Saving 120 years of cricket on Limpsfield Chart

Aim

Help secure the future of a club that has been at the heart of our community since 1900. Save 120 years of cricket being played on the Chart

Help us save 120 years of cricket being played on Limpsfield Chart

We are a friendly, family and community orientated village cricket club based on the Surrey and Kent border. We have around 50 adult and 50 junior members which make up the three adult and three junior cricket teams we field every week. We also have roughly 100 social / parent members.

In recent weeks we have seen how ugly greed can be at the top of professional sport with the European Super League saga. We are at the opposite end of the spectrum, we are the only not-for profit sports facility in our village. Since 1900 we have played a vital role in bringing the community together  giving the village a focal point and creating opportunities for local children to interact and play sport.

Our Project

Following the commissioning of an independent expert report, our outfield (the big green bit we try to run around on) has been catergorised as "borderline fit for purpose for cricket".  Urgent and major remediation work is required to start by August 2021 to prevent further deterioration of the playing surface. If we dont raise the funds we are unlikely to be able to continue to play cricket on the site. 

In plain speak what is the issue? Way too many bumps, not enough top soil and lots of stone content coming to the surface risking injuries to players. 

The picture on the left above shows the soil erosion and stone content near the surface. The picture on right above isn't a volcanic crater, it shows how bumpy the outfield is, you would ideally want one colour, the range of colours are all the different bumps and undulations.

To make things worse we then got a Leatherjacket (pest) invasion at the start of this year which has left us with massive bare patches of no grass (pics below).

Not into cricket? Why should you help us? 

1. We are facing the very real threat of not being able to play cricket at our existing ground of the last 120 years unless we get this fixed.

2. If we can get this fixed and create much larger safe flat spaces to deliver coaching on we can increase the number of local children that can take part. 

You may not be a cricket fan, that is okay, afterall it does go on for a long time, can end in a draw and with Covid you can't even get a slice of cake during the tea break at the moment. You should still help us though,  this isn't about cricket - this is about community!

What are we going to spend your money on?

Getting rid of all the bumps, removing as much stone content from near the surface as we can and bringing in over 1,600 tonnes of new top soil so we have a  flat, even and green outfield that players can safely run on during coaching sessions and competitve matches.

In total the required works are estimated to cost in the region of £95,000 which is massively beyond what a small village club of our size can muster by ourselves.

The good news is that through asking our members to dig deep we have already secured £20,000 towards our £95,000 target. 

In this phase of fundraising the Club is aiming to raise a further £20,000 (stretch target of £30,000). If we can get at least 100 different people to pledge £14,000 between them to this campaign then Sport England will pledge £6,000 under their Return to Play: Active Together to get us to our £20,000 initial target.

Hitting our target will enable us to partner with the Surrey Cricket Board and the English & Wales Cricket Board to sucessfully apply for grant funding to meet our August 2021 deadline.

Is this just a bunch of old men wanting a flatter bit of grass to run around on?

No. This has become a safety issue. It has also become a limiting factor in the number of local children we can offer training and coaching to. If we can pull this off and have a much larger safer area on which to run activities we can offer sporting opportunities to a lot more children from the local community.

A recent picture of a dads & lads match encouraging our u13s to try open-age group cricket for the first time.

The impact of Covid19 

Covid19 has severely hampered the Club. We lost a huge part of the 2020 cricket season which massively limited the amount of cricket, in particular junior training and cricket we could deliver. This means we took a big hit to our usual income in terms of membership fees, match fees and bar revenue. 

Lockdown restrictions and the impact on our finances also meant we were unable to undertake some of the outfield work which would have slowed some of the recent deterioration.  

Can you trust us to use your pledge wisely?

The Club is an accredited ECB Clubmark Club – this means we have been externally reviewed and found to have high standards of governance, financial controls, openness to inclusion (i.e. ethnicity, gender, disability and LGBTQ+) and child safeguarding procedures in place. You can trust us to use your pledge wisely!

Our History

Limpsfield Chart Cricket Club is located on the outskirts of Oxted in the Tandridge district of Surrey.

The Club was founded in 1900 by commoners who gained permission from the local squire to play cricket on the common land.  As time passed so did ownership of the land with it eventually being bequeathed to the National Trust. 

Pictured are the Chart invincibles of 1923. Played 18 won 18.

This project successfully funded on 3rd July 2021