The main reason why these protocols are in place is to keep us all safe, minimise risk of infection and enable contact tracing to work if someone has fallen ill. So here’s what you need to know:

1. you need to register as a member for 2020 and pay your subs!

• only fully paid up members can attend.You can register for membership this year online here
• If you have registered, please pay your subs and email the club confirmation of payment

Please note: Membership has to be strictly enforced this year, due to insurance and COVID requirements.

2. You need to complete the forms and book a training session. .

• Before you attend training you need to complete out a COVID declaration form. We have made this easy and it is online here.
• You then book a training slot. We currently have Wednesdays and Fridays open.  This has to be booked at least 24 hours beforehand.

3. Attending Training .

• There are sets of guidlelines that we all must follow to keep each other safe. Please read them here. 
• The clubhouse and toilets will not be open, so you need to arrive in your clothes and use the toilet before you leave for training!
• Please arrive on time and not early. There is no parking at the clubhouse, so park on the roadway.
• Walk down the track to the club house to the quarantine area and use the sanitisation station that will be set up outside the club house.
• Only use your own equipment at training, train in the designated zones and follow the directions of the COVID officer who will be at your training.
• ONce you have finished training, please leave straight away via the gate by the nets and head back up the trackway to the main road.

4. Playing Matches,

• There will be a similar set of guidelines published.
• You will need to complete the declaration form prior to the match and be included on the list of players selected to play.
• Prior to the match commencing, the Covid Safety Officer has to sign off on all members of the teams playing and will need to check memberships and signed declaration forms.
• Follow the guidelines for return to playing. They will be published shortly.

With thanks,

Michael Condon, Chairman

Lismore Cricket Club

Designed by Club Member Dan Dixon (http://www.dandixondesign.com/) the Jersey sport our new Club Logo, with our iconic Lismore Blue Emblem. The Jerseys are now available in our regular white, and the new colour T20 one will be available shortly.

Our thanks to Dan for coming up with a great looking design. We hope you like them as much as we do. They are available for €25 Euro for members, and come in the following sizes.  Please contact the club at lismorecricketclub@gmail.com to order one

We are also inviting shirt sponsors, so please let us know if you, or someone you know is interested in helping sponsor the club.

With a lot of people on a reduced working schedule, we recognise those additional financial difficulties. However costs of running the club still remain, with spending on insurance, grounds maintenance and upgrading the club house to make it suitable for COVID guidelines that may be put in place. We thank all members who have paid memberships already and encourage all other members to support the club over the coming season.

The LCC committee met on May 21st and it was agreed that we should encourage members to pay at least some subscriptions this year, by bank transfer. It was agreed that the club reduce membership fees by up to 50% for the 2020 season. 

The updated fees and bank details are on our membership page

Paying membership by bank transfer will:

• Help the club cover expenses incurred in the year to date.
• Allow you to train at club facilities and play in matches. This will be more tightly monitored as only Club Members will be able to participate this year due to COVID restrictions.
• Help the club cover expenses required to make the Club COVID ready.

Members who pay their subscriptions are also asked to make an additional voluntary where they can afford to do so. Also, you can purchase one of our new club Jerseys for an additional €25 euro, which has been designed by the wonderful graphic designer Dan Dixon. 

For those who have paid memberships already, we thank you and will offer a 50% refund, or for you to carry over that portion of your subs to next year. Or give you free Jerseys. Whatever you wish!

Thanks and look forward to seeing you at the Castle Farm at some point in the near future.

Michael Condon, Chairman

Lismore Cricket Club.

Kevin is one of the best known Irish Cricketers of all time and has some memorable performances in the Irish Jersey, including  his magnificent 113 against England at Bangalore in the 2011 World Cup and more recently, his test century against Pakistan in Ireland’s test debut in 2018. Not only is he arguably Ireland’s greatest cricketer, he is a CICA qualified cricket coach and is coming to Lismore to pass teach us some of his skills and expeience over the Easter holiday break.

We will be running two sessions:

• Session 1 will run between 10am and 1pm, and will cater for 11 to 15 year olds. Cost is €15
• Session 2 will run from 2pm to 5pm and will cater for 15 year olds and above. Cost is €20

The event will be held at the club grounds, or at the Blackwater Community School Sports ground if the ground is too soft.

