Feakle produce powerful display to win Clare SHC title

Feakle 1-17 Sixmilebridge 0-13

Feakle became the 11th different team to win the Clare Senior Hurling Championship in 21 years after overpowering Sixmilebridge to secure only their seventh ever crown in Cusack Park, Ennis.

Thirty-six years after Val Donnellan ended a 44-year wait, his son Oisin fittingly lifted the famed Canon Hamilton trophy following a superb final display in which the East Clare side led from start to finish.

Sixmilebridge, possessing over half the team that had collected a fifth triumph in eight years up to 2020, were favourites to add another to their bulging trophy cabinet but it was Feakle who performed like experienced veterans as they adapted better to the tricky underfoot conditions and took the game to their rivals from the outset.

Indeed, Ger Conway's side could have easily grabbed four first-half goals including a 23rd-minute penalty for talisman Shane McGrath that was excellently repelled by goalkeeper Derek Fahy.

It mattered little though as Feakle were much more adept at taking points, eight of the first 11 in fact as McGrath (3), Eoin Tuohy, Martin Daly, Killian Bane, Oisin Donnellan, and Steven Conway all got in on the scoring action at 0-08 to 0-03 entering the second quarter.

The 'Bridge had chances of their own through David Kennedy and Matthew O’Halloran but both were blocked and, despite getting a boost from the penalty save, Sixmilebridge’s three-point rally was matched by injury-time scores for Packie Daly and Steven Conway at 0-10 to 0-06.

There would be no initial ‘Bridge backlash as McGrath’s placed balls and an immediate impact for substitute Owen McGann would obtain the only goal of the game by the two-thirds mark at 1-13 to 0-07.

Credit Sixmilebridge for finally circling the