Ballyspallen Community Cricket Project

Aim

Provide accessible cricket provision, suitable equipment and resources to enable the development of cricket, with a focus supporting girls.

Who are we?

Ballyspallen Cricket Club are based in Limavady, located on the Broighter Road. 

We have two Senior Men's teams, the 1XI compete in Premiership 2, and the 2XI compete in League 2. 

We have one Senior ladies team who compete in the North West Ladies Division 2. 

We are a Sport NI 'Club Mark' Accredited Club.

We have a youth structure which provides for over 50 children from our surrounding area, with mixed teams currently at Under 11, Under 13 and Under 15 level. 

We aim to provide facilities and coaching from the Club (during the summer months) and in other local venues in the winter months. 

We are an ‘inclusive’ club who provide facilities and activities for people to come and learn and play the game in a fun, safe and welcoming environment.

Our ongoing work...

Our primary focus is the promotion of cricket as an amateur sport within Limavady and the surrounding area, however we are much more than just a cricket club. Our weekly activities, to include youth club, walking club, flower arranging etc, provide an opportunity for local people to improve their physical and mental health, their social skills and develop friendships in a safe and welcoming environment. 

We use our clubhouse to facilitate both sporting and community led activities. We have developed relationships with local schools and community groups, where we have provided voluntary cricket coaching in the past. They can also signpost into our organisation. 

The families of players are part of our club too - they provide transport, coaching and support to the players as part of our wide sporting family. Each year, volunteers provide hundreds of hours in volunteer time to enable cricket activities to take place.  

We are located in a rural area on the outskirts of Limavady town – where  limited cricket provision is available.

Our project

The focus of this project is to create better opportunities for young people within our community, with a specific target on children and young girls, to include those with disabilities and who live in rural areas. 

We want to ‘level the playing field’, by reducing barriers which are often put in place, enabling increased levels of participation, especially for new players. By barriers, we refer to the cost associated with starting up or playing cricket (i.e. pads, entrance fees, helmets), the lack of girls only programmes, the lack of disability sport programmes, and the lack of 'come and try it' or taster programmes at a recreational sporting level for new players. 

With that in mind, we will crowdfund to raise money, which will enable us to hire venues within Limavady (i.e. local schools, community halls and leisure centres), invest in project specific protective gear such as pads, helmets, bats and balls, and and training equipment such as a slip cradle, spring back stumps, throw down net, training ramps, holdall bags etc, volunteer training for coaches (cricket Ireland courses, first aid and child protection), and project specific coaching costs. We will deliver this project over a 9 month period (May 2025 through to January 2026), specifically providing multiple coaching sessions which will last approx 2 hours each. 

We feel the project will level the playing field by creating new ‘taster’ and ‘come try it’ sessions to engage new members, outside of our normal programmes – whilst targeting priority areas identified by Sport NI.

We also plan to deliver an innovative volunteer development programme to attract new volunteers from all sections of our community, providing them with the skills needed to confidently contribute and play an active role in their community. The volunteer development programme will also include the upskilling of existing coaches who support their role within the club. 

Our target

Our target for fundraising is £10,000. We know it's ambitious, but feel we can get there with our support. 

Funding will go towards the following items which will benefit all age groups within the Club.

• Venue Hire Costs (Roe Valley Leisure Centre and Local Schools)

• Sports and protective equipment (Pads, gloves, bats, balls, throw down net, training ramps, slip cradle, hold all bags)

• To upskill and educate our volunteers (First Aid, Child Protection, Level 1 and 2 courses)

Your pledge in supporting our Club will be hugely beneficial to the sustainability of Ballyspallen Cricket Club, as it will lead to a more diverse and active playing membership, ensuring we can continue to go from strength to strength.

Without funding support, we can’t run this project to provide sustained sporting contact and opportunities to new user groups. 

As a club, we are continually working to maintain our facilities, provide the best experience for our members and improve resources to help local people. We have limited resources, which means without funding support, we will be unable to further increase provision to reach new audiences and allow more people to play cricket. 

Why is the project needed?

The need for the project is demonstrated through;

• Limited cricket provision locally, especially for children and young people, girls and people with disabilities. 

• We work in a rural area, ranked in the top 2% in Northern Ireland in relation to access to services deprivation.

• Feedback from volunteers, schools and residents of the startup costs associated with cricket being off putting. 

• We have a dedicated volunteer force, however through improving their skills and qualifications, it will lead to improved quality of coaching and better pathways for Sport within the local area. 

Ballyspallen Cricket Club aims to grow numbers at the club by expanding on our current youth programmes, creating better pathways for children to enter sporting environments and sustain participation.  

