We have been a cricket club since 1891 and today have a membership of 200 with nearly a third of these women and girls. We run three Saturday league sides, a Sunday team and a midweek team covering and have a growing women's section, driven by softball interest.
What we are really known for though is our youth section and we now boast almost twenty qualified coaches from support to level 2 who handle our in house coaching for our youth section of approximately 150. Our aim is to offer cost effective coaching to children of all ages and abilities on wonderful facilities and remove as many of the cost barriers to this through effective fundraising rather than high membership fees. This has enabled us to offer good coaching to local children no matter their background within a safe environment. Our Under 13s won the county T20 cup in 2023 and we regularly have youth members in the boys and girls county squads.
Recently our incredibly supportive landlords have agreed terms to a new lease placing us in formal direct control of care of both our pavilion and the playing field which exists for village use. We do this at no charge to the villagers and want as many as possible to get involved in their local club even if they do not play the game.
Our reason to look for external sources of funding has been prompted by spiralling utltilty costs, dwindled cash reserves as a result losing earnings during Covid and also second hand machinery failing us at the same time. We are looking to invest in machinery which will be easier to maintain and produce better results not only for us but also our neighbours. Having an electric mower will mean we don't have stripes in the grass but it also means our neighbours will have far less noise during the summer. The grass will still be cut though just more quietly.
As a registered charity, all funds raised are ploughed straight back into the club's facilities and equipment for the provision of cricket and we have a clear development plan for the club targeting what we need to improve.