All are welcome from beginners up. We are particularly keen for new players who want to give the sport a try and experience for this memorable event. Places for this popular event are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

To book your place or to make further enquiries please email the club fill out the form below. Or you can text Ben on 086-3239654

LCC Contact Form:

• The Agenda for the 2019 AGM can be downlaoded here

The 2018 Minutes have been circulated already and will be taken as read on the night. If you would like a copy of the minutes, please email lismorecricketclub@gmail.com

Things that will be covered include..

• Entering 2 teams into the League and Cup, and a social team to play RTE, The Cavs etc.
• Kevin O’Brien Easter cricket camp (to be held on the 15th 16th April)
• Under 15 and U13 League
• Election of club officers.
• Club development plans.

If you are interested in playing cricket with us for the coming season either as a new member or a rejoining member, then this is the perfect opportunity to meet some of the other members and get involved.

Look forward to seeing you.

The 2018 Committee!

Lismore Cricket Club secured promotion to Division 2 of the All Rounder Munster Cricket Union League for 2019, securing 2nd place in one of the most exciting finishes to the league in recent years. The promotion was confirmed by the MCU fixtures secretary ahead of the Munster Cricket Union AGM on Sunday.

This is a remarkable achievement in a season that went right down to the final game of the season. We started with two heavy losses to Limerick and Cork County, however their fortunes were turned around with victories over Harlequins, Waterford District, and the return fixture with rivals Cork County. The winning streak was interrupted by a loss at home to the eventual league winners Limerick. However, results elsewhere meant that Lismore could put themselves in with a chance of promotion if they secured the maximum 25 points in both their closing games with North Kerry. Knowing what they had to do, the 1st XI delivered with excellent batting performances in both matches, winning by 90 runs in the away fixture and 94 runs in the return match at the Castle Farm. It was then a case of waiting to see whether Cork County could repeat the result against Limerick in the final game of the season. Cork County did win but just fell short as they couldn’t secure the bonus points needed in a rain shortened match. The final standings were 1. Limerick (175 pts), 2. Lismore (157 pts) and 3. Cork County (154 pts). The results and final standings are available here

“We are delighted for the lads” said Chairman Michael Condon. “After a difficult 2017 we have really bounced back as a club, so it is great to be rewarded with some success. We have seen the return of past players as well as new members who have joined and added the strength and depth to the squad. Next year, we will have two teams competing in the league as well as a social team. At underage level, the U-13’s and U- 15’s will also play competitive cricket, so 2019 is going to be busy and fun!”.

We are looking for new members to join their teams and we welcomes all ages from beginner level up. If you are interested in playing cricket next year, contact the club at lismorecricketclub@gmail.com or phone 086-3239654 and we would be delighted to get you playing. We start training again in February 2019.

Over the last year, all the focus at the club has looked to the future  – hours spent getting the pitch right, improving the square, scheduling matches, encouraging the youngsters and chasing membership fees to cover the cost of the insurance and  petrol for the mowers. But with the recent turn in the weather, this week saw a number of events conspire to remind the club of times past.

The old Slazenger bat at the Club house.

It started last weekend, where a bit of attention was given to the equipment and sorting out the clubhouse bats.I sifted through about fifteen in all, working on those that should compliment our new purchases and discarding the old and split. Two hours were spent re-gripping perished handles, sanding out old nicks and chips. Applying coats of linseed oil onto thirsty willow, all the while convincing myself that such effort will result in at least 10 additional runs to each of our innings over the coming season, and I expect to be proved right!

About half way through, I picked up a short handle Slazenger – wrinkled, old, yellowed and well worn. Unsure of the model or the vintage, for that ink had long since disappeared, my first impression was that this one was fit for ‘beach bats’ pile. Then I turned it over in my hand and looked down the spine, stumbling into one of those special moments where the past cheerily jumps out to greet you right there and then.

All the way down the back were faded biro scribbles, with doodles and names such as Michael Kiely, Carl Quinn, and Neal O’Keeffe etched into the wood, along with some more exotic tags such as  ‘Eastwood O’Callaghan’, ‘Peter Rambo’ and ‘Coxy’.

