Club History

Carrickfergus Cricket Club, established in 1868, was one of the founder member clubs of the Northern Cricket Union in 1887 and remains one of the oldest surviving clubs in Ireland. Despite this longevity and pedigree, the Club has had a comparatively difficult history having, unbelievably, led a nomadic existence for more than 100 years.

It was not until the mid-1980's that a visionary and immensely hard-working committee began to realise the full potential of the Club with a sound and aggressive business and development plan which resulted in the opening of our original Middle Road facilities in 1988.

The committee, however, did not rest on its laurels and soon sought to build on these solid foundations.

With our own modern facilities in a rapidly expanding part of the town, the tremendous support shown by our growing social membership, (which has been in evidence ever since), meant that funds were soon available for further development and, in 1993, the club was proud to have (none other than!) Sir Garfield Sobers open its new two-storey extension with purpose-built changing facilities and a substantially enlarged lounge bar with viewing balcony.

Even a fire which caused significant damage to the club in 1998 did little to stifle the dynamic spirit and sense of optimism, with the Club reopening for limited business in a matter of days and reopening fully refurbished premises within a matter of weeks.

A recently completed ground refurbishment programme has included a pitch extension at the 'Knockagh End' (no more straight sixes for Alan 'Not-So-Ranatunga' Bell!) and a top-quality double-berth practice installation as well as further improvements to our drainage. Most recently, the Club has completed another ambitious extension programme to the clubhouse and playing facilities.

Approximately £250,000 of investment has seen a sizable extension to the upstairs lounge bar (seen above left) and catering facilities, improvement and enlargement of changing facilities, and provision of storage for ground maintenance equipment. A sound underpinning business plan has ensured that, even with this substantial recent investment, the Club's financial position remains strong, thanks in the main to the continued and greatly appreciated support of our membership and sponsors. As a result, the committee already have one eye on the continuing development of our facilities...

For those interested, the old development page with detailed plans and projections of the extension remains available...

If you are involved in, or know of, a company which might be interesting in partnering with the Club to assist us in further developing cricket in East Antrim, please do contact us. We have sponsorship opportunities for businesses of all sizes and all budgets and we are also always keen to hear from retailers who would be prepared to support our Club lottery.