All together for Dulwich Sports Club

Aim

Your support will secure the future of a sports loving community club, helping us invest in facilities & expand the opportunities available.

Who We Are & What We Do

Dulwich Cricket started playing here over 150 years ago, with the club being founded in 1867. Since then other sections have steadily been added to sports available and now the Club serves the local community and surrounding urban areas with a wide array of sports. We have cricket, croquet, squash, racket-ball and tennis onsite, whilst the affiliate hockey club competes offsite before returning to utilise the clubhouse bar & changing facilities. A new partnership has seen the addition of personal training & classes to the portfolio of exercise opportunities. We offer a warm welcome to anyone wanting to play sport and enjoy the social activities and support that comes with being part of a friendly club.

A Club Run By Its Members

The Club is run by a volunteer management committee, and while we employ some part-time staff to assist the running of the club, all sporting activities and social events are run and organised by volunteers.

Why We Need Your Support

The new year is with us but, unfortunately,  many of the anxieties from 2020 still remain and we need your ongoing support to help us survive 2021.  

The impact of COVID-19 has been particularly felt by the clubhouse and bar, while membership numbers were also hit. Our club policy is to try and keep fees & prices low to enable everyone to play sport and enjoy our facilities without financial barriers and to do this we operate the club on a break-even budget. In 'normal' times the main boost to our income comes from our wonderful Bonfire Night, which is enjoyed annually by the local community and is superbly run by club volunteers. The cancellation of this event alone cost the club in the region of £25,000. 

We have managed to minimise some of the loss through prudent financial management. Our members have also been very generous in paying their subs  through the difficult months of 2020 despite not being able to play properly, and we appreciate many of them have been personally impacted. However, to those that are able to we are extending a heartfelt plea to extend their generosity, so that we can safeguard the future of the club. Any support, big or small is greatly appreciated.

What Will It Mean

Before Covid we were working on plans to update the clubhouse, to potentially add an extra squash court, to make changing facilities more comfortable, to protect our grass pitches, lawns & courts from damage, and to increase the capacity for community use of the building and grounds.  We need your support to survive, so we can generate income again when we next re-open and resume our improvement plans.

Over the years we have built up highly successful sections across the sports, with hundreds of adults and over 750 junior members. Your support will help us build on these foundations and give everyone, young and old alike, sport to enjoy and a place to relax when the club is able to re-open and well into the future. We are also committed to engaging with the local community and to offer access to groups that otherwise might not be able to experience the joys of sport. We already welcome the wonderful Carers4Carers (www.carers4carers.com) on a regular basis and are looking to join the Rackets Cubed (www.racketscubed.com) network offering sport, nutrition and education to under privileged children. As a club we also have a keen sense of social responsibility and have engaged with many charities over the years including raising funds for both St Christopher's Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support in the recent past.

In summary, your support will in particular:

- Help improve the range of sports and leisure facilities we offer and to improve the ancillary facilities, such as changing rooms.

- Enable us to continue to expand our junior sections and help keep future generations active.

- Allow us to increase our community engagement and outreach programmes, such as Rackets Cubed and Carers4Carers (see below), and continue providing help to charities such as St Christopher's Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Providing a lifeline during and after Covid

DSC provided a Covid secure environment, and importantly a safe place for some of our older members who were able to enjoy socialising at a safe distance in the open air. 

"Without sport at the club this summer lots of us would have really struggled to get out - so it’s great so many people help the club and give us a nice place to visit."

"Being able to play tennis has been a wonderful excuse to meet up with friends during Covid, obviously when the Tier system allowed!"

"Dulwich Sports Club was actually the first place I went outside of my own house"

"When they were open, the outdoor cricket nets were a life-saver from the pressures of online home-schooling!!"

The national lockdown announced in mid-December 2020 sadly meant the club has had to be completely shut down and remains closed at present. The hope however is that once the current restrictions are eased the club will continue to be a lifeline for many members of all ages, with all the sports allowing friends and families to get out and the club itself providing a focus after the isolation of lockdown. 

We are committed to build on what we have achieved to-date and understand these are tough times & not everyone is in a position to help, but really appreciate any support you can give, whether in the form of a straight donation (that will also be eligible for Gift Aid) or in return for one of our array of awards. Thank you from the bottom of our sporting hearts!

In addition to what you give, Sport England have agreed to pledge a £9,000 if we hit our £30k target total (inc their pledge), but we do need to reach that to unlock it, as they are committed to helping get people active and supporting clubs during these tricky times - which will make a massive difference to our club!

This project successfully funded on 1st March 2021