The centenary of the foundation of Enniscorthy Cricket Club will be marked by a Cricket Festival planned for the August Bank Holiday weekend in the old cricket grounds at the Showgrounds.
Details of the event were announced at a launch held in the Athenaeum Hall – the location of the founding meeting on February 26th 1919 – exactly a century to the day.

Ian Walshe outlined the details and recalled that when it was discovered that the centenary of the foundation of the cricket club was in February the seed was sewn that a match might take place in the summer of 2019 to mark the centenary.
People who may be interested were contacted and a small Committee formed consisting of George Copeland, Stephen Hadley, Martin Sheridan-Pope and Ian Walshe (and several others in the background).
Brain-storming commenced and grounds were looked at. The old cricket roller was found at the Showgrounds. A Facebook page and Group was set up with a view to celebrating the centenary and looking at the possibility of starting up the club again.
It was decided to have a Cricket Festival with a blitz taking place on Sunday, August 4th which would be a smash, bang wallop affair, with coloured clothing, music, 6-8 six-a-side teams taking part and a bit of food after the event.
On Bank Holiday Monday, August 5th there will be a match Enniscorthy v The Leprechauns in a ‘time match’ as a doff of a tweed cap to the past hundred years. Memorabilia and documents from a bygone era will be on display during the festival.
It will all be part of the Rock and Food festival. It is also decided have a big draw and for the whole Cricket Festival to be a fund-raiser for Slaney Search and Rescue a deserving cause who do a lot of hard work for the community and badly need the funding.
BRIEF HISTORY
Enniscorthy Cricket Club was founded in the Anthenaeum Hall on February 26th 1919. There is evidence that cricket was played before this, but a formal club was founded on that date.
The Club started in a field near Enniscorthy, but then had its home in the Showgrounds until it folded in 1968.
When searching through documents retained, over 500 different names were associated with the Club over the years and some of these families are still living around Enniscorthy today.
Cricket is still in some of those families with George Dockrell currently playing for Ireland. George’s grandfather Jim Quinn used to help with maintenance of the cricket ground in the Showgrounds. George’s father Derek Dockrell is the current President of Cricket Leinster.
Jack Tector, Harry Tector and Tim Tector have all captained Ireland at different levels with Harry currently with the senior squad in India.
Their father Heatley played for YMCA for years and his dulcet tones can be heard at Ireland’s cricket home internationals as he MCs the matches. Heatley’s father Bill (now deceased) was capped for Ireland in rugby and played cricket for Enniscorthy.
Leslie Deacon, Andrew Deacon and Terrence Deacon all played cricket for various clubs in Dublin. Their uncle George Copeland played cricket with Enniscorthy. Glyn Murphy played cricket for Railway Union in Dublin. His father John and uncles Sidney and David all played for Enniscorthy.
Ian and Jonathan Walshe played for various cricket clubs around Leinster. They are the sons of George and the nephews of Alfie Walshe (now both deceased) (Alfie better known in rugby circles for being on the winning Enniscorthy Towns Cup team in 1963) and grandsons of Ernie and Ethel Walshe.
Ernie used to look after the cricket grounds in the Showgrounds, was secretary to the Cricket Club and used to get the team out every week. Ethel used to make the teas at the home matches. Jonathan currently is President of the Midlands and South East Cricket Association.

Image courtesy of Leinster Cricket.

There was a lot of cross pollination in the sports in Enniscorthy which can be shown with Adrian Fenlon’s (All-Ireland winner in hurling in 1996) father playing cricket for Enniscorthy.
Alfie Walshe hurled for one of the local GAA clubs one day with a cap pulled down over his head to hide his identity but was spotted by the referee. The cricket gang-mowers were used to cut the GAA pitch in the Duffry Gate by Ernie Walshe. As a result of this he was able to get into the Wexford winning changing room in Croke Park in the mid-fifties when they won their three All-Ireland senior hurling titles with his son George acting as doorman of the dressing room. The Rackards were big fans of cricket.
The cricket gang mowers, drawn by a horse, were also used by Ernie Walshe to cut the Enniscorthy Golf Club fairways when the course was a nine-hole course. Some GAA players played cricket under pseudo names at the time of the ban. J Hobbs a famous English cricketer was often used in the scorebook. J Hobbs was also used in scorebooks by certain players if they didn’t want to be seen playing on a Sunday.