How is this new/additional to what the club already runs?  

Whilst the club currently have a Senior Adult Ladies Team, we do not have a natural youth pathway for girls, i.e. no Under 11, Under 13, Under 15 or Under 17 girls teams, and research suggests girls typically don’t feel comfortable playing with boys post U11 age given the differences in physicality, power, speed and endurance etc, coupled with the feeling of self-consciousness around boys, particularly within shared changing facilities.

The Club therefore need to establish these underage girls teams, however to do this, we will be required to have the necessary facilities / infrastructure, coaches and ultimately appropriate playing / training equipment in place. 

What will we do?

New coaching sessions introduced weekly for girls will include fun cricket sessions and fun physical sessions on all the cricketing basics. The benefits will include; 

• Help build confidence within underrepresented groups and develop an interest in cricket / sport 

• Develop the skills (cognitive and teamwork) of young people 

• To improve the health and wellbeing of young people 

• Improved volunteer networks and relationships with community partners

• Promotion of the game within the local community. 

As stated above, we currently have a ladies cricket team, however we don’t have a girls cricket team. Whilst we have a number of girls playing cricket within our underage boys teams, research carried out by the North West Cricket Union suggests girls want to play cricket with other girls, especially those girls aged in their teens, and therefore this is something that we are actively looking to develop. 

Statistics again shared from the North West Cricket Union indicate that despite growing interest amongst girls, only 12 games of girls cricket were played throughout the entire North West province between U13 and U18 level during the 2024 cricket season. 

We have approximately 5 local primary schools within a five mile radius of the club, and three secondary schools within the same vicinity.

The numbers are there, however at present we are unable to commit to taking all these girls in due to the lack of playing and training equipment, coupled with the lack of infrastructure within the club. 

Those of you who don’t come from cricketing backgrounds probably don’t realise that unlike other team sports, football and rugby etc, in order to cater for various age groups we have to invest in multiple sizes of equipment, for example there are 6 different sizes of youth cricket bats, and a combination of weights, then you have all your sizes of gloves, pads, helmets and balls, and that’s before you even get into left and right handed equipment. 

We are looking for help to raise funding to invest in the types of playing equipment I’ve just discussed, in addition to hiring the appropriate sporting facilities and growing coach development, as again the research suggests girls want to be coached by ladies. For this we will be looking to invest in female coaches to undertake first aid training, and the appropriate coaching qualifications. 

We have really low fees, probably lower than any other local sports club in the local area, and this is because we understand our local demographic and don’t want money to be an obstacle for kids playing the game.

How we will spend the money.

Contribution towards Venue Hire Costs - Roe Valley Leisure Centre Soft Ball (£38 per hour x 6 weeks for 2 hours per week - £456) and Limavady Grammar School Hard Ball (£75 per hour x 6 weeks for 2 hours per week - £900) - TOTAL 12 weeks x 2 hours per week. TOTAL - £1,356.

Contribution towards Equipment and Protection Costs - Cricket Bats (6 x different sizes, 3 different weights in each size - 18 bats @ £110 each - £1,980), Pads (3 different sizes and left hand/right hand - 18 pads @ £45 each - £810), Gloves (3 different sizes and left hand/right hand - 18 gloves @ £35 each - £630), Thigh pads (3 different sizes and left hand/right hand - 18 pads @ £20 each - £360), Helmets (3 different sizes - 18 helmets @ £45 - £810) for new players to borrow and use when they participate. TOTAL - £4,590.

Cricket Balls (3 different sizes) and tennis balls as follows:

10x U15 sized cricket balls @ £32 each - £320

18x U13 sized cricket balls @ £16 each - £288

18x U11 sized cricket balls @ £14 each - £252

20x Tennis balls @ £1.45 each - £29

TOTAL - £889

Equipment for fielding training, to include:

 1x Throw down practice net - £220

 1x Slip Cradle - £450

 3x Holdall bags (U11, U13 & U15 ) @ £60 each - £180

 4x Spring back stumps @ £40 each - £160

6x Fusion Multi stumps @ £30 each - £180

2x Katchet Training Ramps @ £65 each - £130

2x Skyer 2.0 Traing Bats @ £97.50 each - £195

TOTAL - £1,515

Volunteer Training - First Aid Course Cricket Ireland @ £75 per head x 6 - £450. Safeguarding Training @ £20 per head x 10 - £200. Cricket Coaching Qualifications, Level 1 and 2 - £1000. TOTAL £1,650

GRAND TOTAL - £10,000

All told we are asking for your help to raise these much needed funds to ensure equal access to sport for girls from all backgrounds. 

Thank you for your ongoing support - Ballyspallen Cricket Club Committee.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made