Fund Raising in the early years

Fundraising is the bane of every Sports Club and it seems it has always been so.  Clontarf Cricket Club was well known in the area in its early years for their extremely popular music shows that were put on in the Town Hall, as early as the 1890s.  The shows continued annually well into the early 20^th century and were good earners for the Club’s coffers.  The dances run in the Club throughout its lifetime are well known and contributed enormously to the social life of the Clontarf area.

Recently, we have come across some other fund raising ventures tried in the Club’s early years.  The first is a straightforward draw from 1921, but the prizes are well worth checking out.  Not sure too many people would be that happy these days with a prize of a sack of flour, though the top prize was probably well worth winning.



1921 Fund raising draw



Winners were notified through the newspapers.

Another more innovative money maker was the Stop Watch competition.  This was tried in 1920s, the version in the picture below was from 1923.   The idea was that a Stop Watch was wound and sealed in a watch maker in Dublin city.  It was left in view and the idea was that one had to guess the time at which it would stop.  Club members had to sell “lines” which indicated the time at which the watch would stop.   In the 1922 competition the winning time was 8 hours, 8 minutes and 21 seconds and was won by Mr. G.J. Bonass from 81 Wellington Road, Dublin.



1923 Stop Watch Competition



The Distaff side 1987

When Fergal Tobin took over the publication of the Club’s Programme, he recognised that the Ladies Club (before amalgamation) did not have a voice.  Therefore, he offered a column to Stella Downes, who wrote about all club matters both playing and social.  Her social commentaries were hugely popular unless of course you featured in them.  One of Stella’s great talents was to avoid naming names while making it perfectly clear just who it was that she was talking about.  The column was called “The Distaff Side” and this one is from 1987 immediately after a disastrous Cup Final defeat to YMCA for the 1st team but as Stella says – what a night!  P.S. no one was hurt in the making of this column.....

 Disgraceful Behaviour                      Stella Downes

It’s amazing how many post mortems can be conducted after a single match. The Senior Cup final was one such game.  Well this article is not even going to mention cricket – but what a night it was!  When the game ended early, there was always a danger that the night in the bar would be a non-event, with the victorious YMCA team gone home to Claremont Road and a disheartened crew left supping pints in the corner, discussing the good old days of Clontarf cricket when a collapse in batting was unheard of. The night however took a totally different turn.  The expected exodus never occurred and when the band struck up, there was no way anyone wanted to leave with so much dancing going on in the aisles.  The antics that followed were quite incredible.  Just when things were really getting going, a hush descended over the bar as the Mighty Atom hauled himself up onto the rafters to set the standard for a chin up competition.  One young lady was hoisted up and was assisted in shattering the record.  The look of astonishment on the face of the drummer was a sight to behold as she beamed at her audience while passing 25.  He was obviously unaware that she was being given several helping hands.

Later in the night the victorious Ladies 1^st XI returned with the cup and joined in all the fun. Out of this arose a great mystery: where did the cup disappear to? Is it possible that a freckle faced young gentleman took it home when he couldn’t get his hands on the captain of the Ladies 1^st XI? One very busy young gentleman was the upwardly mobile stylist of the club, who took a stream of women to the changing room to show them his trophy.

The person perhaps made most infamous by the night would have to be the young batsman turned footballer who decided to kick anyone with whom he had had disagreements in the past, firmly believing that they would remember nothing in the morning.  One of the victims was the man generally known as the Bullfrog.  Another and perhaps more famous person was none other than the captain of the club who was unceremoniously dumped on the pitch, treated to physical and verbal abuse and then left to wander aimlessly towards what he thought was the pavilion but was in fact McTiernan’s hedge.

The Secretary of the club, who wishes to be renowned for his “loveability” obviously enjoyed the whole thing as he was found the following day snoring peacefully on one of the new benches while supposed to be watching the cricket. All in all it was a memorable night for those of us sober enough to remember it – everyone else mush depend on hearsay.

So far this has been a very successful season for Clontarf Ladies with both the 1^st and 2^nd XI winning their respective cup competitions.  At this stage, the 1^st XI are in the final of the 40 over league while the 2^nd XI have won their league.  Congratulations to Sandra Spence who took 8 wickets for 18 runs in the 2^nd XI cup final, that’s some bowling by any standards!