New Practice Nets - Kingston Bagpuize Cricket Club

Who are we?

Kingston Bagpuize Cricket Club has been a part of village life for nearly 175 years. The earliest scorecard we've found is from 1849 - Kingston beat Abingdon by 7 wickets and in the words of the match report "mirth was the primary feature of the evening"! 

We are a small friendly club that offers cricket opportunities for people of all backgrounds, genders, abilities and ages from 5 to 65+. We run junior mixed teams at U9, U11, U13 & U15 and two senior Saturday league teams, a Wednesday T20 team, a Sunday Friendly team and a winter indoor team (Oxford Champions in 2021 !). We give opportunities to youngsters to play in these teams, sometimes even with their dads ! 

So, why are we crowdfunding?

We urgently need new practice nets. And we can't do that ourselves - installing practice nets needs professional expertise - and money ! Our current ones are very old and inadequate. The old dilapidated pavilion is being replaced by a modern one with the help of the District and Parish Councils but we need to raise more money for new practice nets. All members will benefit from the new nets from the under 11s to the over 60s but perhaps the 16-24 age group in particular. This is an age when many players give up the game and they are so important to the future of the club and indeed cricket. One of the reasons they give for drifting away is the poor quality practice nets. To try to keep them engaged we give them opportunities to play in senior cricket, volunteering opportunities and chances to develop their own coaching and leadership skills.  And at each season end we have the most important game of the season - the much-anticipated annual U25s v O25s match. The pictures below show the Unders and Grizzlies at this year's match. Short of bowlers, the Grizzlies just lost ! 

The images below show how the nets are now and how, with people's support, we aspire for them to be.

A video of the current nets 

and how new ones would be:

Community Impact

As well as hardball and softball junior cricket we also run All Stars and Dynamos programmes every year for 5-7 year olds and 8-11 year olds new to cricket and almost all the players attend the village primary school. And their parents wind down and socialise on Junior training evenings with a drink from the bar, while watching their children have fun, be active and learn new skills. At the height of summer there are hundreds of people enjoying the club's facilities. Friendships are made and consolidated and a community spirit fostered. And the village is growing enormously and more people will benefit - but the community does deserve better 

Building on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 

Cricket was back in the 2022 Commonwealth Games for the first time in 24 years in the form of a Women's T20 Competition. We want to help more girls take up and play cricket into their adult lives. There are many girls attending our All Stars and and Dynamos programmes and all our youth teams are mixed. We would love to run an all girls or women's team as soon as numbers allow. 

The Birmingham Commonwealth Games was also about encouraging people of all ages and fitness to be active and to inspire communities to get together and to enable this. We have a good ground and a new clubhouse but we need the new nets to provide decent practice facilities.

We rely upon community volunteers to help keep everything ready for cricket. There's always a lot to do - repairing sight screens, painting and putting out boundary boards etc as well as preparing the ground. 

Above: painting boundary boards (90 of them !)

Above: the cleaning and painting team !

Dismantling the old garage to make way for the new clubhouse - in the snow in November, nice weather for a Sri Lankan especially !

How we’ll spend the money raised

The money raised will be put towards the much-needed new practice net facilities. If we are lucky enough to raise more than that project requires we will use the extra money to hire indoor facilities for winter training and experienced coaches for Junior training.

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! And any contribution however small will still be important to us.

2. Spread the word to family, friends and colleagues. The more people we reach, the more support we will get. 

3. If you are a local business look at the rewards we are offering businesses to have their names and messages featured in exchange for contributions. Alternatively, you can donate products or services that we can offer to our supporters as rewards and get your name out to our supporters that way. 

4. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!