By Michael McMullan

CLONDUFF are looking forward to their first taste of Ulster Senior camogie when they face champions Loughgiel in Sunday’s semi-final.

The Down champions have two All-Ireland Intermediate titles tucked into their storied history.

Fionnuala Carr is one of their key players and she spoke of the special feeling of playing Gaelic games. Like in many pockets across Ireland, it dominates the chat around Clonduff.

“We are just really looking forward to it. When you’re playing at this time of year, you’re in bonus territory and we always say that.”

The club is a hive of activity in the height of summer with all their teams preparing.

The special thing about the provincial series is how the teams at the cutting edge are still going through their preparations.

“When you get to this time of year, there’s only really ourselves there and you can’t take for granted how lucky you are to still be training at this time of year,” Carr added.

“We’ve never played an Ulster Senior Championship before and it’s something that we’re really looking forward to.

“Loughgiel are a very good side with great tradition in hurling and camogie throughout Ireland for many, many years.

“When you’re playing sport, you want to be competitive and you want to compete against the best and that’s what we’re going to go out and try and do on Sunday.”

Like every year, the early season focus was geared towards getting everything in place to launch an assault on the Down Championship.

Getting players integrated back after county duty is important with the group stages allowing them to hit the ground running when the heat came on.

“I think with each game we just started getting a bit stronger and playing better together and thankfully it all came to fruition against Portaferry in the championship final,” Carr pointed out.

“We lost Clara Cowan who suffered a cruciate injury in one of the group stages.

“That was a bit of a setback for both ourselves and for Clara. We regrouped again after that and pushed on.

“We’re lucky that we do have a good panel of players and while Clara is nearly irreplaceable you do have someone that can slot in and fulfil a role or two.”

Sunday is their next challenge but Clonduff have had many days to remember on the pitches across Ulster and beyond.

Six points from captain Paula O’Hagan helped Clonduff to victory against Gailltír to land their first Al-Ireland at Croke Park. O’Hagan hit another half a dozen points in the final three years later to down Kilkenny side James Stephens.

Carr, alongside her sister Sara Louise, were key players on those successes.

They helped put Clonduff on the map but the club has the succession planning at underage to help further successes.

“Our underage was very successful there for a few years and we have a good group coming through now at u-16 level,” Carr pointed out.

“You need to keep focusing on your underage because it would be very easy to neglect them when you are successful.

“We put a lot into our underage and particularly over the last year or two. We’ve got good people involved in coaching underage and I’m hoping that that will keep us in a good position for the future.”

LOOKING AHEAD…Fionnuala Carrand Clonduff play at Ulster Senior levelfor the first time this weekend