Three Midlands Clubs Receive €5,000 Of Funding Each

Thursday, 4 March 2021 at 12:45

Laois Cricket Club, Drumcullen GAA and Ringtown Camogie club are the beneficiaries.

Three midlands clubs are benefitting from €5,000 each in funding from Texaco Ireland.

Laois Cricket Club, Drumcullen GAA in Offaly and Ringtown Camogie club in Westmeath.

The funds come from the €130,000 Texaco Support for Sport initiative launched last September by Valero Energy Limited.

Congratulating the club on its success, James Twohig, Director of Ireland Operations, Valero Energy (Ireland) Limited said,

“A feature evident in almost all applications was the pressure felt by clubs in the current circumstances to expand their role within their local communities with increased membership demands and the need for extra equipment and improved facilities.”

“The purpose of our initiative is to help clubs to overcome these obstacles so that they can continue to remain active and at the very heart of their local communities.

This is why we believe our initiative has been so warmly welcomed by sports clubs nationwide in its launch year,” he added.

Founded 50 years ago in Tullamore, the cricket club later moved to Portarlington and then to Portlaoise RFC before securing its new permanent home at Abbey, Stradbally where it won the 2020 Cricket Leinster Grounds of the Year award. Fielding players from more than 15 countries, the club is proud of the role it has played in integrating communities within the county.

The EUR5,000 award made to it under the Texaco Support for Sport initiative will be used to further biodiversity in its grounds-keeping, and to advance its position as one of the most successful clubs outside Dublin - with plans that include the running of a local league to
help promote cricket with six new players per team and the expansion of its underage section.

Overseeing the adjudication process was Texaco Support for Sport ambassador, former Irish rugby international and broadcaster, Donncha O’Callaghan. Referring to it as ‘a really worthy winner’, he described the club as “one in which everyone is included and welcomed, and that measures success on the true values of togetherness”.