CCCC - Improving match & training facilities

Aim

We are aiming to raise funds to improve our match day facilities for junior cricket and our training facilities for junior & senior cricket

Who are we?

Catford & Cyphers Cricket Club, based in the London Borough of Lewisham, with a history spanning over 130 years. Our Senior section has more than 70 active members across five Saturday XIs in the Kent Cricket League, two Sunday XIs in the Kent Sunday Development League, as well as Last Man Stands and T20 tournament squads. 

Our Junior Section currently contains over 60 members in six league sides (three U11, two U13 and one U15 side) playing in the North Kent Junior League. We also enter U10, U12 and U14 sides into the NKJL cup competitions, as well as support local club tournaments and numerous friendly fixtures.

Catford & Cyphers CC has been celebrating on-field success in recent years. In 2021, our Senior 2nd XI secured promotion as runners-up in KCL Division III 2nd XI league, and our Junior U11 Pairs team was crowned champions of NKJL Division 1. 

In 2022, our 1st XI went one better by winning the KCL Division IV 1st XI league, the first time in our 130-year history that our most senior side has lifted a league trophy, plus our U11 Pairs team won their league AGAIN!

We have also seen our summer junior training programme expand to levels we could only ever have dreamed of previously. In 2019, we had an average of 25 juniors attend our winter training programme and around 35 at the summer sessions. In 2022, we now have over 70 juniors attending winter sessions, and our Friday night summer sessions host an average of 93 juniors, one week hitting a maximum ever number of 143! As well as this the club ran a hugely successful summer cricket camp programme where children enjoyed outdoor activities in a safe and fun setting.

Summer Friday nights are not only about junior training sessions but have also become a social occasion. Last year we introduced Friday Night Cricket Dinners with a rotation of pop-up food vendors on site, which proved very popular for our club membership as well as the local community, with many residents popping in to try our different vendors and enjoy the wonderful setting of Rubens Street.

More success in 2022 for our junior section was producing 14 cricketers selected for Greenwich & Lewisham (Kent Area Programme), two playing for London Schools Cricket Association, a further three are working with the ACE Programme & three more will be representing Kent County Cricket Club this season.

The Guardian: Catford & Cyphers CC the cricket club within the inner city

Why are we crowdfunding?

With the increase in both junior & senior teams, our main cricket square is not able to handle all of our fixtures and practice facilities, as well as allow for proper renovation time each week. Hiring other venues to host our fixtures is very costly, and increasingly hard to achieve due to a decreasing number of cricket venues within the borough. In 2022, we struggled with all the home fixtures which needed to be played on our current 12-wicket square, and pitches ended up overused, which also hampered the preparation of new wickets. Also, due to the wider climate issues faced in 2022, more preparation time (including watering) was needed, to ensure that wickets were safe to play on and did not become dangerous.

Increase in Home fixtures played at Rubens Street in recent years, 2019-2022

Year   Juniors      Seniors      Total

2019        10                46              56

2021        18                46              64

2022        39                55              94

We also want to improve our facilities to enable us to offer more sporting opportunities and encourage people to get active via cricket. Recent surveys have shown that the London Borough of Lewisham may be one of the least active boroughs in London. Catford & Cyphers matches the beliefs and aims of Sport England's ‘Places and Spaces’ scheme, with the shared target of creating enhanced local sports facilities that will help bring the community together, which we can only achieve by improving and expanding our club facilities

What do we want to do?

Part 1 of our project is to build a second square at the top end of our ground for junior cricket. This mini-square will host three wickets for U11 and U13 teams, which will enable two matches to go ahead at Rubens Street at the same time. This will also reduce the number of fixtures on the main square, which will ensure adequate & proper preparation time is allocated for its wickets.

Part 2 of our project is to build three grass practice wickets alongside our current non-turf practice facilities. Historically we have used wickets on our main square for senior practice, but this was not possible in 2022, due to the number of fixtures taking place there. We would like to be able to offer grass practice wickets for our senior & junior teams, which is only achievable by moving practice time away from the main square, and thus be able to train whilst fixtures are taking place.

Part 3 of our project is to replace the non-turf training facilities and extend the current surface, to enable a longer flatter & safer bowlers' run-up. Our current facilities have been in place for around 15 years, and are naturally coming to the end of their usable life, with the wearing of the matting as well as rips and issues with the underlying shock pads. We will be partnering with an ECB-approved supplier to bring our non-turf facilities up to ECB standards, which will then last for decades to come.

How will we spend the money raised?

The total cost of our overall project is £45,000, we are aiming to raise these funds through different avenues which are broken down below:

Crowdfunding: £20,000+

ECB County Grant fund: up to £10,000 (Application is in the process of submitting)

Club private funding: £15,000+ (To fulfil shortfall from fundraising activities)

With the funds raised for new facilities, we will be able to:

• Hugely improve our ground and facilities to provide a safe training space
• Increase the capacity for our expanding number of junior fixtures
• Develop younger cricketers towards hardball cricket 
• Hold open sessions to attract new junior players 
• Increase capacity for our junior & senior practice sessions
• Give our coaches the tools to improve the quality of our practice sessions
• Advance the standard of cricketer we can produce at our club
• Increase our membership and club sustainability 
• Provide wider opportunities for those in the local community

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022

T20 cricket made its Commonwealth Games debut at Birmingham 2022, for both men’s and women’s teams. With our growing membership, including for the first time in club history our own girls' XI, 

As well as our ever-increasing turnout at junior training sessions, we want to continue to build & develop junior boys, and junior girls' cricket, and showcase the sport within our local community. We can also build on cricket being showcased at the Commonwealth Games and brought to a wider audience by the family-friendly ‘Hundred’ format.

We are aiming to receive matched funding from the Sport England ‘Places And Spaces’ campaign, to help us create and maintain this sporting legacy and continue to offer the best possible cricket facilities to our local community.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout-out!

4. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, maybe a sponsored activity or similar, use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 9th June 2023