Target reached!
To complete the whole redevelopment we need £100,000+ so once we have reached our ta...
Albrighton Cricket Club Clubhouse Redevelopment
Wolverhampton, Shropshire, United Kingdom
Aim
We are raising funds to upgrade our clubhouse to create a warm and welcoming facility for our members and the local community.
Exciting Times at Albrighton Cricket Club after Gaining Planning Permission.
After gaining planning permission in 2019 to upgrade and redevelopment the clubhouse which is in desperate need of being improved. Covid 19 put a stop to all the hard work of fundraising for 24 months and we now are trying to kick start the fundraising once again to fulfil the vision we have at the club.
Our plans which have been approved by the Council Planning and supported by the ECB and Shropshire Cricket Board are as follows:
Our clubhouse is the hub of a lot of our activities at the club, and is desperate need to improvements. The heating is inadequate and temperamental, the interior doors are falling apart and the access to the club needs addressing as it is poor for wheelchair users. Please see the photos in the what the money would be used for section to see poor state of the current clubhouse. The new plans will address these issues along with the repositioning of the main front door for wheelchair users.
The maintenance and improvement of the clubhouse has fallen behind due to Covid 19 and we are now unfortunately spending money on things that we had not planned to, but have to due to things breaking. For example, the cooler for the bar had to be replaced recently due to it being switched off through Covid and failed to work properly post-Covid. The cooler is a necessity to be able to raise income for the club. Plus unfortunately, we were hoping to be able to replace an old flat roof when we started the new build but during the bad storm in 2020 water leaked into the storage room and hallway and we had to invest in a new roof to be fitted.
Outdated Facilities
We have now reached the stage where the clubhouse and changing facilities are so outdated and money is being wasted on general repairs throughout the whole clubhouse rather than moving forward.
The Ladies/Girls changing facilities are not at all suitable for the rising numbers of Ladies playing softball cricket at the club, this number has risen from 12 to 50 in 3 years but they have no where to shower or change except a very dated toilet.
Our wonderful ladies pictured below - have to change in the toilet, which we have tried to make a little more appealing, by adding some flowers. Sadly the ladies and girls are unable to have a shower as the original clubhouse was built primarily for men but in the last 3 / 4 years more ladies are now attending the club this is in urgent need of being sorted.
Along with our men's teams ............
The men's shower block is very old and dated it's like walking into the eighties. The showers don't work properly and the toilet facilities is no longer a welcoming place. Along with the very dated urinals.
With over 300 members using the facilities it is now embarrassing seeing the state of the facilities and we desperately want to update them to attract more of the community to come and use the facilities to play cricket or use the clubhouse for Parties, Weddings and Christening. Albrighton Cricket Club is in such a beautiful setting where the community can come and sit and relax in the sun watching some village cricket.
What will the redevelopment bring to the club
The redevelopment will make the clubhouse a warm and welcoming club to be used by the community all year round.
The renovations will include opening up the front of the clubhouse with new bi-folding doors looking out onto the pitch. A complete redesign of the changing facilities will see self contained changing rooms with toilets and showers . The ECB has already approved the new plans and we are now hoping that this crowdfunding will establish the foundation for the clubhouse redevelopment to become a vision into a reality.
Commonwealth Games 2022 - How we will be united with Birmingham 2022
Every year we plan a Family Day open to the Community to come down the club and celebrate. Last year we held the event as a thank you to the community for supporting the club through the pandemic using local businesses to supply the food for the day.
Next year we plan on holding the Family Day in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022, celebrating the games coming to the region. We will hold T20 games for all our ages groups, men and women supplying a fun filled day celebrating cricket as if it is being played at Edgbaston
Who we are and what do we do:
Albrighton Cricket Club is a community amateur sports club, a not for profit Cricket Club based in a beautiful setting on the edge of Albrighton a small village in Shropshire. The club was founded over 100 years ago.
The club is run by a small group of hardworking members who are all volunteers, all with full time jobs and then volunteering tirelessly in the evenings to keep the club afloat.
We have a clubhouse which houses a bar, kitchen, changing facilities and a social area.
At the local Shropshire Cricket Club Awards we were presented with the Ladies Softball Cricket Club of the Year, which is the second time the club has won such an award in 3 years. Our Treasurer, Karyn Shimmons also won ECB Grassroots Cricket Ward this year Connecting Communities receiving a Highly Commended Award from the ECB, for raising the profile and connecting the community and the club for the Ladies Softball Cricket which is growing in strength at the club.
