History of Knockharley Cricket Club
Knockharley is the only cricket club in county Meath competing in the
Leinster Leagues. The club is located in Veldonstown, which is just 7
miles from Navan.
Currently Knockharley competes in three leagues in the
Leinster Cricket Union and has had many successes over it's 25 year
history.
We currently have Three Adult Teams and an U-13 boys team which competes in the Leinster League.
Introduction of KCC Chairman: Duncan Grehan
Duncan Grehan is current Chairman of KCC . Appointed at the AGM in March 2015, he succeeds Conor fFrench-Davis as the third Chairman of the club since it was set up. A member of the club since 1983, Duncan has captained the KCC First X1 [1996], and also occasionally since then its Second X1 and Third X1 teams. A playing member, he is known for his bowling and regularly is asked to open the batting. He set up his law firm in 1984 and practices as a solicitor from 24 Suffolk St , Dublin 2 and since 1992 has resided with his wife, Barbara, and family in Dunsany , Co Meath.
He is an avid cricket enthusiast and has traveled in support of the Ireland X1 in 2007 to Jamaica and in 2015 to New Zealand ,Australia and Tasmania.
2017 and 2019, he toured Pakistan along with "The Wounded Tigers" XI
Origins - by Conor French Davis
Knockharley Cricket Club was founded in 1982
after it had been noticed that the game was being played during the
summer months in back gardens
throughout the area during the previous
year. A group of interested persons approached Mr. Richard Byrne of
Ashfield, Beauparc, County Meath who
had played the game over many
years. Mr. Byrne was most enthusiastic and very generously made a piece
of ground in a field behind his own house available
to the fledgling
Knockharley Cricket Club. The following year league cricket was started
in the Leinster League and at the end of their first season the club
moved
up a league, a move that was repeated the following year.
In 1985 a second XI was started and an
existing agricultural building was converted to a clubhouse with all
facilities including a veranda into which all our
resources at the time
were sunk. The second XI entered the bottom Leinster League in 1986 and
has played league cricket consistently ever since.
In the late eighties a
ladies eleven flourished with three successive moves up the league
ladder in 1989, 1990 and 1991.
By 1992 Knockharleys first XI had
progressed up through six leagues.
The old grounds at Ashfield were the host to
many representative ladies matches, including an Inter-provincial in
1993 between North Leinster and Ulster.
The supreme moment came in 1995
when the under 19 International between Ireland and Denmark was held
there as a follow-up to the
Ladies European Cup in July.
In 1994 Richard Byrne, on whose land the
club had been playing on for eleven years announced his intention of
retiring from farming.
In order to fulfil the terms of the farm
retirement scheme it would be necessary to turn his farm over to this
successors unencumbered, and so he was obliged to
give notice to the
club that at the end of the subsequent season, in about eighteen months
we would have to leave the grounds.
This was a watershed in the history of the
club. The difficulty in finding a suitable landowner who was willing to
restrict his/her farming activities in the area
where the games could be
played was obvious. There was no question of folding up the club, so
the logical course of action was to purchase our own ground.
Early the
following year a piece of land only a mile and a half from the grounds
of Ashfield, in the townland of Veldonstown became available.
Funds had
started to be collected as soon as the club had made the decision to
acquire a premises and the local community provided generous support.
This land was bought and became
Knockharley's new cricket ground. Immediately the task of preparing a
proper "square" was put in hand.
The outfield was also completely
drained, tilled and re-sewn. All the work was carried out with the
advice and supervision of the Leinster Cricket Union grounds
committee.