#BeamCCUpgrades

Aim

Please help upgrade our facilities by getting us over the line to renew the nets!

Beaminster Cricket Club

Beaminster Cricket Club (BCC) has a proud history dating back to 1855. We are lucky to have been playing at the picturesque Memorial Ground in the rural countryside of West Dorset since the early 1950s. 

BCC has two senior teams and a vibrant youth development section - the Beaminster Cricket Academy. The Academy has 4 youth teams (U16s, U14s U12s and U10s (softball)) who play in the Mid-Wessex Leagues. For 5-10 year old girls and boys, we run the Buzzards programme on Thursday evenings throughout the season. BCCs senior 1st XI play in the Dorset Cricket League Division 1, the 2nd XI play in Division 7 Yellow of the Somerset Cricket League. Our senior players also compete in the Middleton-Hands Trophy, West Dorset Evening League and the Dorchester & District Evening League in 2024. Beaminster CC are proud to be a Disability Champion Club. We are partnered to deliver coaching with Beaminster Secondary School and Mountjoy Special Educational Needs School to ensure the next generation have lots of opportunities to play. We also run tournaments for boys and girls from all the local primary schools. BCC has ECB Clubmark status showing we are responsibly managed and incorporate best practice safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults. We have also recently registered as a charity demonstrating our commitment to good governance.

NETS

If successful, this crowdfunding campaign will get us over the line so we can renew the nets before the summer 2024 season!

This will be a 1-lane fully enclosed 34mx3.5mx4m cricket practice net.

Whilst we have demand for a 2 or 3-lane net, after a comprehensive feasibility study, we realise there is only room for a 1-lane net at our ground. Dorset Council have given planning permission (P/FUL/2023/04547) with full endorsement from Sport England and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). As landlords, the Town Council have given their permission to build and have just entered into a 99-year lease for the ground so we have lots of security.

Why now?

The existing nets are:

• unsafe as the decades-old surface provides dangerously uneven bounce
• too low to practice spin so we need to increase the height to be the same as our roll-on cages that are currently stored next to the nets
• unsightly as they were built from second-hand building materials
• dangerously built over two high-voltage cables when they shouldn't be
• oriented directly east-west so the sun sets in the evening causing glare for batters
• not fully enclosed so balls regularly fly out the back and hit the boundary fence or occasionally go into neighbouring properties

The new nets will:

• be fully enclosed increasing safety for all users of the playing fields and neighbouring properties
• use the latest technology to provide even bounce and a surface that is softer with more rainfall or harder when dry much like grass wickets
• have a carpet that provides much better consistency of bounce and spin
• be 4m high so spinners can practice with proper flight
• be oriented closer to north-south so sun glare will be reduced
• be located so there is a safe exclusion zone around the high-voltage cables running under the existing facility
• have sight screens installed alongside the pitchside and back of the net for practice and games

How can you help? 

• Pledge to our campaign
• Share the campaign with friends and family
• Volunteer with us to help run the club
• Join us - new playing and non-playing members are always welcome

BeamCC Improvement Programme

Thanks to a previous campaign #supportbeaminstercricket, we have already completed a number of smaller improvements to our facilities including: repairs to the scorehut/ machinery garage, refurbishing the sight screens, leveling the run-up to the square and replacing the artificial wicket on the square. 

We need your help so we can keep upgrading our facilities helping to make sure our venue meets current and future anticipated cricketing requirements!

Testimonials

Ross Baker, Chair, Beaminster Cricket Club

"It has been a pleasure and an honour to be a player, coach, captain and now chairman of this wonderful cricket club over the last 20 years. Not only do we have an idyllic ground to play our home games, we have also created a friendly and inclusive culture that brings together the local community including players, parents and supporters. I have made lifelong friends through being a member of Beaminster Cricket Club which I am extremely grateful for. I strongly believe the cricket club is a vital part of the community using sport as a tool to bring members together to form friendships, improve mental health, fitness and provide opportunities to reduce isolation in our rural area."

Toby Pattemore, Opening Bowler, Dorset County Cricket Club

"Beaminster Cricket Club has a fantasic set up and is a place I’m lucky enough to call my boyhood club. When growing up, I was sports crazy and wanted to just try as many as I could. Cricket wasn’t really on the agenda until Ross Baker, the Beaminster youth coach, started offering Saturday morning junior sessions which I soon got involved with. [...] I still have a great relationship with the cricket club, where I try and get involved when I can. Even more so now that Ross coaches my younger sister at primary school and sometimes at the club with her friends. I’d like to see Beaminster keep flourishing and growing, to continue being such a positive impact on so many people and having more facilities available would really help boost those factors."

Phoebe, u12s & u13s Dorset Cricket Girls Talent Pathway 

"I love playing Cricket with my teammates, there aren’t many opportunities for girls to get involved in cricket locally and it is so much fun. I enjoy playing matches with my team and the new nets will really help us practise more and develop our skills. My grandad is the groundsman and the new nets will help to reduce how much work he has to do. We are lucky to be part of a league and play fixtures, which means we can learn new things and meet with other young people that play, so I make new friends in games too. I also enjoy watching the other teams in our club play, and I really feel part of Beaminster Cricket Club. I am looking forward to next season already!"

Fred Etherington, Bridport Building Supplies, Gold Sponsor

"When Cleeves approached me about sponsoring the Beaminster club it was an easy decision for me to make and so agreed to take on the gold sponsorship for a 3-year deal. I wanted to help the club bring more youth players through and hope that these youngsters enjoy their cricket and the Beaminster club as much as I did over the years, and just hope that there is always a Ross Baker to keep these clubs alive."

Craig Monks, Chair, Beaminster Town Council

"I wish to convey my steadfast support for the Beaminster Cricket Club and its aspirations. Your dedication to community development through sports, your emphasis on youth involvement, and your tireless volunteering hours are genuinely commendable. The positive impact you've already had and the potential for even greater contributions in the future make it an honour to endorse your efforts wholeheartedly. Wishing you every success in your ongoing efforts."

David Withers, Beaminster Secondary School

"Clubs like Beaminster Cricket Club embody all the positive things we associate with teamwork, ambition, competition, co-operation and pride. These important values soak into those who choose to be part of it and this in turn helps to shape individuals - fostering a positive sense of self and also of belonging. Our sporting clubs are quite literally mini-greenhouses for our youngsters to grow, develop, gain confidence, build character and for some, to completely change their outlook. As a school we have enjoyed a warm association with the club over many years. It’s Youth Development has played an important part in engaging and motivating the young in a variety of different ways."

This project successfully funded on 11th March 2024