Halverstown end of season awards
Well over 100 people attended Halverstown Cricket Club’s first-ever awards ceremony, at Piper’s Hill College, Naas. Player of the Year had until now been done on a team-by-team basis, but this was a celebration of all the players in the club — boys, girls, youths, adults. Cricket Ireland sent along two Irish international cricketers for the presentations: Liam McCarthy, who made his debut against the West Indies this year, and Christina Coulter-Reilly, the Irish Women’s wicketkeeper, who, incidentally, scored the winning run against England last year.
“This is Halverstown’s 140th year, and it is wonderful to see it so strong after so many years. The oldest cricket club outside Dublin is thriving”, said Des Drumm, Chairman. Des paid tribute to John Threadgold, the previous Chairman, and the Beaumont family, who have long hosted the club on their beautiful Harristown estate.
Stuart Conroy, Secretary, noted that with five youth and three adult teams (not including the two T20 cup teams!), as well as summer camps and training sessions, it has been a very busy year, but there has been enormous help from the parents and the youth coaches, as well as the Executive. Medals were presented to all the Under 11s, whilst the Under 13s and 15s received certificates, before the awards were made for the Players of the Year: Boys Under 13: Arun Chidambaram; Girls Under 13: Lily Richardson; Boys Under 15: Shamikh Khan; Girls Under 15: Michaela Langford.
The captains of each of the adult teams gave a summary of the season before Liam and Christina awarded the Players of the Year to: Halverstown Oaks: Kevin Hodson; Halverstown 2: Avanish Patel; Halverstown 1: Paolo Rosa.
It was a particularly successful year for Halverstown 2 under the captaincy of Jim Hodgson, winning nine of 12 games and gaining promotion as runners-up. It was tougher for Halverstown 1, but skipper Andy Wordley was pleased with the effort, finishing 5th out of eight teams in Division 12. The Oaks are less concerned with winning but are core to the ethos of the club, playing the game in the right spirit for enjoyment and bringing through players for the league teams. Captain Ger O’Shea mentioned in particular that they had entertained three touring teams from Wales and England this year.
Des Drumm wrapped up proceedings by presenting a bouquet to Kim Langford, who had been inspirational in her commitment to the club, and a special award to Stuart Conroy, “Super Secretary”, for his incredible work ethic, and Des reminded people that Stuart had already received a national award from Cricket Ireland as “Activator of the Year” for his work with youth cricket. 2025 was, indeed, a full-on year but with much to celebrate.
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