Croydon Camogie Club
Area: CROYDON
Contact Details:
Katie Forde
Poulter Park
Bishopsford Road
Morden,
Surrey,
SM4 6AS
UK
Phone: 07764988618
Email Us
Website: http://www.croydoncamogieclub.com
History
The determination which showed back in 1999, when this club looked like folding, is still prevalent today in Croydon Camogie Club. Despite a number of setbacks during the season, the club has managed to field all its scheduled fixtures with the exception of one, which was due to the bereavement of a family member of two of the players.
In January last year, a member of the club tragically lost her life. In November, the club held its first tournament in her honour and invited teams from Ireland, Scotland, and London to take part. It was a brilliant weekend and the tournament was a great success. Due to that success, the club decided that The Catherine Frances Memorial should be an annual event. Broadford, County Kildare, were the winners of the Catherine Frances Memorial Cup, with Erin go Bragh of Birmingham the winners of the Plate section, which was sponsored by AIB of Croydon. The runners-up in each section were Green Isle of Catford and Tír Conaill Harps of Glasgow. The local paper reported on the event.
It has been a busy year for Croydon, both on and off the playing field. In March, members of the club presented shamrock to the Mayor of Croydon in the Mayor's Parlour, whilst others performed a number of Irish dancers for the Mayor and invited guests. Players helped with the raising of the Irish flag outside the Croydon Council's offices to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
The club held a Presentation Evening in April to present the members with their League Winners' medals and awards: (1) Top Scorer, Margaret Boyle, Limerick; (2) Best Beginner to the Game, Marie Flaherty, Galway; (3) Most Improved Player, Karen Rodriguez (née Noonan), Kildare-born; and (4) Club Person of the Year, Mary MacArthur, Kildare. The presentations were made by Councillor Mary Walker (last year's Mayor), representing the Mayor's Office.
We also took part in the Lewisham Iish Festival and Southwark Irish Festival during the last 18 months, promoting camogie, playing the Celts on both occasions, and were fortunate to come out on top to collect the Wodman Cup at Lewisham and the Southwark Irish Festival Cup. The cup was presented to Margaret Boyle, the club Captain, by Etty Kelly, President of the London County Camogie Board.
Having increased our membership over the last two years, this year has seen us lose quite a few as some have returned to Ireland and some have "emigrated" there. It is hard to believe that there are now people playing camogie in Ireland who first took up the game in Croydon. However, we are still attracting new people to the club.
Work is being done within the club to develop the game locally and encourage the growth of its underage section. It is nice to see more young "home-grown" girls taking up the sport.
We were rather fortunate with sponsorship this season. We are grateful to Flannery Engineering for sponsoring the nets both for the back of the goal area and the area immediately behind the goals (which keeps the balls from both going out on to the road and into the neighbours' gardens). Assured Preservations sponsored our jerseys and Oakway Construction came up with new tracksuits for us.
Currently, Croydon are topping the Junior League and having reached the Junior Championship final are hopeful of adding more silverware to the cabinet. We would like to thank Barry Shortall, Martin Carroll and Sammy Quinn, who have helped with training (on a rota basis) this year. It has really been appreciated. We would also like to wish them all the best in their own hurling endeavours.
With the season almost at an end, the club has moved indoors and we train every Thursday evening from 7.30 to 9.30 in the gymnasium of Archbishop Lanfranc School, Mitcham Road, Croydon, where indoor camogie, team tactics, basketball and circuit training are all on the programme for the winter months. Activities are planned for next year, when the club will participate in its 16th season, together with fundraising ideas for a planned trip to Broadford.
A few of our members approached their local publicans with regard to showing the All-Ireland Camogie Finals, which we are happy to say we went and watched, and greatly enjoyed.
Croydon is located 12 miles from Central London to the south, and is in the county of Surrey. Croydon became a London Borough in the 1960s. It has good British Rail train links, and it takes approximately 20 minutes to get from Croydon to Victoria. Croydon tramlink opened approximately 18 months ago. Trams run from Wimbledon through to Beckenham (Kent) and Addington (Surrey) to Elmers End (Kent). Gatwick Airport is 20 minutes by train from East Croydon.
If any club would like to come to Croydon for a weekend, please contact Mary MacArthur at 00 44 208 6884941.
Our category listings:
Camogie : 2 - Clubs & Associations