The story of Kilmore Rec

The journey

1. 1967Two young local men, Bobby McClure and Dennis Lennon, call a meeting in April and form a club. Most of the players come from Kilmore, so the name is Kilmore United.
2. 1968Into the Newcastle & District League, playing at Hamilton's Field, halfway between Kilmore and Annacloy.
3. 1972A new name, Kilmore Recreation, and a new home on the monastery ground at Crossgar, granted by the Passionists of Tobar Mhuire. The club joins the Amateur League in Division 2B.
4. 1973A first final: the Harry Clarke Cup against Annalong Rangers at Donard Park, Newcastle, on Easter Monday. Lost, after a replay.
5. 1978The Cochrane & Corry Cup, Queen's II beaten 1–0: the first trophy engraved Kilmore Rec FC. The first of three consecutive finals, won again 3–2 in 1980.
6. 1979The best season of the early years, chasing two trophies at once. A run to the semi-final of the all-Ireland Junior Cup, ended 2–0 by Annalong Swifts at Banbridge with two penalties missed; and the Co. Antrim FA Junior Shield won 2–1 against 40th Old Boys at Castlereagh Park, Newtownards, the same 40th side already beaten in the Junior Cup.
7. 1981Division 2A champions, the club's first league title, in a season the papers had tipped for a treble — the other two legs both went in eleven days that May, the Clarence Cup final lost at Skegoneil Avenue and the Cochrane & Corry semi-final lost on penalties. The league trophy was handed over by Danny Blanchflower at the Amateur League dinner in June. 1B champions at the first attempt a year later, and into the top flight for the rest of the eighties.
8. 1982A new pavilion at Crossgar makes the club eligible to host Steel & Sons Cup ties, and Linfield are fixtured to come and open it on 17 August, in the same fortnight the Blues play Stoke City and Middlesbrough. The champions pull out. Kilmore open their first Division 1A season with a 1-1 draw against Downpatrick Rec.
9. 1983A Border Cup semi-final lost on penalties to Dunmurry YM, who were then expelled for fielding a professional. The final was cancelled and the cup given to the holders. Kilmore were not reinstated.
10. 1991Founder members of the Amateur League's new Premier Section, the reward for rebuilding the ground to the new criteria.
11. 1992Cliftonville at Robert Adams Park in the Irish Cup, 18 January, the first senior visitors. Lost 1–0, but Paul Moore's header off the crossbar enters folklore.
12. 1996The Northern Ireland Youth Cup, won 2–0 against Portadown Boys at Ballyclare. The last Amateur League club ever to win it — and the silver lining of a season in which the first team needed eight wins from twelve to stay in the Premier, several of those youngsters helping them do it.
13. 1998Robert Adams, known to everyone as "Mr Kilmore", dies suddenly at 47. The ground is renamed Robert Adams Park in his memory.
14. 1999Promoted straight back after relegation two years earlier, and by late November top of the Premier Section.
15. 2002The Border Cup semi-final won at Seaview, and then lost in a committee room: a defender had been serving a suspension nobody knew about, after a referee at another club's match reported the wrong name. Kilmore were expelled, the final was never played, and Larne Tech Old Boys were given the cup.
16. 2004Ten points at Christmas, then a winning spree: the Clarence Cup, 5–1 against Downpatrick Hospitals after extra time, Stevie Rogan with a hat-trick. Retained a year later, 5–1 again against Knockbreda Parish at Killyleagh, and a second successive final hat-trick for Rogan. That autumn, Irish League scalps: Ballymena United and Distillery beaten in the County Antrim Shield before Linfield end it at Seaview in the semi-final.
17. 2009Christmas morning at Seaview, 1,200 watching: the Steel & Sons Cup, 2–0 against Downpatrick, Niall McCarthy and Liam Graham the scorers. The club's first final, reached when Graham came off the bench in the 78th minute of the semi and scored three. The 1A title follows and the club returns to the Premier.
18. 2013An Irish Cup quarter-final, the only club outside the top two divisions left standing, beaten only by Cliftonville, that season's champions, at Solitude. Gary Kennedy managed and came on as a substitute; Mark Holland captained and was the best player on the pitch. Both had been in the 1996 Youth Cup side, and the Cliftonville crowd stood for both of them. By Christmas Holland was the manager, and had the club in a fourth Border Cup final. Third in the Premier that year and the next: the best league finishes on record.
19. 2017Fifty years, marked at Downpatrick Racecourse, and an anniversary that turns into a plan for the ground.
20. 2024A £400,000 grassroots award helps deliver the £1m vision: the last match on grass in February, and by October a full-size floodlit 3G open to the whole community.
21. 2026Three senior sides, an academy from U8s, a growing girls' section, the Swifts promoted again, and this history project.