Burley Cricket Club - Replacing the railings

WE ARE FUNDRAISING TO REPLACE THE UNSAFE RAILINGS AT BURLEY CRICKET CLUB

Burley Cricket Club is located the New Forest, was founded in 1875 and is one of the oldest club's in Hampshire. The club has three adult teams at the weekend, a midweek team and a burgeoning junior section but playing on the open forest means that the club needs railings to protect our wicket from the ponies, cattle and donkeys that roam the Forest.

The 30 railings are very old, unsafe, in poor repair and require multiple people to lift them before and after games. With U9s games now six-a-side, this makes moving the railings very time consuming and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic now means that large numbers of different people moving these railings at adult and junior matches through the season is not hygienic in the current health environment.

The club wants to replace the old railings with new portable fences mounted on wheels, which can be padlocked together and moved as a convoy. This would drastically reduce the number of people needed to move the railings and could be moved by one person pulling them on the club mower.

The Verderers of the New Forest require a replacement set of railings on wheels to be painted black. Padlocks are also required to link each gate to meet insurance requirements. The club has sought quotes and the total cost is estimated at £12,500.  

To raise this money, the club is launching a crowdfunding campaign via its website www.burleycricketclub.co.uk and www.crowdfunder.co.uk.  Donations are being sought by club members and the general public, which are being supplemented by grant applications.

The railings can be a barrier to activity in normal times and even more so during the coronavirus pandemic as people are reluctant to help move railings that are touched by many people. By replacing the railings this will open up the club to more members from the village and surrounding area and help sustain the vital community asset that is Burley Cricket Club.

THE OLD RAILINGS

A picture below of the old and rusty railings - they are a lot heavier than they look!

THE NEW RAILINGS

The new railings will be safer, lighter and most importantly on wheels!  They can be rolled off with very little effort.

Here is an example of the new railings we require at another local cricket club:

ABOUT BURLEY CC

The club is in a good position with four adult teams, a growing junior section and a lease until 2044 to play on their ground with the Forestry Commission. 

Despite the pandemic, the club played a full programme of adult fixtures once the ECB approved a return to play and complied with all the requirements to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The club’s junior section also trained and played matches.  Despite this, subscriptions from members, donations and match fees were substantially reduced in 2020 requiring even more support from volunteers.

Burley - Mid Week Cricket League Champions 2020

Burley - Stone Cup Cricket Champions 2019

Over the winter, Burley had entered three teams in the adult leagues at the Dorset Indoor Centre. These fixtures were cancelled due to the pandemic, but teams at U9, U13 and U18 all played matches before the lockdown starting at the end of 2020.

In 2021, the club expects to have three adult teams at the weekend, a midweek adult team and to field three junior teams at U9, U13 and U19 in the New Forest and East Dorset junior leagues. 

The cricket club is a vital community asset as Burley has a high proportion of second homes and the club is the last remaining sports club in the village, as Burley Football Club folded in 2019. Apart from the cubs, the cricket club is the only community activity available for children in Burley.

The cricket club works with the Chance to Shine Charity to send a coach each year into the Burley junior school, which helps attract junior players and engage with village residents. The existence of a junior section in Burley has become more important locally as the junior section at our neighbouring club, Ellingham, collapsed in 2020. As a result, there is no junior cricket club in our nearest town of Ringwood, which has a population of 14,000 people.

Burley Cricket Club succeeds in uniting villagers of very different backgrounds and offers an opportunity for people with links to the village whether through family or work, and anyone who simply wants to play in the unique environment of the Village Green the chance to play cricket in Burley.

In 2019, Burley was awarded the sports club of the year trophy in the New Forest Sports Awards and used this as the catalyst to raise £2,000 to buy the club’s first bowling machine. Burley has also toured internationally in recent years, visiting Malta in 2017 and in 2018 became the first British club to tour Morocco, playing two matches against the national team and raising funds for the Moroccan Cricket Club.

Burley Cricket Club - 2018 Tour of Morocco

The New Forest Cricket Association formed a colts section in 1978 and Burley fielded a side in the competition's very early days. In 2016, after a gap of many years, Burley restarted a colts section. An U13 team finished mid-table in the northern division of the New Forest League and reached the semifinal of the New Forest Cup, while an U9 team played in the Zooters competition at the Ageas Bowl.  

More than 30 children have played cricket at Burley every summer since then and in 2018 the club became a centre for the ECB's new All Stars scheme, while the U10s won the Division 2 League Cup in the East Dorset League and the U15s were runners-up in Division Three.