Who Are We?
St Annes Cricket Club is a well-established, family-friendly and fully inclusive ECB affiliated and Sport England accredited cricket club with a history dating back 100 years.
We are run by a team of incredible volunteers who kindly donate their time, energy and expertise to provide cricket activities ranging from coaching, managing and captaining a team to club and cricket administration, fundraising, organising social events and promoting our club to our wider community.
We run 3 senior sides in the The MHA Northern Pyramid Cricket Competition (which encompasses the Northern Premier Cricket League - an ECB Premier League - and the Palace Shield Cricket Competition) - together with a Sunday team and a highly successful junior set-up featuring more than 100 cricketers from U5 to adult level.
We are incredibly proud of our achievements.
We have been highly successful over the years, winning the Northen Premier Cricket League and Cup Competition on 7 occasions (1st XI), 3 occasions (2nd XI), the Lancashire Knock Out Cup twice (1st XI), and winning 13 Palace Shield Cricket Competition league championships (junior players).
We strive to continue developing our players and providing a pathway for our junior players to progress to the senior teams.
Over three quarters of our 1st and 2nd XI team's players comprise individuals who have come through our junior section, which is a testament to the commitment and high quality of our team manager's coaching.
Our commitment has been shown to remove barriers such as the cost of equipment to participants from any social and economic backgrounds. Players can take advantage our pre-loved kit and equipment recycling programme. A free shirt is also gifted as part of our partnership with our amazing kit sponsors.
Our most successful junior to senior player is Andrew Flintoff.
Lancashire and England all-rounder and former England Captain ‘Freddie’ Flintoff played his first game for St Annes CC as a junior player in 1989, age 12. He made his debut in 1st XI senior cricket playing for St Annes at the tender age of 14 and after a successful career with us he progressed to play for Lancashire CCC before becoming a formidable force in the England side. His contribution during the 2005 Ashes was quite spectacular.
The photo above shows Andrew playing in an Alzheimer's fundraiser match at St Annes CC in 2022, alongside some of our current and former players.
Andrew Flintoff with one of our junior teams in 2022.
We're also committed to continue offering opportunities for women and girls to play softball cricket and keep active weekly.
Our hugely successful annual Women & Girls Softball Cricket Festival, with over 600 participants since 2018, is an integral part of our commitment. It is a family-friendly, fun and exciting community event attracting 100+ participants (and their families) with food, an outdoor DJ and festival vibes and it is one of the most fun and joyful events in our cricket calendar.
Our very popular All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket programmes welcome new and existing boys and girls from age 5 to 11 into our cricket family.
Offered since 2017, these programmes have increased the participation of children's cricket in St Annes by almost 1000 children
Bringing fun and exciting activities to children which improves their mental, social and cricketing skills, these programmes are the very foundations of our work within the community, engaging with families in our beautiful town, while inspiring the next generation to fall in love with cricket and become part of something special at St Annes CC.
Why Are We Crowdfunding?
To ensure player safety because our existing outdoor 2-lane nets are no longer fit for purpose.
- We are a coastal cricket club that's only a few hundred yards away from the beach and sand dunes. During the winter our nets are battered by high winds coming straight off the Irish Sea and the salty sea air has taken its tole on both the metal framework and the netting.
- Our nets are also old, tired and unsafe, having been used to the full on a weekly basis for over 30 years. Despite frequent patching up, they no longer offer the kind of training environment we wish to provide our junior and adult playing members with.
We are an ambitious club with our senior men's 1st XI targeting a return to the Premier Division of the Northern Pyramid and our juniors aiming to repeat their league successes over recent years.
We can only do this, if we have facilities that enable us to train well in a safe and secure environment and our mission is to give our players what they need.
How We’ll Spend The Money Raised
We are raising a total of £13,000 to modernise and refurbish our 2-lane practice facility to increase the attractiveness of the club to prospective junior and senior players.
More importantly, it will assist the club's retention of junior and senior players by providing increased on-site facilities and subsequently allowing coaches and leaders to provide year-round coaching sessions.
- We have an active programme of events to fundraise, but this Crowdfunder appeal will be a big part of whether we are able to improve our facilities for our club's community.
- The money will provide an ECB-approved two-lane facility that will meet the demands of the club and will provide a safe, performance-led facility in which to hold warm-ups, coaching, drills, skills and net practice.
Community Impact
St Annes CC plays an active part in the national and county-wide cricketing community, and we are a valued part of the local community in our town.
We host one of the town's largest local events every November - our incredibly popular and well attended Firework display - and other community events such as our:
- Women & Girl's Softball Cricket Festival
- All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket programmes mentioned above
- Social and fundraiser events throughout the year ranging from Darts and Quiz Nights to Race Nights and Daytime Discos
These are safe, family-friendly and inclusive activities and events for members and local residents to enjoy spending time together. There's something for everyone.
The photo above shows some of our aspiring, young All Stars Cricket boys and girls with our volunteer coaches and our special guest - Lancashire and England Cricket Team player, Richard Gleeson.
Friday summer evenings are feel-good Fridays at St Annes as we welcome children, their families, spectators and our members into our cricket family for All Stars, Dynamos, Women's Softball Cricket Festival, junior matches (which also take place throughout the week) and plenty of fun in the sun.
The bar is open, food is available and feedback from parents and social members is that it's the highlight of their week and the perfect way to start their weekend.
These events provide team and social activities which helps keep people active and connected while bringing our community together where life-long friendships are formed.
Our Youth Players Are Great Role Models
What's impressive, and it's something that we're very proud of, is that many of our junior players happily volunteer at our events, playing roles from dressing up as a mascot to coaching younger children wekk-on-week during All Stars and Dynamos Cricket, umpiring and encouraging women and girls at our Softball Festival or assisting at social events - the young are giving back to the young - they are incredible.
Watch some of our events on our YouTube channel here:
youtube.com/@stannescc/featured
We are incredibly proud of our impact and contribution to improving the lives of people in our wider community by hosting a variety of activities and events that improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing... while enjoying their time with us throughout the year.
Local businesses benefit from working alongside us by sponsoring grass-roots cricket in our community in return for promotion of their business on advertising boards providing strong footfall in the clubhouse throughout the year, or adverts on our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels which have high engagement of over 10,000 views per month and a strong following of over 10,000 people.
We are incredibly thankful for the support that we receive from our sponsors and the strong relationships that we have formed with them over the years.
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 rewards we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out on our social media channels!
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!
By donating, you become part of our club history and our cricket family while helping us provide excellent net facilities for our present and future boys, girls and adult players.
A big THANK YOU in advance for your kindness and generosity - every penny counts!