I looked at the names and markings for a good while – they were unfamiliar to me and the only clues I had to their time was ‘Liverpool’ scribbled near the splice, which along with the Eastwood / Rambo reference,  suggests that this heralds from their common heyday back in the 80’s. The mind conjures up scenes to try and bridge the time gap – perhaps this was a team that won a cup or a league? Perhaps some friends marking their time together? Or maybe they were just bored, stuck in the clubhouse waiting for the rain to pass during the last match of a dull season. Was it a even a Lismore bat, or was it left here by another club? Not giving any more of its secrets away, I turned the bat over, picked up ball  and tested it out. I found it to be light, well balanced, sound and still in possession of a decent enough spring from the small sweet spot. I’d happily head out and face an innings with this one. No- a bat such as this deserves to be kept and spoken of. I spared the sandpaper, but gave it a coat of oil and put it up on the rack where it rightly belongs.

Earlier this week, I called to visit Dermot Edwards who is recovering from a knee replacement in Conna Convalescent Home. Dermot is still a main pillar of our club, the last of a long family connection that extends back to the time of his great great uncle Frances Currey, whose son Chetwode was the first recorded club secretary of 1872. Those who know Dermot will recall a good cricketer with a great passion and a deep, old-school knowledge of the game. Many consider him to know more about ground care and maintenance than many of the professional groundsmen at English County grounds. Why we have such a good ground today is largely down to him.

Now well into his 80’s he is currently in frail condition, though his mind is strong and in possession of a determination to complete his recovery and return home to continue work on his memoirs. We had a good talk about his many memories of the club and games from years long passed, including one incident around 1998 where, when rushing to get the U-15’s to the Maradyke for a game, he got blocked by two lady drivers on Blarney St. in Cork – he beeped the horn, and they then proceeded to berate him. Those that remember Dermot’s temper can well imagine the Basil Fawlty type scene that ensued! More on that one later, but the knowledge and memories that he still holds also deserve to be remembered and recorded where possible.

Munster Junior Cup Winners of 1978.   Back row: Scarf O’Neill, George Kingston, Ger Foley, David Lee, Michael Hickey, Dermot Edwards, Jim Campion, Matt Gough; Front row, Joseph Pollard, Gus Kingston, Paddy Pollard, Eric Flynn, Paddy Pollard, Gerard Kennedy, Alen Cox, John Campion

I also had a pleasant introduction to past member Michael Hickey this week, who has helped compile a brief history of the club and who kindly forwarded the team photo above. He recalls a conversation with another past member Trevor Endersen, who promised to show him (and hopefully share) his collection of club photographs and memorabilia. Sadly, he never got to see the hoard as Trevor had passed away later that year of 2004 and where those items are now – well who knows?

It prompts one into thinking about how important history is to a club, how fragile those links are and how easily it can be lost. Clubs and the communities  must look after their cultural heritage, as these are roots from which the present rises and the future grows. To throw in a gratuitous analogy here – any groundsman will tell you that the durability of a crease is partly governed by the quality of the grass root structure that lies underneath – poor and it may not last a match, let alone a season. It’s why we had to drill sew the square this April!

In just over five years time, this club will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the earliest official record we have of a club committee, and now is a timely point to gather as much information as we can about those years. So we are putting a call out to all past members, local historians, friends and patrons of the club to help contribute in whatever way they can. We ask them to dig out and share any memorabilia, stories, names, anecdotes, records, photos, reports – anything that tells the story of the club. Hopefully, we will source enough material that can be compiled into a small publication to properly mark this milestone.

Back to that scene on Blarney Street – Dermot did recall was that I was a passenger in the car that day. He was correct and I confessed to remembering the scene well. Looking back it was hilarious, but neither of us could go on to remember who won the match! I returned to visit him at the weekend and brought him a copy of that photo along with a pen and notebook, and I asked him to jot down some more of those memories. I hope that these will lift his spirits and that he returns to the top room of his house to compile the material he has and finish his memoirs.

If you would like to get in touch about kick starting or contributing to this project, or just wish to join the discussion, please add a comment to the page below or email lismorecricketclub@gmail.com. We are particularly interested if you know more about that bat!

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

– B.H

The page will contain fixtures, results, match details and reports, league tables and much more. We will also post up news updates to keep everyone up to date in what is happening.

It is expected that this will happen over september 2018 so check back and see how we are progressing.

Thanks,

Ben