HHTCC Balcony Repair

Aim

Weather damage to the balcony that links changing rooms to our pitches risks making it unsafe. Repair is essential to keep cricket going.

About Us

Hemel Hempstead Town Cricket Club is a community sports club providing cricket for boys, girls and adults from 5 years old. As well as having practice facilities available to the whole community, we also have 4 senior teams on Saturdays, 2 on Sundays and 11 Junior teams from Under 9 to Under 17. 

We work collaboratively with our neighbours Boxmoor CC to promote girls cricket, fielding Under 15, Under 13 and Under 11 teams under the Grand Union team name.

Junior Cricket

Our Junior section has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Our Under 11 team were County Cup Winners in 2021 and our Under 14s reached the County Cup Final. We regularly develop players to play at Area and County level across all age groups.

We also offer ‘All Stars’ cricket for 5-8 year old boys and girls. 

Run by Volunteers for the Whole Community

The club is run by volunteers, including a General Committee (16 members), several sub-committees and 16 Junior coaches. We also provide cricket equipment for all who need it and discount memberships for Dacorum Card holders (cards are provided to people on means-tested benefits by our local council), to ensure cricket is available and affordable to anyone who wants to play.

Helping Young People Develop

In addition to continuing the success we have had in growing our boys and girls Junior section, we are very focused on bringing young players through to our senior teams. As with most sports, keeping teenagers active and engaged with cricket has been a challenge. In the past 3 years, we have actively identified Under 14 players who would benefit from playing senior cricket and ensured that they are given suitable and safe opportunities in our 4th XI. As a result of this initiative, 3 of these players played in our 1st XI this season and more are already moving up through the Senior teams. Accordingly, having suitable and safe changing facilities at the club is vital to support our ongoing efforts to develop teenagers and keep them active and involved in our sport.

Coronavirus Impact

The coronavirus pandemic has had a highly damaging effect on the Club’s finances. We were unable to open our pavilion facilities to our community, which deprived us of essential income to ensure we can provide cricket that is affordable to local people.

About Our Project

As we returned to cricket and began to use our changing rooms again, we established that weather damage has made the balcony leading from the changing rooms to our pitches potentially unsafe. Essential repair is now required at an expected cost of £10,000. The balcony crucially provides a fire escape from the first floor of our pavilion, which also houses our disabled toilet, so these repairs are required if we are to continue to keep our facilities safe for all users. Following the impact of coronavirus on the Club’s finances, we can't afford to meet this cost without additional fundraising activity. Failure to repair the damage could lead to our changing rooms having to be closed, cricket matches having to be cancelled (impacting our own and other clubs’ cricketers) and many members of our diverse community not being able to stay active. Our membership is over 30% BAME (compared to 9% in our local population), so the impact is disproportionately affecting this population.

This project successfully funded on 25th March 2022