After a period out of the limelight Ballygalget returned in 2003 with Clarke collecting another county winners' medal.
In 2008 Clarke won his latest county senior championship winners’ medal following an eleven-point trouncing of Portaferry.
After some success in the 1990s the new century proved to be an unhappy time for Down's hurling team as Antrim and Derry reclaimed their status as the standard-bearers in the provincial championship.
In 2005 a restructuring of the championship saw Down being entered in the Christy Ring Cup, effectively a competition for the ‘second-tier’ hurling teams.
He has enjoyed little success with his province as Ulster have failed to even qualify for the Railway Cup final in recent years.