Gaelic Football
Ardclough were the smallest community to win the Kildare football championship when Dan Graham's team beat a star-studded Army team in the replay of the 1949 county final, drawing a record attendance of 10,035 to the replay in St Conleth's Park. Goalkeeper Jim Nolan was the star of the drawn match, Christy Burke was the star of the replay, when a Dick McKenna goal before half-time and a series of points from the "Butcher" Graham and Jimmy Butler gave Ardclough a I-11 to 2-6 victory. They lost the 1953 semi-final by a point and beat both the Army and Sarsfields in Leader Cup finals before being regraded in 1958. Their rivalry with Sarsfields exploded into controversy in the 1950 county semi-final before a record 7,730 attendance. Ardclough's 1968 Jack Higgins Cup winners merged with the survivors of Kills' 1962 semi-final team to create area team Wolfe Tones which went to the 1971 semi-final and a three point defeat to Carbury. Ardclough won the Junior A and Jack Higgins Cup in championship in 2000.
Ardclough forms St Edward’s along with Rathcoffey and Straffan for underage purposes and St Edward's fields teams at all levels from Under 9 to Under 21.
Read more about this topic: Ardclough GAA
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)