Our membership Men's, Ladies and juniors continue to grow each year. With the men gaining new members from March 2020 as more people had more leisure time and recognised the benefits of participating in an outdoor sport and the social interaction that cricket offers. To this end we run regular men's, ladies and junior training sessions throughout the summer which the ladies wishing to train every night if they could. Our Junior section this year doubled in size with a lot of new families coming along on a Friday nights enjoying the fun in the sun and a social drink. Our bar is run by volunteers and is a great focal point for our social activity.
The club offers a well run and developed coaching programme for juniors from the age of 4 years old right up to the senior members of the club. We have great pleasure in supporting the ECB programmes of Allstar and Dynamo`s cricket.
Where will the money be spent:
The money will be spent on the main project which is the redevelopment of the clubhouse bringing to life to our vision after the planning permission was gained in 2019 and supported by the ECB. Exciting times ahead.
The clubhouse and changing facilities will be completely renovated and an extension built on the side of the club and front so that we can hold private functions at the club encouraging the local community to come down the club and enjoy the updated facilities.
This is a picture of our very successful Ladies Day where as you can see the community came down and supported the club and help raise over £2,000 for Blood Cancer UK. The extension of the club would help encourage more to come down the club, using the extended facility rather than a marquee outside the club to keep everyone dry in wet weather and to fit everyone in the clubhouse, we had over 150 ladies and members of the community at the club this year and the event is growing each year, but our facilities are just not up the the standard to hold larger events in bad weather. Luckily this year the weather was fantastic.
Why we are looking to redevelopment the club......
We are keen to upgrade the clubhouse to provide all year round usability so that it will be an inviting venue, not only for the club members but also for other community clubs and groups that will use it in the future.
Pre Covid 19 the clubhouse was used for a variety of activities and private events, and we are keen to ensure it is upgraded sufficiently to encourage greater community usage.
The poor state of the outside - car park and building does not encourage the community to come down, the redevelopment will increase the appearance of the building making it more inviting to visit.
Below are some photo's of the clubhouse and changing rooms in it's current state, showing the desperate need to raise the funds for the redevelopment.
Windows need replacing as they are rotten, we can not take the bars off as the windows could fall out causing a security issue at the club.
Men's toilets are a very poor standard.
Entrance door and step into the clubhouse is in a poor state and dangerous
The entrance into the club is slopped and poor condition, making it very hard for wheelchair uses to enter the club.
Inside the clubhouse which is in desperate need of extending and updating so the whole community can enjoy the facilities.
This is the umpires changing room - which sadly is not a nice place for umpires to change, it ends up being a storage area, the redevelopment would have a new separate storage room to completely clear their changing area.
Kit Room again this room would be sorted with the redevelopment of the club with the storage room being built and the kit room completely sorted with shelving and extra space.
As you can see for the picture below this is the current boiler room which had a water leak through the old roof and emergency repairs had to be done to the roof.
Some of our wonderful volunteers a few years ago gave our old and outdated changing rooms a lick of paint on Cricket Force weekend. With the redevelopment both home and away changing rooms would be modernised, to include showers and doors straight out onto the pitch, which would stop the entrance being spoilt as players currently come through the main door wearing spike which is destroying the floor.
The juniors painted the disabled toilet and baby changing area a few years ago, in a wonderful colour of green, these facilities will be updated in the redevelopment to ensure mums or dads have a clean and convenient area to change youngsters and wheelchair users have a updated toilet facility making it easier and more welcoming to use.
In conclusion...
our longer term objective is to continue to be a strong, diverse and inclusive club that is an asset to our members and local community.
The club recognises that there are many requests for funding, both locally within our community, nationally and globally but we very much hope you are able to support this very exciting adventure for Albrighton Cricket Club.
Thank you for taking the time to read our project and thank you in advance for your help and support it's means so much to us to be able to provide updated facilities for the local community, bringing the community to the club is so important to us ensuring that the whole community has a place to enjoy the sporting facilities or the clubhouse facilities for parties or gatherings.
If you want further information or wish to discuss the project further please do not hesitate to contact the club via email: [email protected] or via the link to our Albrighton Cricket Club Facebook Page
Sport England - Places and Spaces has provided £4,000 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 3rd March 2022