I have broken the numbers down in adult members of whom a lot would be running road races and juvenile/junior members who would be more involved in athletics on the track and cross country.
It should be noted however that not all clubs are the same. Some will have large numbers of Fit4Life members who are more interested in just keeping fit while others like Leevale AC will have a lot of members more involved in track athletics.
Another point is that more informal running groups and clubs are not shown....only athletic clubs that are registered with Athletics Ireland.
Adult members in athletic clubs in Cork...(50+ members)
St.Finbarr's AC are currently the largest club in terms of adult members with 213, up from the 199 of 12 months ago.
Midleton AC are in second place down from 272 in Sept 2013 to 202 now.
Eagle AC are 3rd with 189, up from 148 a year ago.
Bandon AC are another club experiencing strong growth going from 141 to 179 in the last 12 months. Leevale AC are in 5th with 165 adult members, up slightly from 159 of Sept 2013.
It's worth noting that 3 of the top 5 clubs are also based in Cork City where there is obviously a large population base to draw on.
From the rest...Youghal AC down to 134 from 203. Watergrasshill AC are a brand new club and come in at 107. Mallow AC drop to 106 from 122. Ballintotis AC are up slightly to 102 from 95. North Cork AC are really growing strongly going from 46 to 102.
Togher AC are nother club with a strong track base and they go from 77 to 93. Clonakilty Road Runners go from 74 to 86. Ballymore Cobh AC underwent a revamp this year and now include a lot more adult members. They go from 10 to 76.
These are the largest clubs in Cork based on the number of Juvenile and Junior athletes (50+ members)...
As you can see, there are really two big clubs for juveniles in Cork...Leevale AC and Bandon AC. The number of juvenile/junior athletes in Bandon AC has gone from 377 to 455 and have overtaken Leevale to become the largest juvenile club in Cork.
It's interesting to look at the size of Bandon AC and what the local population is. Surely there is plenty of scope for a lot of other clubs to do what Bandon AC has done?
1 Cork 199,230
2 Ballincollig 17,368
3 Carrigaline 14,775
4 Cobh 12,347
5 Midleton 12,001
6 Mallow 11,605
7 Youghal 7,800
8 Bandon 6,640
9 Fermoy 6,489
10 Passage West 5,790
11 Blarney& Tower 5,743
You can see the stats for all the clubs in Cork and the rest of Ireland at http://46.22.133.116/downloads/other/Membership_30th_September_2014_(Club).pdf
4 comments:
East Cork AC, probably the most successful adult club in Munster over the past 25 years, particularly in cross country are omitted from graph!
How can a running club exist without a track, or even a H.Q./ clubhouse to call their own? Is it a club if members only meet up at the side of a road to go for a run together?
What is the criteria for Athletic clubs..? Always wondered how towns & cities have running clubs with no facilities. How can they try and attract new members with only the promise of a couple of weekly runs along the footpaths?
Not having a go at anybody or anything, just always wondered this.
A lot of clubs can get on fine without a track. Intervals can be done on walkways or quiet roads or around a football pitch. Tempo runs , hill sessions and long runs are done on walkways and public roads.
Obviously those involved in the athletics need a proper track for the likes of sprinting, hurdles, pole vault and so on.
East Cork might be the most successful club in Cork over the last 25 years but its also one of the smallest. The graph represents clubs with 50+ members. So I suppose you can guess where they will be on the graph... A tiny blue dot at the end
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