Limerick Cricket Club

Pre-season Training

Winter nets for the 2012 season will be starting soon, once arrangements have been finalised they will be published here and on the Club's Facebook page.

2012 Membership

Membership for 2012 will open from Feb 1st onwards, all current members must confirm their renewal by completing a membership form, and all new members must complete their application before they partake in pre-season training. The Membership forms will be available at our training sessions and by request via email. All membership forms and subscriptions must be returned to an officer of the club on or before Sunday 8th April

2011 Season Round Up

The 2011 season will go down as a superb success for Limerick Cricket Club with the club taking home a Minor League and Cup double and reaching the semi-finals of the Junior Cup in the three competitions which the club entered in 2011.

Munster Cup Glory for Limerick Cricket Club

Limerick Cricket Club tasted Munster success for the first time in four years last weekend with victory in the Munster Minor Cup over Nenagh CC in Ballyeighan. It is Limericks third success in this particular competition and first win in a decade. It is reward for the hard work put in by all at the club and is the first silverware earned in the rebuilding phase of the club, laying a solid foundation for future success. With the club also top of the league table, it could prove a very successful year on another front too.

Typically with the threat of rain never far away and nerves evident on both sides, the match got underway. Nenagh having won the toss and put Limerick in to bat first. Openers Shane Burke and Bandam Suryam put on a very solid 29 run partnership, with Bandam in particular looking very comfortable at the crease, before Burke was bowled by Ginson Abraham for 6. Tahir Saqib was the next batsman in and he contributed 7 in a 30 run partnership with Bandam before he was also bowled, this time by Sebastian Joseph. Bandam was next to fall, bowled by Kannan Sree for a fluent 39 which included five 4s. With only one further run added fears of a Limerick collapse were rife but ultimately unfounded as Suman Sesham came to the crease and executed a quite superb innings. Bharath Senthivinayagam was already at the crease and scored two boundaries before being adjudged lbw off Jomy’s bowling for 8. Hashir Sultan then came to the crease with Limerick on 80-4 and looking set for a decent score, he played a solid innings, a perfect foil to the ever more aggressive Suman at the other end. Suman hit a beautiful straight six which resulted in the ball being lost. As a replacement ball was found the first rain stoppage occurred. While only a short shower it did cause alarm as to whether the final would be played to a conclusion or if the rain would cause it to be shortened. Upon the resumption Hashir and Suman kept batting solidly before eventually Hashir was caught by Sijo for 12, giving Ginson his second wicket. Fassy Ifthikar Ahmed was next in but unfortunately didn’t last long, caught by Kannan Sree off Jomy’s bowling for just 2. Just after reaching a superb 50 containing four 4s and that superb 6 Suman fell without adding a further run, caught by Sebastian Joseph off Sijo’s bowling. At this stage Limerick were 143-7 but unfortunately could only manage a further three runs to end up on 146 all out, Asif Shahab not out on 6 at the end, Hanu Kurapati, skipper Kevin Hennessy and keeper Declan Earley all registering ducks at the end.

The match was delicately poised at this point with both sides in with a chance to win. When Nenagh began their innings the openers were immediately put under pressure by the tight and accurate bowling of Suman Sesham and Fassy Ifthikar Ahmed with Fassy’s aggressive spell with great bounce off the track posed a real threat and the pendulum took its final swing in favour of Limerick. The first wicket to fall was that of Tom Paul, bowled by Fassy for a duck. Naoise Brooke joined Jojin Mathew at the crease and was looking extremely comfortable before he was run out for only 4 by a superb direct hit from Hanu Kurapati. Suman took a deserved wicket when he clean bowled Jojin Mathew for 11, which turned out to be Nenaghs top score on the day. At this point there was another rain interruption but on resumption Asif Shahab took over the show to guide Limerick to the title. In difficult bowling conditions he had Bharath Senthivinayagam worked in tandem for 12.1 overs, claiming six wickets in the process, Asif with a magnificent five-for. There was also another run out, this time expertly effected by Hashir Sultan. From short fine leg off his knees he disposed of Anulal Varikkatharappel for 9. Asif’s first victim was Ginson Abraham, bowled for just 9. Jomy was next up, also bowled for just 7. Bharath then got in on the act, bowling Kannan Sree for 6. Sijo was another bowled victim, this time for a duck before Jijo Joseph gave a leading edge which Fassy easily caught giving Asif four wickets. At this stage the writing was on the wall for Nenagh with the only question whether or not Asif would claim a maiden five-for or if someone else would take the final wicket. In the end Asif trapped Sebastian Joseph plumb in front for 4 to leave an easy lbw decision and Aji Antony unbeaten on 2. This sparked great celebrations for the Limerick players and fans.

