We are Ardmore Cricket Club, with a long history in the local area we are looking to strengthen our club and local community through offering opportunities to take part in cricket. We are looking to do this through community outreach and schools links to provide introductory cricket coaching.
We are based at The Bleachgreen in Ardmore and have a growing club which offers a safe and friendly space with coaching which is participant centred, focussing on fun, taking part and developing the skills of new and current participants.
We are looking at running after schools cricket coaching in local primary and secondary schools, a summer cricket camp in the school holidays and also continue the project through 2022 and into 2023 to offer opportunities to young people in our community to become more active physically as well as this we see the project as being one to tackle rural and social isolation within the local area
We also believe the program will benefit the mental health of local young people, and also act as a diversionary activity away from possible anti-social behaviour.
We plan to run programs to engage young people in the 5-9year old bracket through a program called Smash It, a girls only program Its Wicket to engage 9-13yo girls and our own bespoke cricket program for boys and girls from 10-18 which will focus on developing the skills they already have from dedicated coaches along with state of the art analysis through the use of the NV Play video analysis system. We also will be running a fitness program called CricHIIT which is aimed at Women & Girls taking part in fun cricket based activity as a way of keeping physically active & fit
Part of the project is also to introduce a live streaming service for all our matches from youth through adult played at the Bleachgreen via the NV Play system, as well as offering the live stream this will also form part of the player performance analysis by being able to review match performance of individual players. Through the live stream service we hope to engage with a new (and in some case old) audience of parents who cannot attend games still being able to watch matches and highlights as well as bringing matches to spectators and supporters of the club who may no longer be able to travel to matches as they once did

Our facility is open to the whole of the local community, we have a clubhouse which includes a small function room which is available for use by the local community, we have seen people host christenings and small family gatherings.
There is also an annual horse jumping event in the lands adjoining our fields, this event uses our club car parking, club house (for access to toilets) and also for providing entertainment for young people attending such as bouncy castles and the like.
We have hosted training sessions for the local Gaelic club on our floodlit all weather area, as well as also facilitating training for the local soccer team. As well as this we host matches and training sessions for the regional North West Warriors team as well as Cricket Ireland.
Our outside area sees access from many people from the local community for walking and general exercise as well as on match days for general socialising while attending cricket matches as spectators.
We have a large family centred club which sees many families form life long associations with the sport, often from a young age and during the summer months the club is a focal point for families coming together as the ground offers a safe shared space away from busy roads or city centre areas.
We offer cricket coaching into several local schools, we do this on a free of charge basis, looking to encourage children to try sport and become more active in the local community, we have teams at U11, U13 and U15 age groups, which are open to people of varying backgrounds and abilities. We also have 3 weekend teams which while aimed at competitive cricket also cater for recreational players of varying ages and abilities.
We offer a diversionary set of activities to keep people away from anti social behaviour, as well as being a club which encourages social interaction and a hub for people to come together from what is in general a rural area. We have children as young as 4 taking part in our activities on a regular basis and our reach extends into those of older ages with players in their 50s and 60s still appearing, while we have spectators from all age groups and backgrounds.
We have also seen a growth in numbers from those people from ethnic minority backgrounds using our facilities and becoming part of our club, so helping them to better integrate in the local community.

Through the covid 19 pandemic we saw a drop off in financial support to keep the club operating the activity it did pre pandemic. Memberships dropped at both youth and adult level, it proved difficult to engage with sponsors as they themselves were suffering the affects of the covid 19 pandemic. With social distancing etc it also proved more difficult to engage in collections and raffles and the like around the ground. For much of the time the clubhouse was closed except for access to toilets and this meant that the social side of our game suffered and saw a fall off in numbers of supporters so affecting match day income
We need to be able to rebuild our capacity to deliver important social impact projects and community based cricket programs, particularly to young people in the local area. We currently have 3 youth teams at U11, U13 and U15 level and running these teams means we have to keep a supply of kit available as well as being able to facilitate teams through access to coaches and volunteers as well as having access to venues for training and playing matches.
Part of this application is to allow us to provide coverage of matches to the wider public through live streaming, as well as this parents, players and supporters will be able to view matches that they otherwise may not be able to attend. This service would cover all our home matches at all age groups and also all adult matches.

The money raised will enable us to secure venues for the winter months to provide training to our young players and adult players. The funding will extend the amount of sessions we can offer into the 2023 season, allowing for a program which is planned and delivered across several months. It will also ensure that we can access qualified coaches to provide the necessary skillset needed to develop current participants. As well as making sessions more affordable to current participants, it will also enable us to properly resource participation programs aimed at bringing new people to the club, particularly young boys and girls trying the sport for the first time. As well as this it will allow us to provide the participants with a club pool of equipment that can be used which will again help to make the sport more accessible
Our plan is to run 2 x Smash It programs (5-9year old program) in the Autumn and Spring as well as 1 x Its Wicket program (9-13year old girls) in the spring. This will be complemented by coaching programs aimed at current participants in the 10-18 year old age range split into age appropriate groups to develop the skills they currently have and to keep the group active throughout the winter and spring leading into the 2023 cricket season. We will also run a community based coaching project, delivered in spring 2023 where we offer local schools after schools cricket coaching. This will in turn see us running cricket coaching from early April into late June at our own cricket ground to better engage with participants both returning and new. The club will also run cricket blitz days at the club to engage with children from local schools and offer them the chance to try cricket out in a fun and friendly atmosphere
It’s important to be transparent about how you plan to spend the money you raise. Your audience will be more likely to make a pledge if they can see how their donation will help.
We will also use the money raised to purchase a livestreaming system, this will enable us to provide live coverage of all out home games at all levels from youth and above.
The livestream system will make watching our teams more accessible, particularly for those that find it difficult to attend matches due to age or disability or even illness. The stream will also be used to assist coaches with identifying areas where players can make improvements so assisting with improved performance as well as being a modern and up to date way to engage with supporters and parents.

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