GAA
Clonmore have gave Bagenalstown Gaels a walkover in the Stryve Under 20 Carlow football ‘A’ championship last night.
That leaves Eire Og, Rathvilly, Mount Leinster Rangers & the Gaels in the draw for the semi-finals.
See also: Clonmore walkover sends Bagenalstown through to Carlow U20 football semi-finals
A revised format is expected to be in place for the national camogie leagues in 2023 though a little over two months out, that format has yet to be published.
Kilkenny and Carlow will return to the national leagues mid February and with a month of training available between the senior Kilkenny team holiday and the start of the league, KCLR analyst and 2016 All-Ireland winning captain Áine Farrell has been outlining her expectations for the return the inter-county season on Caman Caint below.
Rugby
There’s bad news out of the Leinster camp for Carlow’s Ed Byrne.
See also: Carlow’s Ed Byrne set to miss key games for Leinster as Leo Cullen confirms knee injury
Head coach Leo Cullen has confirmed that Byrne won’t feature again for the Blues until early next year with the prop set to miss up to 12 weeks due to a knee injury in last week’s 57-0 win over Gloucester.
As a result, he’s expected to sit out key festive games against Munster and Connacht along with Champions Cup games against Racing 92 and Gloucester in January.
Soccer
Kilkenny’s Ellen Molloy has been named among six nominees for the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division Personality of the Year.
📣 Our very own Ellen Molloy has been nominated for @SoccerWritersIr SSE Airtricity Women’s Personality of the Year after another sensational season in the WNL.
— Wexford Youths Women (@YouthsWomen) December 20, 2022
The winner will be announced on Saturday, 14th January. pic.twitter.com/J9wn48pTLV
The Wexford Youths midfielder had another standout season for Wexford and was honoured with a number of awards by the club at the weekend.
Molloy was also named on the SSE Airtricity Women’s National League Team of the Year last month, ending the season with 17 goals to her name.
The winner will be announced on January 14th.
Embed from Getty ImagesLeague Two strugglers Gillingham kept Wolves at bay for 77-minutes last night, before eventually succumbing to a 2-nil Carabao Cup defeat. A Gavin Bazunu own goal put Lincoln in front away to Southampton, with the Saints coming from behind to win 2-1. Jamie Vardy found the net in Leicester’s 3-nil win away to MK Dons. While Newcastle were 1-nil winners at home to Bournemouth.
Tonight sees Manchester United host Championship leaders Burnley from 8pm. At 7.45pm, Brighton go to League One strugglers Charlton and Blackburn face Nottingham Forest.
Racing
There’s an eight-race card at Fairyhouse today, with the first off at 25-to-midday.
And at Dundalk an eight-race programme commences at 4.15.
See also: Early bird tickets for Goffs Thyestes Chase go on sale
Gowran Park have also announced early bird tickets for the 2023 Goffs Thyestes Chase have gone on sale.
The race will go ahead on Thursday the 26th January.
Darts
Raymond van Barneveld is safely through to the third round at the PDC World Championship.
The former champion beat Ryan Meikle 3-1 at Alexandra Palace last night.
Next up for van Barneveld is a meeting with Gerwyn Price.
Fallon Sherrock is out after a 3-1 loss to Ricky Evans.
There’s plenty of Irish involvement on day six of the PDC World Championship.
Cork’s experienced John O’Shea opens proceedings against Darius Labanauskas, with Ross Smith waiting for the winner in round 2.
Antrim’s Josh Rock goes up against Callan Rydz.
‘The Magpie’ Willie O’Connor takes on Germany’s Gabriel Clemens in the evening session.
And three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen goes up against Welsh qualifier, Lewy Williams.