Chairman’s Welcome Message
Dear Member,
I hope you have all survived the inclement weather over the winter months and are looking forward to some warm weather, bright evenings and the sound of bat on ball. It is hard to believe but the cricket season is now upon us and I believe we are well positioned as a club to continue to grow and be successful both on and off the pitch.
In looking back at the 2025 season, I would like to reflect on some important progress we made. We extended our youth program which now runs for nine months of the year. Furthermore, we re-shaped our youth fixture list, by way of increasing the number of youth fixtures by approx. 35% and ensuring all our youth teams now typically have a set day / time of the week for their games. Finally, we created a senior development team (Men’s 4ths), in addition, to our existing Junior Development Teams (Men’s 6ths). Both teams must have a minimum of 5 under 18 players. We felt this was an important step in allowing our young boys the time and space to adapt to the challenges of playing adult cricket. Noting, the Women’s 3rds team have for some time being playing a comparable role in introducing our girls into women’s cricket. All of these initiatives will continue to remain core to our cricket strategy in the coming years.
This year marks the 150th Anniversary of our great club. We are running a number of key initiatives to mark this anniversary, namely a Gala Ball, a tour to Sunbury in the UK, and an MCC Game being the marquee events. I would like to wish our incoming President, Connor D’Arcy, the best of luck here and thank him for all his hard work on the 150th celebrations.
We kicked off a club wide review in late 2025 with the aim of ensuring Clontarf Cricket Club remains sustainable, inclusive and successful. It was led by an independent Chairman, Finbarr Crowley, who played a leading role in helping the IRFU transition from perennial under achievers to the one of the strongest rugby playing countries. Finbarr was supported by Cecily McGeer (Current Vice President), Ciaran McNally (Club Secretary), Conor Murphy (Outgoing Chair of Cricket) and Ropu Islam (Chair of Youth Cricket). The review focussed on the following keys areas – Governance, Structure, Player Development & Club Strategy. I am delighted to announce that the report was approved by the executive in March 2026 and our intention is move forward and take the reports recommendations to our members at an EGM in May 2026.
On the playing front, I would like to congratulate Reuben Wilson on his selection for the recent U19 world Cup. Noting, he has been duly awarded a Cricket Ireland contract. Well done Reuben. Furthermore, well done to Christina Coulter Reilly and Curtis Campher on their continued success with the national team.
On the coaching front, I want to thank and acknowledge the support we have received during the off and pre-season from Brían O’Rourke. He has been supporting us in building out our youth cricket development program. Brían has offered a valuable insight into modern day coaching ideas and has attended several group sessions of late. Both the players and coaches that were present were very receptive to the drills and practice methods introduced.
Brían had also offered us a comprehensive coaching template to follow for youth cricket programme (including Friday Night Cricket). Furthermore, I am delighted to announce that Nicky Kenny will be expanding his role and will now be leading the coaching for our women’s section. We also welcoming back Robyn Searle to Clontarf, as our women’s overseas professional and welcome to Sam Morgan who will be our men’s overseas professional.
I would like to conclude by wishing all our captains and managers the best for the coming season, in particular, Fionn Hand and Lucy Barry, who are captaining our men’s and women’s first teams respectively. I would encourage them to enjoy every minute of the journey. Embrace the highs and accept the lows. This year will zip by in a flash. It is a huge year for them both and we wish them nothing but success and happiness both on and off the pitch.
I hope to see you all down in the club in the coming weeks and now all we need is some good weather!
Paddy Lee
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