Halverstown Cricket Club needs a new home

Happier times: At a schools cricket inaugural in 2024, Minister for Sport Catherine Martin pictured with Stuart Conroy, Halverstown, Anne O’ Meara, Cricket Leinster, Jim Hodgson, Halverstown, Syl Merrins, Kildare Sports Partnership, Senator Vincent Martin and Naomi Scott-Hayward, Cricket Leinster.

Halverstown Cricket Club, Ireland's oldest club outside Dublin, is facing closure if it can't find a new home by the end of the 2027 season, writes Brian Byrne. The lease on its current grounds at Harristown Estate runs out next year, and, despite two years’ searching, the 140-year-old club has not been able to find a new space. 

Chairman Des Drumm says Halverstown CC is very grateful for the extraordinary generosity of the Beaumont family, which has provided the beautiful setting for the club over the last 30 years. "But we have outgrown the facility and have been searching for a new ground. Concentrated attempts have been unsuccessful to date.”

The club was asked over two years ago by Cricket Leinster to be the tenant of a cricket pitch in the planned new park in Sallins. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funding, Kildare County Council was unable to accommodate cricket facilities in either the near or longer term. Following this, Halverstown engaged in extensive discussions regarding a ground share with another Kildare sporting club, but unfortunately, this too has been unsuccessful.

Club Secretary Stuart Conroy says the closure of the cricket club would be a very sad day for Kildare, particularly given the strides it has made in recent years. The club has developed youth cricket from scratch, now with over 100 members, five teams, and a women’s team. They also have two teams in the Cricket Leinster league and a thriving social team. The club coaches 16 primary schools annually, bringing cricket to over 800 youngsters since 2023. They’ve also coached at Piper’s Hill College, which reached two Leinster Schools’ Finals. The club ground has been used by local schools, and without a new home, schools’ cricket in Kildare will end. "It would be a bitter blow to lose all this," says Stuart Conroy. "Unfortunately, it is a very real prospect."

Despite a cricket boom, several clubs have been lost since the 1990s, including Athy in Kildare. Land availability is crucial for cricket, as it needs at least five acres of relatively flat, well-drained land. The club is willing to buy or rent and wants to stay in mid- or south Kildare, where they’ve been for 140 years. However, land pressure is high. "Nevertheless, we will continue to look," says Des Drumm. "You cannot walk away from all that history, and we have certainly never been stronger from a membership perspective. We just need a ground for them!"

The club welcomes suggestions and can be contacted via their website or by emailing info@halverstowncc.net, or call 086 2241761. 

Halverstown CC in the late 1930s. Pic courtesy Simon Fletcher, whose great great grandfather, Charlie Curran, is in the photograph.

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