February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The victory in their final regular season game sends Limerick into a Senior Hurling Championship semifinal, most likely against archrivals Tipperary, in fine spirits.
Clare, meanwhile, and despite this resounding defeat, still have hopes of reaching the knockout stages and now face Division B rivals Waterford in a playoff.
Clare were not helped by missing Stephen O’Hara in goal and having the O’Halloran brothers, Mike and Gerry, back in Ireland, but Limerick had problems of their own with full forward Vinny Norton, the former Kilkenny senior hurler, carrying an ankle injury.
Norton volunteered to play against Clare and took up position in goal, sending former New York keeper out from between the posts and into the full forward line.
Flood more than earned his keep in the outfield, though, contributing four points to the Limerick cause as seven different players got on the scoresheet.
Dave Simms opened the scoring with a point as Limerick’s green machine racked up 1-9 before Clare managed to trouble the scoreboard operators.
Alan O’Neill did the main damage before Clare got a look in, scoring a goal and three points with Simms adding another two points and Flood, Paul Murray and Tadhg O’Callaghan finding their range over the bar.
And when Paul Higgins did get Clare up and running, Limerick hit straight back with a point from O’Callaghan.
Simms added to Clare’s woes by following up with a goal to send the score to 2-10 to 0-1 as half-time approached but the previously untested Norton in Limerick’s goal then found himself picking the ball out of the back of the net when Cathal Brennan latched onto a Liam Kilkenny free to score three points.
Any hope of a Clare revival, though, was instantly dashed when Simms scored his second goal of the opening period right on the stroke of halftime to send Limerick in 15 points to the good at 3-10 to 1-1.
The points came just as freely after the interval for Limerick, Shane McDermott and Jonathan Deare adding to the list of scorers as O’Neill raised his tally to 1-5.
John Kennedy and the impressive Higgins added a point each for Clare to break up the flow of Limerick scoring as Flood and O’Callaghan improved their individual accounts.
Again Clare showed a glimmer of revival, however, futile, this time with a goal from substitute Tony Naughton, only for Simms to immediately reinforce Limerick’s superiority at the other end with his third goal of the game, finishing the match with 3-4.
Limerick: Vinny Norton; Justin White, Noel O?Brien; John Loftus, Shane McDermott, Tadhg O?Callaghan; Dennis Kelly, Tadhg Lyons; Alan O’Neill, Jonathan Deare, Paul Murray; Dave Simms, Finbarr Flood
Clare: Barney Breen; Seamus Pender John Riordan; Paul Higgins, Liam Briody, Stephen Burke; Liam Kilkenny John Kennedy; Joe Firth, Cathal Brennan, Sean Sullivan; Dan Liddy John Naughton.