Report demonstrates cricket’s building back stronger in Fingal

Fingal County Council’s Sports Office was delighted to receive its recent update on cricket’s development in the Fingal community for the past four months.

The wide-ranging update, produced by Cricket Development Manager Brian O’Rourke, examines the development of cricket in Fingal and presents a strong message that Fingal is not only building back stronger, but it also leads the country in many of the programmes, and projects it is running.

Six key summaries can be shared from the report:

RECORD GRANTS FOR CLUB DEVELOPMENT

Club development in Fingal was strengthened by the securing of over €330,000 in government grants from the “Sports Capital and Equipment Programme” in 2022.

Fingal-based cricket clubs were comfortably the most successful cricket clubs in Leinster with grants awarded. North County, Rush, Swords, Tyrrelstown, and The Hills secured over €180,000 to invest in improving facilities to inspire even greater community use, and in Balbriggan Cricket Club’s case, a €148,500 grant towards an indoor cricket centre to serve the needs of the cricketing community 365 days a year.

The Sports Office joins with all cricket partners in sending their fullest congratulations to the volunteers at these clubs who have achieved such grants.  They create such a message of hope and growth in Fingal cricket for everyone over the next decade.

CREATION OF ‘CRICKET-4-ALL’ PROJECT

This pilot project, headed by Killian Molloy, began in March of 2022 and has been working over the summer to introduce cricket and increase participation among older adults and young people with disabilities across, in the initial stages, the Balbriggan and Skerries areas.

Sessions have run over the summer on Thursday evenings at Balbriggan Cricket Club for both older adults and young people. St Michael's House Special School in Skerries also have taken great interest in the project, where most of their students have been involved in weekly sessions delivered by Cricket Leinster coaching staff.

This project moves Fingal another step closer to its goal of cricket for all, and the Sports Office looks forward to learning more about its continued development in the next report.

GROWTH IN COACHING VISITS/CLINICS

Coaching continues to be the backbone of youth cricket development in Fingal.  As the interest grows in cricket, so do the variety and requests for coaching visits and clinics with a small example of each below:

Coaching visits:

September and October were busy months with schoolyard coaching sessions held in the Skerries, Balbriggan, Tyrrelstown, Blanchardstown, and Castleknock areas.

In conjunction with Malahide CC, a series of ‘Fielding & Fitness’ sessions were delivered on Saturday mornings during September & October to support its girl's programme.

Friday afternoon coaching clinics were held this year at The Hills CC for both the u11 and u13 age groups during September & October.  Pleasingly, numbers were close to 50 attending each week and represents progression on the growth of school introduction, to club participation.

Four days of coaching clinics were held at North County CC in Balrothery during the school mid-term break, which once again served to produce high interest and improved standards on previous years.

The Sports Office notes, that more schools will be visited in November, and more coaches are needed to keep up with the demand for school visits which is an exciting message that the sports development team will be reviewing shortly.

REPRESENTING THE FINGAL COMMUNITY

In late August, the Fingal u13 boys team visited Liverpool to play games against local club opposition, with some outstanding feedback from hosts on how well our u13s represented the Fingal community.

A four-team Fingal indoor cricket tournament took place at Gormanston College during the school mid-term break on Tue, November 1st involving the following clubs: Malahide, Rush, The Hills & Balbriggan.  It is pleasing to see that since the event took place, Balbriggan CC has continued to play games inviting clubs to Gormanston every Sunday for further fixtures, and all partners wish to encourage all teams to look at creating more indoor competitions.

There is considerable potential for cricket to be touring ambassadors of our community both within Ireland, and Europe, and it’s something we would like to try and further develop with the Sports Office if possible.

GROWTH IN CRICKET EDUCATION

The growth in youth interest in cricket means Fingal has to grow its ability to coach in financially secure and safe environments.

Coach Education:

A ‘Coaching Kids’ (age 7-11) coaching course took place at Castleknock College, Dublin 15 with 21 new coaches attending. On a recent ‘Coaching Cricket’ course, four new coaches from Swords CC attended as they plan a new club coaching programme to be delivered at Swords CC and surrounding areas. Their first ever youth training session took place at River Valley Sports Centre, Swords on Saturday, Nov 5th.

Club Education:

A Community Activities Funding Workshop delivered by Fingal County Council was attended by many Fingal cricket clubs on October 19th. Details regarding activity and sports equipment funding were discussed with the clubs involved, with a clear message of the council’s fullest support for clubs' continued development.

CONTINUED GROUND IMPROVEMENTS

A new drainage scheme was installed in Balbriggan Town Park by The Operations Department at Fingal County Council which has provided Balbriggan Cricket Club with an improved surface at the grounds.  Similar assistance is currently being provided to Swords CC as they look to explore further practice and match playing facilities for their members, which would be a further step in widening participation in that community.

Brian O’Rourke, the report's author was pleased with the progress in Fingal over the past few months adding “the evidence is clear cricket at every level is building back not only stronger but with more ambition than ever before to be at the heart of their communities”.

Niall McGuirk, Senior Sports Officer with Fingal County Council was pleased to see the report, adding “it is quite astonishing reading what has been achieved in just the last 120 days within our cricketing communities.  Many councils would expect to receive that level of development over an eighteen or twenty-four-month cycle, and it is a testament to the work the whole sports team are putting in, that we can proudly say Fingal leads the way in Ireland in cricket for all in its communities”.

For more information on cricket in Fingal, please contact Brian O’Rourke, Cricket Development Manager at [email protected]