Sport Northern Ireland Project Re-Boot: Activate has provided £2,500 of match funding
Bangor CC - Supporting Girls' & Women's Cricket
Bangor, Ards and North Down, United Kingdom
Aim
We want to enable boys, girls and women in Bangor to enjoy cricket. Help us to provide the best opportunities for our Girls & Women’s teams.
Our Club
Bangor CC has been privileged to be able to provide a social summer sport for our local community, and the club has a thriving youth and men’s section. In 2022, despite the impact of Covid-19, over 150 boys and girls took part in our youth practice and summer schemes, and we fielded six youth teams and four senior teams.
During Covid-19 we were pleased to see that the vast majority of our members returned to the club, and we have had many new male members join the club. However, it was evident that Covid-19 negatively impacted our ability to attract new female members and, in particular, secondary school girls and women. This is an area of great importance for the club to ensure there are opportunities for all parts of the community to learn a new sport, play sport with their friends and play competitive team sport.
We want to provide a pathway for girls to play cricket from the age of five years’ old. Our aim for this season is to provide the proper infrastructure for secondary school girls to play in Bangor CC U13 and U15 girls’ teams, and to facilitate a pathway for them to progress all the way through to playing senior women’s cricket.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Currently, within our youth section, Primary School Boys and Girls can play in mixed teams. This year we would like to establish a pathway for girls to play hard ball matches in the NCU women’s cricket competitions. In order to achieve this, we are launching a secondary school Girls' team and a Women’s senior team in 2023.
Bangor CC wants to ensure that we offer opportunities for everyone in the community. A vibrant youth programme will enable us to build a strong foundation for the development of both male and female cricketers, and to build a sustainable club for the future.
Similar to a number of local sports clubs, we are reliant on people volunteering their services and time to run the club within a relatively modest budget. We want to grow our female participation in 2023 and provide cricket to more girls and women than ever before. To do this we need to buy more cricket equipment for the Girls' and Women’s teams. At the same time, we are also determined to keep our membership fees as low as possible, in order to make cricket, and the opportunities it offers, affordable and available to all.
How you can play your part
Help us reach our target and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
Our Project
Our season starts in April and we are aiming to launch our secondary school Girls' team and Women’s senior team as well as grow our youth section this summer. We really need your support to ensure we have the best facilities and equipment to support our players.
Your support will enable us to:
- Buy cricket kit bags (bats, pads, gloves and helmets) for our new Girls' and Women’s teams;
- Ensure that all age groups have the appropriate training equipment so that boys and girls can experience cricket without parents having to worry about this expense;
- Buy best practice coaching aids, such as bowling machines, nets and rebounders;
- Buy cricket balls for our youth and women’s team; and
- Train and support coaches to develop and mentor our young players.
Community impact
We believe that cricket provides a unique opportunity for boys and girls from across the community to enjoy a sport which promotes a strong team ethos and empowers our young players to support each other as they take on new challenges. The positive attitude and team culture which we have seen in our young players is truly inspiring.
Through our youth programme, we hope boys and girls will continue to develop the values that come through organised sport, whilst building friendships that will last for many years.
Thank you for considering supporting the Bangor Cricket Club - we'd love you to be part of our club growth in 2023! Your contribution to this Crowdfunder will be doubled by SportNI if we raise £2,500 on our Crowdfunder page. Project Re-Boot: Activate | Sport NI
This project successfully funded on 3rd April 2023