This article is from page 14 of the 2011-04-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
LAHINCH Cricket Club hope to be able to play their first ever home match later this year following the outcome of last week’s AGM of the Lahinch Community Field Committee.
Following a stormy meeting in the Claremont Hotel in Lahinch last Monday night, none of the eight members from last year’s committee were returned for 2011.
The cricket club, along with a number of other local sports clubs, claim to have been denied access to the field in recent years. They have been training at the North Clare Amenity Park in Lisdoonvarna for more than a year now but they confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that they will make an application to use the Lahinch facility in the coming days.
Sporting Ennistymon, who also claim to have been denied access to the field in previous years, presented an application to use the field to the new committee after Monday night’s meeting.
“Now that a new committee has been elected, we feel that the door has been opened to us to play home matches and bring the Lahinch Cricket Club home to Lahinch,” said Colm Humpreys of the Lahinch Cricket Club.
“I would be very reluctant to pull out of Lisdoonvarna because they were so good to us there when we needed them but we are the Lahinch Cricket Club and we want to play our home matches in Lahinch.
“Ideally, we could continue to train in Lisdoonvarna and play our home matches in Lahinch.”
Sporting Ennistymon have applied for its Under 11, Under 13 and Junior members to be allowed to use the field. Spokesperson Tom Nestor yesterday wished the newly elected committee well and said that it was still possible that some of this year’s FAI AGM could take place in Lahinch.
“From Sporting Ennistymon’s point of view, we are looking forward to working with this new committee and to getting back to our ancestral home,” he said.
“We owe a lot to the wonderful facility in Lisdoonvarna – the club would have been forced to basically disband had it not been for them, and we are very thankful for all their help. We have made an application for three teams to play in Lahinch and we are hopeful that this will be looked upon favourably.”
The new committee in full are Eddie Crowe, Marie Vaughan, Adam Coleman, Brendan Scales, John Clair, Beatrice Ryan, Kenneth Kenny, Deirdre Murphy, Denis O’Sullivan, Michael Rouine, Bill Slattery and Tommy Rush.