Suncroft GFC
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| Founded: | 1929 | ||||||||
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| County: | Kildare | ||||||||
| Nickname: | The Croft | ||||||||
| Colours: | Green and Red | ||||||||
| Grounds: | Suncroft Community Field, Askinraw Lane, Suncroft | ||||||||
| Coordinates: | 53°06′23″N 6°51′30″W / 53.106444°N 6.85828°WCoordinates: 53°06′23″N 6°51′30″W / 53.106444°N 6.85828°W | ||||||||
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Suncroft is a Gaelic football club in Suncroft, County Kildare, Ireland, winner of the Senior Hurling championship in 1974 and the Senior Football League in 1952. Paul Doyle was selected on the Kildare Gaelic football team of the millennium. Anthony Rainbow was an All Stars Award winner in 2000.
History
Curragh was one of eight teams who share the honour of being first to play Gaelic football on February 15, 1885. A club was formed in Suncroft in 1889 and in Maddenstown in 1901. Maddenstown won the junior championship in 1908, 1918 (with Paul Doyle on the team), and 1925 but amalgamated with Kildare in 1927 after the Curragh Camp affiliated. RIC records from 1890 show that Suncroft had 44 members with officers listed as Revd J Ramsbottom, Paul Cullen, Joseph Kelly and James Church. Brownstown were affiliated in 1896. Hugh Campion, Kildare GAA chairman 1972-81 came from the club.
Gaelic Football
Within a year of Suncroft reforming in 1929 they won the Junior championship and were defeated in intermediate finals in 1934 and 1937, eventually winning the 1944 and 1950 championships, progressing to win the Leader Cup in 1953. Their minors beat Sarsfields in successive minor finals in 1948 and 1949 - from that team Paddy Feeley won a Leinster medal with Kildare in 1956, Johnny Boyle an All Ireland medal with Dublin in 1958, He also captained the Kildare Minors for 3 years while Seamus Byrne played for the Irish rugby team. In 1981 Suncroft won a unique treble in under-age competitions winning under-11, 14 and 16. Anthony Rainbow was the most prominent player on a team that won the 1989 intermediate championship and reached the senior semi-final in 1995.In 2003 Suncroft lost the intermediate final to Sallins but won the Tony Keogh Cup beating Rheban. In 2007 Suncroft won the Intermediate final beating Ballymore and will now compete at senior level once more. And in 2007 Suncroft's John Brown went to Australia to play for Ireland.
In 2007 Suncroft were promoted to Senior status. In 2009, Suncroft completed one of the biggest shocks in the Kildare Senior Championship by beating the highly fancied Sarsfields by 2-12 to 0-15 on All Ireland Sunday morning in glorious sunshine at St Conleths Park.
Hurling
When Suncroft defeated Ardclough in the 1974 senior hurling final, 4-5 to 0- 11, against a team that had beaten them three times that season it was the greatest upset in Kildare hurling since Clane's defeat in 1921. Throughout its history, Suncroft had close connections with the nearby Curragh camp. It was founded by Dick Cahill and Bill Laford in 1948, and won Junior championships in 1951 and 1953 in the era of Paddy Feeley, Laford, James, Freeman, Seamus Gough, Patrick Fahy and Billy Quinn. Quinn starred on Suncroft teams that never reached a county final but beat Athy in 1962 and Éire Óg in 1963 in championship matches. The Suncroft side of the early sixties was probably its strongest, Frank Fogarty, Derry Noonan, Niall Cummins, Fintan Morrissey, George Shaughnessy, Denis Hanley and Mick Cunningham, all playing for the county, as did Noel Fahy throughout the 1950s. Suncroft defeated Broadford in the Junior final of 1973 to regain Senior status, and despite a 3-19 to 3-6 defeat by Ardclough in a championship group match, qualified for the County final. They won with a brand of hard ground hurling and by keeping Johnny Walsh scoreless from play. Frank Fogarty now 32, and Donncha O'Keeffe, now 28, survived from Kildare's 1966 junior championship team. Tommy Doyle scored two goals, Con McNamara and Eugene Sheehan a goal each as Suncroft came storming through for victory in the second half. Ardclough defeated Suncroft 7-18 to 0-7 in the 1975 final.
Camogie
Brownstown affiliated in 1965, registering their colours as brown gymslip, blue cream and pink sash. Maureen Carey, Nancy Lynch and Margaret Deering played for Leinster.
Honours
- Kildare Senior Hurling Championship Winners 1974.
- Senior F League 1952.
- Kildare Senior Football Championship semi-finalists 1995, 2009
- Kildare Intermediate Football Championship 1944, 1950, 1989, 2007.
- Junior A Champions 1977
- Junior F Champions 1930, 1962
- Minor B Champions 2015
- Minor F Champions 1944, 1948, 1949
- Keogh Cup Champions 2003
Bibliography
- Kildare GAA: A Centenary History, by Eoghan Corry, CLG Chill Dara, 1984, ISBN 0-9509370-0-2 hb ISBN 0-9509370-1-0 pb
- Kildare GAA yearbook, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 2000- in sequence especially the Millennium yearbook of 2000
- Soaring Sliothars: Centenary of Kildare Camogie 1904-2004 by Joan O'Flynn Kildare County Camogie Board.