Are we back ? Extended out of office period has well and truly finished
Summer is definitely behind us as was witnessed on sidelines around the county last week as some players and coaches alike were ill-prepared for the deluge of rain – winter coats, rain gear, gloves and hats needed from now on ! Heating on
Lots has happened since our last club notes ! The All Irelands took place in July with Tipperary taking home the Liam McCarthy and the Sam Maguire heading somewhere outside Dublin but sure who was watching
Our adult games have concluded for the season, full updates below. Our Leaving Cert students got their results – well done, our 6th classers headed off to their new schools, and our most important members in Little Kickers and Little Devils headed off to school for the first time.
Around the Clubhouse
Lotto
We had no winner of our jackpot last night, congratulations to Colm Tyndall and Tom Johnson on winning the €50 lucky dips.
Our jackpot this week is €2,700. You can purchase tickets under the link below:
https://ardcloughgaa.clubzap.com/draws
Thank you to everyone who plays each week and our lotto committee who run the lotto each week.
Clubhouse
We are delighted to have hot food options available in the clubhouse. Why not come down and give them a try
Ardclough Club Draw 2025 in association with Club Kildare
We had a fantastic response to our Club Draw tickets. No winner on the 12th September, but we have 3 more draws left on the 26th September, 10th October and 24th October.
Golf Classic
Our Golf Classic takes place on Friday October 17th at the fabulous K-Club South course and thanks to Michael Fetherstone and all his team at The K-Club again. Shotgun start at 1pm , light lunch at 12 o’clock. To enter a team (€350) or sponsor a tee (€100) send an email to ardcloughgaagolfday@gmail.com. You can also call or send a WhatsApp message to Brendan Smartt on 087 2620854.
Dermot Earley Youth Leadership Programme
Last February we announced that we were hoping to run the Dermot Earley Youth Leadership Programme in Ardclough. It is an amazing programme for 15-18 year olds to develop the skills and qualities necessary to be good leaders and challenges them to use these skills to improve society.
We are beyond thrilled to have facilitators in place, we have our 18 young people and we were delighted to see them and their parents at our information evening last night
Ann Marie Earley gave them an over view of what’s involved in the programme and we were joined by two past participants from Clane who gave us an overview of their experience.
We are really excited to get started on October 3rd and looking forward to seeing our participants enjoying and learning on the programme, getting a day out in Croke Park and the option to get to graduate from NUI Galway with a NFQ Level 6 qualification
Young Leaders Fundraising
We are so very proud of all of our young members of all that they achieve on and off the pitch. We were delighted to see that Caoimhe Mangan , following in her Grandad John Phillips’ footsteps, is travelling to South Africa in March 2026 as part of the Niall Mellon Education Transition Year Blitz Programme. She spent today (20th Sept.) in Supervalu Sallins bag packing and if you would like to support her you can Revolut on https://revolut.me/elaineei1s
Well done Caoimhe, best of luck fundraising and on the trip
Green Club
Our Green Club committee are working away in the background identifying potential projects for our club and have applied for seed funding. We’ll have a further update soon of these exciting projects.
Scór AGM
It was great to see 16 clubs represented at the recent Scór AGM, including Ardclough represented by Elaine and Séamus (pictured below). Provisional date for the competition is November 9th . Scór is a great way for people of all ages to contribute to club life.
We are looking for singers, actors for short entertaining drama and GAA quiz buffs to compete. Contact Elaine Dunne on 087 665 0818
On the pitch
It has been a really busy time for the club
Adult Team Championship Wrap
Camogie
Our camogs started their campaign at the end of August facing Rathcoffey in the preliminary round placing us in the B group. We played Celbridge & Naas during September with 2 losses. Great to see the team playing in the Intermediate Championship and we remain there for 2026 – well done to the players, management and camogie committee
Football
Our footballers played their final competitive game last week playing Kildangan in the Junior A quarter final losing out in the end. It was a long season for the team which started back in February with the Dowling Cup, the league and championship. A squad of 24 players fulfilled all competitive fixtures. Plans are already underway for the 2026 season to build on this year’s progress. Well done to the players, management team and the committee for their commitment and efforts this year.
