Who are we?
Oakfield & Rowland United Cricket Club is a community cricket club based in Rugby, Warwickshire, with a history spanning over a century. We are a vibrant and diverse club, providing safe and inclusive cricketing facilities for our members and the local community.
We offer cricket coaching and games for children from the age of 5 upwards through ECB All Stars cricket, and run teams from Under 11’s through to adult cricket, including girls softball and ladies tip and run.
Run by volunteers, we have over 80 junior cricketers plus their families, approximately 75 senior cricketers, and 30 social members and volunteers. We also open up our facility to the local community, hosting company work games, and county-age group representative cricket matches.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Our clubhouse was designed largely for male adult and junior cricket. Over the last 10 years, the make-up of our membership has drastically changed, with a significant increase in junior cricketers, creating a far more family-orientated membership. We also have seen a huge increase in interest from women and girls, and we aim to expand this section of the club moving forward.
The layout of the pavilion is dated and the toilets and changing rooms offer a lack of privacy. As a result, the facility is under-utilised as it doesn’t meet the needs of the changing make-up of our membership.
To improve the facility, we need to raise more money to achieve the quality of finish we desire to meet the needs of the membership We have raised money of the last few years, and have been fortunate to find support through grant funding, in particular Sport England who have committed to providing a contribution to the project should we meet our initial fundraising target.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We will reconfigure the layout of the pavilion, moving one changing room next to the other, and create an additional female changing room. We will also separate the changing rooms and toilets from the main club room with a new corridor. This will enable families, non-playing members and guest to better enjoy the social space, whilst the changing rooms and toilet facilities will be more private.
The pavilion will be given a fresh look with new lighting, painting, flooring and upgraded shower facilities. Finally, a new patio will be laid, enabling everyone to enjoy the space inside and out, providing a welcoming and inclusive facility for all.
Community impact
The refurbishment will directly impact the 150+ local people who currently play cricket at Oakfield & Rowland CC, in particular the junior players, their families, and female players. We hope to attract more people to play the game as a result of the improvements, particularly women and girls.
By inspiring and engaging our members better, we hope this will lead to an increase in volunteers, which will help us grow and improve the services we provide to the local community.
Other beneficiaries will include visiting teams, both playing our club and using the facilities for representative matches or competitions – we have already committed to hosting and participating in a County girls softball tournament in June. We have been building closer ties with other local clubs and organisations keen to use the facility, which we will be better able to accommodate with a significantly improved clubhouse.
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!