen Brooks, Rita Meade, Sinead O’Sullivan and Mary Curley.

Sunday’s men’s fourball was won by Senan Ryan (10) and David Considine (14) with 46 points, one more than Aaron Burke (15) and Martin Moroney (15) with third place filled by Padraig Cusack (14) and Noel Whelan (7) with 43 points

Ennis seniors played Ballinasloe in the P.V McInerney competition, a modified fourball competition last week. Ennis were the victors with a team score of 274 against a team score of 253 for Ballinasloe. The six pairings which brought in the winning score for Ennis were Sean Ryan and Matt Flynn with 48 points, Martin Coffey and Tommy Heath with 46 points, Peter Quinn and James Corcoran with 45 points, Tim Kelly and Noel Pilkington with 45 points, Cyril Lyons and Frank Cullinan with 45 points, Ger Hanrahan and Michael Butler with 45 points.

In the Tuesday fourball the winners were Brendan Pyne and Neil Cremin with 34 points from Tony McInerney and Rodger McMahon with a similar score. Michael Irwin and Eamon Corry were third with 33 points followed by Gerry O’Connor and Walter O’Brien with 31 points

In the junior boys competition on July 11, Diarmuid Corry (26) won with 40 points from David Loftus (14) with 39 points.

Ferris in the race for the 2023 ZuCar Golden Boot, which will be awarded to the highest scorer in the 2023 TG4 All-Ireland series across the Senior, Intermediate and Junior grades.

Twenty three year old Fidelma who is a graduate of WIT was presented with her award by Ina Lazar, Sales Manager, Croke Park.

Supporters will be able to see Fidelma and Clare in semi-final action next Sunday (July 23rd) against Antrim in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park in Longford, the throw-in time is 2pm.

AVENUE UTD have completed one of the biggest signings in the junior soccer transfer window with the addition of Steven McGann, writes Páraic McMahon.

Ennis native McGann returns to his former club after much speculation and brings the curtain down on his five year stint with Limerick's Pike Rovers, a side he had captained the past two seasons.

Timing is everything and for the 28year old it is the right moment to come back to a Clare club. He won two Munster Junior Cups, two League titles, two Lawson Cups and a Tuohy Cup with the Limerick outfit along with the pain of losing three FAI Junior Cup finals.

Speaking to The Clare Echo, Steven explained that family commitments were integral to his decision to return, “It was grand at the start but then two and a half years ago we had a little girl, my missus is currently pregnant at the moment so it is right to come home”.

When contemplating a move to the Clare league, nothing tempted him as much as opting for Avenue Utd. “I think I always had Avenue in my head, I only played with them for two or three years before I went into Limerick, I know most of the lads and would be friendly with them. I think it was a no-brainer for me to go in there. Everyone says the standard in Limerick is way better but I think it is just there might be six or seven teams in Limerick that are always competing whereas in Clare you only have two or three with Newmarket Celtic winning the FAI”.

Newmarket Celtic’s success in winning the FAI Junior Cup and contesting the Munster Junior Cup is a positive reflection of the current standard of the top teams in the CDSL.

A spectator at Avenue’s Clare Cup semi-final win over Fair Green Celtic on their way to retaining the title overcoming Lifford, McGann outlined what he aims to bring to the fold. “Hopefully I can bring in my own game, I feel like I can drag a team an extra ten percent in a match if I’m playing well, there’s little things I can do to talk to people on the pitch, some people play well when they don’t talk, some people need an arm around the shoulder, some people you need to kick them up the arse, I’m hoping to find out what everyone needs and drag them on an extra five or ten percent.

Two previous stints with Avenue at U14 level and a brief spell with the first team prior to joining Pike in 2018 have seen McGann link up with Mark Roche, Dylan Casey, Gary Roche and Conor Mullen before.

Current Avenue Utd boss, David Russell is of course a first cousin of the powerful attacking midfielder. Surprisingly, Russell wasn’t the one pestering for his cousin to put pen to paper.

“To be fair he wasn’t pestering me too much, I actually went to them about this proposal, I felt it was the right time to come home, he was always letting me play my soccer and understood I was always committed to Pike Rovers, he left me alone and I went to him this time”.

Use of the club grounds in Roslevan will be extended to Steven as he sets up his own business, Steven McGann’s Coaching Academy. “I think I need to be around home when it comes to this type of stuff. Conor Mullen has helped me massively, I don’t think there is a better person to be around when it comes to running a business than him and to be beside him on the soccer pitch and to be working for him is massive for me, it was just the right time for me to come home”. An official Instagram page will be created in the coming week where interested parties that can send a direct message to make further queries.