Hurling
We’re just about able to speak about the Senior Hurling preliminary round versus Éire Óg.. just ! After the drama of the game which saw us lose on penalties after extra time, the team went on to play 3 fixtures in group B. A comprehensive win over Moorefield secured our senior status for 2026 and brought Ardclough to the attention of the club fan with our match aired on Clubber, a first for the club and a nice hat trick for Ronan O’Malley on the night.
The junior team having racked up a win, draw and loss, made a championship quarter final losing to Clane by a point in a thrilling game.
Our Minors competed in a summer 7 a side competition winning the C final in July. Having qualified for the A Championship semifinal, they came up against a strong Celbridge team and unfortunately their championship ended. An phenomenal achievement to make it to the A championship semifinal stages.
Well done to the players, management and hurling committee
Roll on 2026 !!
Juvenile Teams
For our U12 to U16 teams , we are in the last few rounds of championship with some great football, hurling and camogie being played. Lots still to play for with some teams guaranteed a semi-final at this stage and some potential spots still in play. There is nowhere better to be than the sideline watching the skills , the scores, the teamwork of our young players.
Our Go Games teams had a break from fixtures for a few weeks during the summer, games returned at the start of August and will continue until end of October.
Meanwhile we have hosted blitzes, travelled to them , played challenge matches – it is great to see all our teams travelling around the country representing our amazing club. Our U10 footballers were in Dublin, U10 hurlers were in Éire Óg (and met the GAA president himself!), our U11 hurlers were in Dublin and Laois, our U12 hurlers were in Carlow – so many great days out !
Liam Hogan Cup 2025
Finally we finish our round up with the Liam Hogan Cup, what a fantastic day for the club and topped off with our U12 hurlers winning the cup beating Burgess in the final.
Once again over 160 players across 8 teams took to the field, what a day. A special word of thanks to the Hogan family and the small group of club members who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to organise the day and to all who baked and fed and tidied up on the day. As we always say, we are team on the pitch and off it.
Our full U12 squad competing in the Cup and Shield competition pictured below
Joint captains Finn Cafferkey & Matthew Kelly accepting the cup from Liz Hogan
Check out the highlights of the day :
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN_hfTBjdK7/?igsh=bmszcHBiNWFwYnZl
Coming up this weekend
Please check the fixture page on Clubzap App for full details in case of changes to venues / throw in times. https://ardcloughgaa.clubzap.com/fixtures
On Sunday our U14 hurlers play at home in the C Championship against Rathangan and our B Championship team head to Maynooth. Monday our U14 camogs travel to Donore to play Éire Óg and our U12 Edward’s H Championship team are in Rathcoffey against Balyna. Wednesday the U14 St Edward’s footballers are both at home for the B and H Championship games against Kill and Maynooth. And finally our U12 hurlers are at home to Maynooth on Friday night in the C Championship and our A Championship team head the short distance to Donore.
For Go Games its our U8 and U10 Footballers out today and then tomorrow our U7, U9 and U11 hurlers are playing. No Go Games camogie action this week !
Best of luck to all teams !
Straffard
Our Club Notes colleague over on the Straffard desk has well and truly shown us up over the past few weeks, ( and has been really supportive and definitely not been asking where our club notes are… every Friday … usually just after he posts his .. ) fair play, got that out of office off quicker than us.
Another fab update from Sean below on all the action from the girls in Straffard
Straffard LGFA | Straffard Club Notes – 19th September 2025
County Teams
The end of August saw most of our young county players compete in shield and plate competitions with Kildare.
Congratulations to Elwood McGreal playing for Kildare U15’s, who won the Hanley Holmes Sheild with wins against Cashel King Cormacs (Tipperary), Mallow (Cork) and Garryspillane GAA (Limerick).
Well done to all the players, we look forward to seeing you bring back all that you have learned to your teams and schools.
Club Notes
If you would like an item included in our Club Notes please email secretary.ardclough.kildare@gaa.ie and we will include it.
Thanks to everyone who sends in photos each week , don’t forget to send them onto May or Aoife
Ní neart go cur le chéile – Ard Cloch Abú