Ivybridge Cricket Clubhouse Refurb & Defibrillator

Aim

Our project aim is to refurbish our clubhouse to cope with increased membership, improve its energy efficiency and install a defibrillator.

Who are we?

We are a family friendly cricket club offering cricket opportunities to men & women, boys & girls, aged from 5 upwards and covering a range of abilities from beginners to experienced players.  We now run 3 men's sides, 7 junior mixed sex sides ranging from Under 10s to Under 19s, a women's softball cricket side and a new girls side.  We also run training and coaching opportunities for 5 - 10 year olds through the ECB All Stars and Dynamos programmes.  

The club also offers a range of social activities for its members from our popular Friday night barbecues to our Annual Dinner.  Our picturesque ground has also hosted 3 wedding receptions!

Why are we crowdfunding?

Our bar furniture and interior furnishings have almost entirely been donated to the club over the last 10 years.  The bulk of our furniture started life at a Higher Education Institution, so has a the look and feel of a classroom!  

This has served us well, but a significant growth in numbers of members in the last 3 or 4 years, mainly of children and women, means that the clubhouse interior needs updating and making more welcoming as Belinda and Emily explain in this video

This increase in numbers has largely arisen from a during and post COVID pandemic desire to undertake a new sporting activity for physical health & wellbeing purposes and to increase social connectivity to aid mental wellbeing.  Our new Women's section, which started in 2020, slap bang in the middle of the pandemic, has been a spectacular success introducing the sport to a range of new participants and making our club genuinely family friendly.  This has extended to girls cricket as the video below shows.

Cricket was the first team sport to return at recreational level post COVID and this certainly has impacted our membership numbers.  This increase in numbers has been great but now brings a new challenge - making the facilities fit for the future.

The improvement in facilities will allow us to continue to grow the club and support the increased demand over the next few years.

We want to refurbish our key social space with new furniture throughout and with new carpeting and generally improving the decour.  These improvements will include changing our internal lighting from the current fluorescent strip lighting which currently runs of a single switch to more energy efficient LED spot lighting which is more energy efficient.  This will include installing new LED exterior lighting to make the outdoor space more usable in an energy efficient way.

We will also be refurbishing our current showers/shower area with LED lighting and a more efficient/modern electric shower system to replace the current token operated system which will reduce water consumption and save electricity.

This will also make the space more appealing for wider community use - our building is available for hire to the local community for events & meetings.

At the same time, with a widening number of visitors both young and old we would like to install a defibrillator at Filham Park.  Filham is a public park and the defibrillator would benefit the wider users of the Park as well as all of our members and visitors.  The other users of the Park include our local fishing club, allotments association as well as families, dog walkers and the general public of Ivybridge.  We are very much a community club and see this as part of our role in the community to ensure all users of the park we occupy have access to a device that can ultimately save lives as well as providing healthy sport for the town's aspiring cricketers.

How we'll spend the money raised

The money raised will be used to acquire new furniture, carpets and LED lighting for our social space including materials for the decoration, which will be carried out by club members on a voluntary basis.

The money will also support improvements to our showers to improve energy efficiency and water consumption.

The funds will also contribute to the acquisition and installation of a public access defibrillator which will be located on one of the external walls of the club at Filham Park.

Community impact

We currently provide 3 men's sides, 7 mixed junior sides (ranging from Under 10 to Under 19) and have a women's side.  Our dedicated girls side will play some matches for the first time in 2023 having been launched last year.  We also run the ECB All Stars and Dynamos programmes which provide fun cricket coaching for 5-8 year olds (All Stars) and 9 & 10 year olds (Dynamos) who are new to the game. 

Our ground is also regularly used by Devon youth representative sides.

The clubhouse refurbishment will improve a community facility which is available to be used by the community and we hope that the defibrillator will be an important addition to the wide range of users of Filham Park.

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!

Special thanks

Thanks go to all our supporters who have donated rewards including

This project successfully funded on 24th April 2023