Newton Sports Club Return to Recreational Sport

Aim

Maintain the Club in a difficult financial time because of COVID, and welcome members and visitors back safely to better club facilities.

Newton Sports Club – a vital community resource

Check out our appearance on Granada Reports here

Since March, COVID-19 has prevented almost 800 members, most of them children, taking part in the team sports they love. We’re now reopen for adults having made initial changes to keep them safe, but need to make further improvements essential to help social distancing in the clubhouse and changing areas.  

We regularly host local school visits ensuring that money is no barrier to taking part in sport, and keeping fit and healthy, but we can’t welcome children back without these additional changes.

While we’ve been closed, we’ve lost about £100,000 in subscriptions, bar and event takings.  We’ve also suffered an arson attack. We need to raise £20,000 – so please if you can. 

What we need the funding for

We need to increase the space for seating in the Club, and outside it, for social distancing so that everyone’s safe including school groups when we can welcome them back. The changing facilities and showers are in desperate need of an update and to be made COVID-safe!

Changes are needed to improve the access steps into the Club because of the new one-way system, and we need accessible facilities on the ground floor for those with mobility issues. The car park pot-holes also need filling in.

Why the Club is so important

The NHS says that 29% of adults, and 20% of Year 6 children, are classified as obese - with those in poorer areas much more likely to suffer obesity than in prosperous areas. This leads to other health problems and inequalities. Engaging in sports is a great way to get fit, boost self-confidence and meet other people. 

We are vital to the local community, opening sport up to those who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance.

We host school sports events including girls and boys’ football, rugby and cricket festivals which are attended by schools from all over the St Helens district. We work with the Saints Foundation to offer local children the chance to participate in sport enhancing their social and wellbeing skills.

The football section supports many fundraising events for local not-for-profit organisations including D.A.R.K, Newton Community Centre and Newton and Earlestown Community Group.

We loan the Club facilities to various charities for example Willowbrook Hospice and the Alzheimer Society to run community events, as well as hosting the Newton Rotary Annual Beer Festival which brings in over 1,500 visitors.

A local charity, Business for Youth uses the facilities for their summer games programme. This runs throughout the 6-week summer holidays and is attended by around 100 local children and their families, who access a whole range of activities completely free of charge.

The tennis section works closely with a local charity, Wargrave Big Local, giving access to tennis for families who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Non-members can also hire our fabulous new courts. 

https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/NewtonLeWillowsTennisClub

The Cricket section is regularly approached to host Lancashire Representative games and training sessions because of its ideal location near the motorway network and the high-quality grounds. We’ve hosted Lancashire training and trial matches for U11, U13 and U15 girls, Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria U15 boys and Lancashire U18 boys.

We also have the only surviving Rugby Union Club in the area, embedded deep in ‘League’ Territory.

Community support for the Club

The local community is very supportive of the Club. One group recently raised over £1,000 for a defibrillator and we’re well on our way to achieving the target for this project as well, thanks to the fantastic efforts of the Club’s many supporters.

Final thoughts

We enjoy being an active part of the wonderful community of Newton-le-Willows and we know that we are needed more than ever now because of the physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19. We can’t wait to get the Club ready to get everyone back to playing sport and enjoying the improved facilities that this funding will bring.

The Committee is looking forward to the return of popular events including the Fireworks Display and the Beer Festival that fill us – and the local community - with pride.

Please donate if you can.

This project successfully funded on 22nd September 2020