Winter Sports - Rugby
The contractor comes down from Ballymoney and spends a week here at a time to justify bringing the equipment here. He may also work at other sports grounds in the neighbourhood while in this area
”
devotes quite a lot of his time to the club. “There are no staff members employed by the club and all the team that looks after the grounds are volunteers,” said Moore. “Some of them are retired and some of them want to be retired!” “All our grounds work is governed by the
weather. If it isn’t playing ball, then we can’t do our job.” “The Russell Pitch, where the cricket
two years in the Boys’ Brigade 20 Overs Evening Cricket League before gaining admittance to the now defunct Belfast Cricket League in 1971. For much of its history, the club had used
pitches belonging to Belfast City Council, but was fortunate enough to find a permanent home of its own in 1996 when it was invited to join up with Ballyclare Rugby Club at Cloughan Lane in Ballyclare. The rugby season starts in August and runs
through until mid-April the following year. At the same venue, the cricket season commences at the beginning of May and runs until the end of August, creating a slight overlap when the grounds are used by both clubs at the same time. Grounds convenor for the rugby club is
Peter Caldwell who is joined on the grounds committee by Moore Kennedy. Moore is very passionate about the
grounds and the upkeep of the facility and “
square is located, used to be bog land which was filled up with over twelve feet of rubble and soil over time.” “We have a very energetic membership
here and the grounds do take a beating over the seasons with quite a lot of games played on them. However, all four pitches and the training field are quite resilient and can handle the abuse.” “We do look after them well though. When the grounds are vacated at the end of the season, we commence a programme of seeding, draining and sanding. Outside contractors are used for the sanding, seeding and verti-draining operations which take place over a week long period in the year,” said Moore. “The contractor comes down from Ballymoney and spends a week here at a time to justify bringing the equipment here. He may also work at other sports grounds in the neighbourhood while in this area.”
There are four adult teams playing at the club, with three youth teams aged 18, 16 and 14. This is on top of two under 15 teams, two under 13 teams, two under 11s and a team of 35 youngsters with learning disabilities known as the Clare Hares. The Clare Hares initiative was first set up by Moore Kennedy and Clifford Gilmore to provide tag rugby for people with a learning disability. On top of that, Ballyclare Rugby Club hosts
probably the biggest mini rugby tournament in Ulster. The last time this event was held was in 2016, when it attracted a massive crowd of 1,200 kids from Primary 3 to Primary 7 age groups to the club. “The children come from all over Northern
Ireland, Scotland, England and the Republic of Ireland,” said Moore. “It really was a huge event and took a lot of organising. However, our rewards are gathered from seeing the children enjoying themselves playing in the event.” Moore also helps arrange this tournament which runs so smoothly that some of his colleagues said it was organised and ran “with military style precision”. The rugby club premises are also home to
a hockey pitch that was once used by a ladies hockey team but now lies defunct as a pitch, but useful for extra car parking. “That pitch used to be fully functioning,
The Russell Pitch, where the cricket square is located, used to be bog land which was filled up with over twelve feet of rubble and soil over time
58 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017
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