Who are we?
Melbourne Town Cricket Club (MTCC) is the oldest established sports club in Melbourne, Derbyshire. Our facilities are at the Melbourne Sporting Partnership site (MSP), which is also the location of the local football, rugby, tennis and netball clubs. We are a founding member of the MSP charity, the aim of which is to provide sports and social opportunities for the whole of the local community.
We aim to offer cricket to all, in a fun and safe environment. We are run entirely by volunteers and we have approximately 150 members aged from 6-60+ years. We run 4 senior teams, 5 junior teams, a newly formed women’s softball team and we are the only disability champion club in South Derbyshire. We also annually run the ECB All-Stars Cricket programme which gives 5-8 year olds a fantastic introduction to the game of cricket.
Our coaches have worked hard in recent years to establish an effective pathway for our junior players to progress through at the club. We currently have players who joined the All-Stars programme aged 5 and are now playing regular senior cricket, having progressed through our junior player pathway. We are extremely proud of the player pathway we have introduced, but to retain players, and attract new players, it is vital that we have the necessary training facilities in place.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are crowdfunding to provide a new fully enclosed two-lane cricket net which will be installed at the MSP. The current cricket nets are in a sorry state (see photos). Whilst the cricket nets are currently still being used by players, the nets will be dismantled at the end of this season due to safety concerns.
New nets will benefit all age groups at the club and will provide a safe training environment for all members. We have seen a substantial increase in both junior and female members recently; junior membership has increased by over 300% since 2019 and the women’s softball team has grown from 0 to 28 players in just two seasons. We are delighted with these increases, but we must now invest in new training facilities so that we are in a position to grow in line with the expansion in membership.
Our aim is to provide first class cricketing facilities to not only club members, but the whole of the local community, however if we do not act NOW, we will find ourselves in a position whereby cricket nets are not available next season at the club for players to train in.
We aim to have the new cricket nets installed for the start of the 2025 season. We are actively engaged with an ECB approved supplier who will work with us to design and install the new nets as soon as we have the funding in place.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The installation of the new nets will cost us over £50,000. We are proposing to finance this through a combination of grants, loans, donations and fundraising. For the new nets to go ahead, we need to raise £15,000 as our contribution towards the total.
All money raised via this site will go towards the new nets project. We have various fundraising initiatives planned for the coming months which will help us reach our £15,000 target, but if we are able to raise much of our contribution through pledges from members and their family and friends this will help us immensely.
We are also reaching out to the Melbourne community for support and hope that local residents and businesses will be willing to donate to our appeal. MTCC has been part of the Melbourne community for over 160 years and with this investment in the club we can strengthen our position in the local community and ensure the clubs future.
Community impact
The new nets will benefit:
- Our 5 junior teams
- Our women’s softball team
- Our 4 senior teams
- Participants in our disability cricket programme
- Any potential new members we attract with improved facilities
In total, over 150 current members will directly benefit, with the capacity for the club to serve more. The new nets will allow us to:
- Provide a safe and secure training environment for all age groups
- Continue our disability cricket sessions
- Improve the quality of coaching and training
- Retain existing members and attract new ones
- Strengthen our position in the local community
We have undertaken a community consultation as part of this project. 95% of people who responded said that MTCC needs new nets and that these will be of benefit to the whole 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. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – 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!