Ruan  3-14   St Joseph's  1-13

RUAN had their first win of the Clare Champion Cup Division 1B campaign when they accounted for St Joseph’s at Ruan on Monday.

Chasing their fourth successive win, St Joseph’s fielded five of the U-21 side that had lost the previous evening’s semi-final replay to Clarecastle and certainly the exertions of two games reduced their impact. 
Playing against the stiff breeze, St Joseph’s had a great start when Rory O’Connor finished to the net after hard work by the Duggans, Leo and Alan. 

Ruan responded with 0-3 from play by Caimin Howard, Jonathan Clohessy and full-forward Aidan Lynch. Donal O’Halloran and Lynch exchanged points and St Joseph’s led  after 15 minutes by 1-5 to 0-4 thanks to points from Alan Duggan and 0-3 from Ivor Whyte. St Joseph’s were struggling at midfield and Ruan were level when Brendan Lyons scored a fine goal and followed by a point from Killian Ryan. Whyte added 0-2 matched by points from Lynch and Tadgh Hanrahan to leave it 1-7 each after 23 minutes. Michael Vaughan had Ruan in front with a point before Lynch rounded Ken Kennedy to put a well-struck shot past Paul Madden. A Whyte point made the half-time score Ruan 2-8 to St Joseph’s 1-8. 

Lynch opened the second half with two excellent points but Whyte and Mark Hallinan responded with similar scores. The St Joseph’s effort was seriously damaged when Kevin Dilleen and Ken Kennedy were forced to retire and were replaced by Sean Flynn and Conor Lyons.
Lynch had added another goal to put Ruan in a strong position. Whyte and Punch exchanged points to leave it 3-11 t0 1-11 at the three-quarter stage.
Ruan added further points from Caimin Howard, Punch and Killian Ryan to 0-2 from Whyte. 

Ruan: Pakie Roughan; Gary Bell, Niall O’Connor, Leon Quirke; Eoin Hanrahan, Jonathon Clohessy, Damian McDonnell; Killian Ryan, Tadhg Hanrahan; John Punch, Michael Vaughan, Brendan Lyons; Caimin Howard, Aidan Lynch, Patrick Keegan.
Sub: Damian Brohan for Lynch (inj).
St Joseph’s: Paul Madden, Cathal O’Sullivan, Ken Kennedy, Kevin Meaney, Eamonn Clohessy, Kevin Dilleen, Mark Hanrahan, Mark Hallinan, Jarlath Colleran, Gary Hassett, Ivor Whyte, Donal O’Halloran, Rory O’Connor, Leo Duggan, Alan Duggan. 
Subs: Conor Lyons for Ken Kennedy, Sean Flynn for Kevin Dilleen and Mikey Rosengrave for Donal O’Halloran.