Kildare's Stuart Conroy honoured by Cricket Leinster
The Cricket Leinster Annual Awards night saw Stuart Conroy Honorary Secretary of Halverstown Cricket Club, Kildare receive the award for 2024 Activator of the Year
A record attendance at the Cricket Leinster Annual Awards night in the Mansion House, Dublin, saw Stuart Conroy Honorary Secretary of Halverstown Cricket Club, receive the award for 2024 Activator of the Year.
This was recognition for the Kildare man's work in running the Cricket Leinster “Smash It” and “Its Wicket “ programmes for Halverstown and for his pioneering development work of cricket in mid and south Kildare more generally.
Stuart, together with a small but dedicated team of helpers, launched the first summer camps in 2022. These took place in the beautiful surroundings of Halverstown’s ground on the Harristown estate, Brannockstown.
The follow-up camps in 2023 and 2024 were sell outs, attracting a full house of mixed groups of boys and girls. From here Stuart and the team, notably Jim Hodgson, have undertaken coaching at local primary schools. Starting with just 3 schools, in 2024 it had grown to 6 and in 2025 will be 9. 2024 saw the first inter-schools competition with the Halverstown Cup, the winners of which, Two Mile House National School, were presented with their trophy by then Minister for Sport Catherine Martin.
The success of the summer camps has led directly to Halverstown fielding its first solo youth team in its 140 year history, The Acorns. The next step on the cricketing ladder to the two Halverstown league and two T20 cup teams would be The Oaks which plays social and friendly games. 2024 also saw the club’s first ever girls team . Halverstown CC has worked closely with Piper’s Hill College and this year the school will have junior and senior boys’ teams and a girls team.
Des Drumm, Chairman of Halverstown CC, commented: “The development of youth cricket in Kildare has been a major — and time consuming — project for Stuart and his dedicated team of activators.
"It is wonderful to see this hard work being recognised by Cricket Leinster and for such good groundwork to be done to secure the future growth of cricket in the county.”