Help Ropley Cricket Club

The background to Ropley CC

Ropley CC is a fantastic, thriving cricket club, which punches way above its weight. Its facilities are situated in the heart of the village and the club brings together so many people of all ages in the community. We coach and play cricket all year round and from April onwards, you can hear the happy sounds of over 100 children from 4 to 15 years old, training and playing cricket of a summer evening while their parents' glasses clink at the Sports pavilion bar! On the weekends the club puts out three senior teams, two women's teams and at least one team for every age group of junior cricket and host several tournaments and an annual Help for Heroes cricketing event. At least that's how it was...until Covid hit. 

Covid-19 and Ropley CC

At first we were all locked inside, only allowed out to exercise once a day. To entertain and engage Ropley's cricketers, the club hosted virtual Corona cricket challenges and quizzes until we could tentatively tiptoe outside again. Following all guidelines, Ropley refurbished our nets as best we could and set up a safe structure and booking system for households and 1:1s in the nets. The nets were used by all our members from teeny tiny budding cricketers to Hampshire Academy and County players. As the guidelines reduced, so more and more cricketers came out to play. Club members came daily to mow, roll and water the pitch so that we could hope to hold some matches there. By the end of the summer we had all - players, scorers, umpires and socially distanced spectators - enjoyed more cricket matches for all ages than we could ever have imagined. We supported Hampshire cricket by putting some of their fixtures on at our grounds and we were even able to welcome our fantastic Help for Heroes friends to play some cricket too. 

How has Covid-19 affected us

We took a decision at the start of the season not to ask for membership fees: life felt hard for all of us and we had no idea how it would all pan out.  Covid has, therefore, had an impact on our ability to raise funds through that and fundraising events and sponsorship. And so, we need your help:

We have turned to 'you' and "Crowd Funding" to help fund two essential maintenance projects to ensure we can continue to offer existing and new members as much cricket as possible next year too.

• Refurbish the outdoor nets
• Reduce the the water and time required to water the square

Refurbish the outdoor nets

The outdoor cricket nets were a genuine ray of light within the local community during the first lock down as we tentatively emerged. The positive impact of them can not be over stated as they offered a 'happy space' for so many. After ten years of wear and tear the netting is badly in need of replacement and the carpet needs properly cleaned and spruced up.  This will be essential to ensure that we can safely use them next Spring. After a long Winter this will be more important than ever.

Reduce the time and the water used on the square

As the hot weather in Spring gave us some respite during the lock down, the club came together like never before to work tirelessly on the square so that cricket could start as soon the government advice allowed. The watering of the square was essential and this process took upwards of 12 hours each time it was done with the volunteers having to move the sprinkler every couple of hours. We would like to increase the water flow to the sprinkler to firstly, reduce this time to 2 hours, and secondly to reduce the amount of water we are using. We really want to do this before Christmas in order for any ground work we may need to do to settle before the Spring.

Thank you in advance for your kind support.