 | |
 | |
| Full name | Taylors Avenue |
|---|---|
| Location | Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland |
| Owner | Mid and East Antrim Borough Council |
| Surface | Grass |
| Tenants | |
| Carrick Rangers F.C. | |
Taylors Avenue is a football stadium in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is the home stadium of local football team Carrick Rangers F.C., but owned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. Taylors Avenue has a capacity of 6,000. There are two covered stands, with the rest of the ground made up of open terracing. [1] [2]
The ground, known before 1952 as the Barn Field, [3] was the home of Barn F.C. from 1889 until the club folded in 1928. [4] Taylors Avenue was originally founded as Barn Avenue where it was owned by James Taylor who owned the land as part of his converted barn estate. He set aside the land for the nearby Barn Mills National School to host sports events. [5]
In 2011, Carrick Rangers earned promotion to the IFA Premiership for the first time. However, Taylors Avenue did not meet Irish Football Association standards. Work to get the ground up to standards started with the aim of allowing Carrick Rangers to play their at least part of the season. In the meantime, they groundshared with Crusaders at their Seaview ground in Belfast for the whole season. [6] They had to do this again in 2016 following flooding at Taylors Avenue. [7] It was originally planned that the redevelopment would include a 3G pitch, however following subsidence issues discovered during construction a natural grass pitch was retained. [8]
In 2015, Carrick Rangers agreed a naming rights deal for Taylors Avenue after a local hotel. [9] In 2019, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council awarded Taylors Avenue £69,000 from SportNI for ground improvements. They also received £13,000 as part of the Department for Communities' Access & Inclusion Programme in order to improve the toilets. [10]
Carrickfergus is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, 11 miles (18 km) from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest town and one of the oldest towns in Ireland as a whole. Carrickfergus Castle, built in the late 12th century at the behest of Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy, was the capital of the Earldom of Ulster. After the earldom's collapse, it remained the only English outpost in Ulster for the next four centuries. Carrickfergus was the administrative centre for Carrickfergus Borough Council, before this was amalgamated into the Mid and East Antrim District Council in 2015, and forms part of the Belfast Metropolitan Area. It is also a townland of 65 acres, a civil parish and a barony.
Ards Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Championship. The club is based in Newtownards, but plays its home matches at Clandeboye Park in Bangor, which it rents from rivals Bangor to play home games. The club colours are red and blue.
Crusaders Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Premiership, highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club, founded in 1898, is based in north Belfast and plays its home matches at Seaview.
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Carrick Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1939, hails from Carrickfergus, County Antrim and plays its home matches at Taylors Avenue which is known as the Loughview Leisure Arena due to sponsorship reasons, which is owned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. Carrick Rangers main rivals are Larne, with matches between the sides being known as, "The East Antrim Derby." Ballyclare Comrades are also local rivals.
The Oval is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which has been home to Glentoran F.C. since 1892.
Seaview is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Crusaders, and traditionally hosts the final of the Steel & Sons Cup on Christmas Day. The stadium holds 3,383, and has a 4G playing surface.
Paul Leeman is a Northern Irish football coach and former footballer who is currently first team coach at Crusaders.
Barn United Football Club is a Northern Ireland, intermediate football club from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland playing in Division 1B of the Northern Amateur Football League. They play their home games at Haslett Park, next door to their local rivals Carrick Rangers. The current club formed in 1954 taking its name from an earlier team, Barn, which played in the Irish League from 1923–1928. As well as Barn's first XI, they field a second team in the Amateur League Division 3B and several youth teams in the East Antrim Youth League.
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The Northern Amateur Football League, also known as the Northern Amateur League and often simply as the Amateur League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 13 divisions. These comprise four intermediate sections: the Premier Division, Division 1A, Division 1B and Division 1C; three junior sections: Division 2A, Division 2B and Division 2C; and six reserve sections.
Antrim, sometimes known as Antrim Borough to distinguish it from the former constituency of the same name, was a single-member county constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
Kirk Hunter is a retired Northern Irish footballer. While he played less due to injuries and suspension in the later stages of his career, he won two Irish League titles with Crusaders, and is one of the most decorated Crusaders players.
Albert Watson is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays for NIFL Premiership side Carrick Rangers.
The Shore Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs through north Belfast and Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland. It forms part of the A2 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to the County Antrim coast.
The North Belfast derby is the name given to football matches between Cliftonville and Crusaders who play in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two are separated by around 1.5 miles with Cliftonville based at Solitude on Cliftonville Road and Crusaders at Seaview on the Shore Road.
Barn Football Club is a former Irish football club based in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. It was founded in 1889 by workers in the James Taylor & Co. cotton mill, known as the Barn Mills, in Carrickfergus. The club entered the Irish Junior Cup for the first time in 1890–91 and the County Antrim Shield in 1891–92, in which they reached the semi-final. In 1923, Barn was elected to an expanded Irish Football League, but retained membership only for five seasons. Financial difficulties meant that the team played the 1927–28 season with a squad made up entirely of amateurs, finishing second bottom, and folding at the season's end The club's ground was the Barn Field, later known as Taylors Avenue.
The 2015–16 NIFL Premiership was the 8th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 115th season of Irish league football overall, and the 3rd season of the league operating as part of the Northern Ireland Football League.
David Cushley is a Northern Irish semi-professional footballer who plays as a forward for NIFL Premiership side Carrick Rangers.