After the game the team were presented with their medals and were understandably ecstatic, the Cup being the first competition any of these players have won with Limerick CC. Suman Sesham was awarded the man of the match for his superb half century and excellent bowling of 1-10 in six overs. Although it was a close run thing with Asif Shahab’s 5-19 making it an incredibly hard decision. This was Suman’s last game for the Club before returning home to India. It was therefore, a fitting end for a man who has been superb over the past few seasons and as he embarks on the next adventure of getting married he goes with the thanks and best wishes from all at Limerick Cricket Club.

2011 News

Limerick Cricket Club winter training has started on 08/02/2011. The training will takes place every Wednesday from 6.30pm-8.30pm at University of Limerick. Youth training takes place at St. Clements School Limerick.

Membership for 2011 is open from Feb 1st onwards, all current members must confirm their renewal by completing a membership form, and all new members must complete their application before they partake in pre-season training. The Membership forms are available at our training sessions and by request via email. All membership forms and subscriptions must be returned to an officer of the club on or before Sunday 10th April

Along with the membership form a questionnaire should be completed and brought to the winter training session. The aim of it is to give a better idea of where people see themselves within the team and to allow us a greater scope to determine areas of strength and depth, and those lacking, at the start of the season so we can plan ahead. This is really important for the upcoming season if we want to improve over last year and challenge for trophies this year.

News @ Munster Cricket Blog

Limerick Cricket Club is hoping to secure a new permanent home for the coming season when a final decision on the tenancy for the new sports facility on the grounds of Adare Manor is made.

Through the years Limerick have traditionally been a nomadic club, calling no less than nine venues home

since the club was founded in 1968. Their current home, the University of Limerick, has proved unsatisfactory for many reasons which has led the club to search for a new location to play their home fixtures.

The main point of frustration for the members of Limerick Cricket Club has been the unavailability of the UL playing pitches for a large number of weekends throughout the season. Speaking to The Munster Cricket Blog, Limerick committee member, Gay Lawlor, highlighted how the working relationship between the club and the university authorities has deteriorated since they began using the facility.

“We have been there for a long time and in that time have never managed to cement a really good working relationship with the university authorities. While there was a university cricket club relations were at their best but never ideal. Once all our players had finished in college there was nobody to maintain the cricket presence in the college. Because of this other sports took precedence over us and the availability of the ground was dependent on which other sports had bookings when we wanted it. In other words if there was any other booking for the same day we got bumped off.”

Lawlor went on to speak of how this has had a detrimental effect on the club: “It has a huge impact on the development of the club and has made it incredibly difficult to survive. We now have a situation where we get possibly two weekends all summer where the ground is available to us rendering more or less all of our matches away.”

With a majority of the Munster clubs based in Cork, this means Limerick are on the road most weekends during the summer. “In reality you meet at 8am on a Saturday morning and head off and generally get home around 10pm. It’s a big commitment for guys with young families. It also means that guys who come along and fancy a game every now and then get put off by the lack of one: home games and, two: facilities.”

Training facilities are another area which Lawlor highlighted as an aspect that is holding the club back. There are no practice nets, changing rooms or club house at the current UL site. “It’s really difficult to keep guys interested if you can offer them matches but not a club as such. Take guys from the UK for example who are used to going for a net at their club and having a pint afterwards or even just a shower and a chat. We can’t offer that and it’s understandable why guys lose interest.”

Limerick’s search for a new home got them on the radar of the local community sports project in Adare. The plan is to develop an area of land on the grounds of Adare Manor into a top class multi-purpose sporting facility.

When asked if the this new facility was the new home of Limerick CC, Lawlor said, “I would love to say that it is the new home of Limerick CC but it is very early for statements like that just now. We are very much part of their plans at the moment but there are a lot of hurdles to be crossed yet.”

“If and when we get the go ahead to play cricket there we are hoping to sign a long term tenancy agreement but as I said we are a long way from that right now.”

Commenting on how the facility will overcome the obstacles that have held the club back in their current location he went on to say, “We are promised that if a cricket pitch goes ahead that we will have full access for the summer months. There will be proper net facilities purpose built, an artificial wicket to start with and depending on how the project develops, a proper square has been discussed.”

“Something like this can’t fail to help us grow. We have circa 30 under 15′s ourselves at the moment and with the local community in Adare being involved I could quite confidently see that number doubling very quickly if the project goes ahead for us. Also at adult level’s we would have so much more to offer potential players and club people.”