Cappry Rovers set for Cappry Park return with pitch reopening

After two years away, Cappry Rovers will return home this Saturday as they open the new pitch at Cappry Park.

In 2022, the Division 1 club received a Sports Capital Grant of almost €100,000 to upgrade the playing pitch and its surroundings.

And despite a couple of setbacks and the weather affecting progress, the club will officially open the new pitch on Saturday evening with a number of events taking place on the day.

A blitz between some of the Under-8 teams will begin the day at 4.30pm before the official reopening ceremony of the pitch at 5.45pm.

A Cappry Legends versus the present Cappry team will then play the first official match on the new pitch at 6.45pm, followed by music and refreshments at the Roadhouse Bar after the match.

We received the Sports Capital grant to re-drain, re-surface and level the pitch with a new fence built around it,” Chairman Paddy McNulty said.

“The pitch previously was way off, there was a six-foot difference from one corner to the other but we moved the pitch upwards.

“In fairness to Finn Harps, we played at Riverside for the first year then we moved to the Finn Valley last year but with 18 underage teams between boys and girls, it was a lot of organising and fair play to Niall McGonagle for accommodating us and it was good to have that help in the community.

“The weather killed us with two bad summers but, looking back, we had that much soil to move that it was moved about a year ago and it settled for six months before we got the top layer done so in the long side of things it was good we got that time to let it settle.

“We have a council grant worth €50,000 and our dressing rooms are getting done up in August to be ready for the new senior season so that’s a big plus too.

“It’s something you have to take the bull by the horns on and as chairman, I got the backing from the committee to go for the capital grant and we got it so it was meant to be."

The club have been making plenty of other strides off the pitch in the last number of years, and in late 202,4 they received the One Star Award as part of the FAI Club Mark accreditation.

“We got a €25,000 grant to build a pathway around it, so you can walk around the pathway as a community area, which was another big plus from the club mark.”

The blitz will take place first on Saturday before the official opening of the new pitch by Minister for Sport Charlie McConalogue and Finn Harps defender Joel Bradley Walsh, who came through the Cappry Rovers Academy.