Platt Cricket Club Development Pathway Project

Aim

To deliver a structured cricket development pathway for our community, growing participation and creating long-term opportunities in sport

Who are we?

Platt Cricket Club is a thriving, community-focused club based at Stonehouse Field in St Mary’s Platt, Kent. We are a successful and thriving community club with long term development goals and an ambitious 5-year plan.

We have a proud heritage in women's and juniors' cricket, which started with Frances Heron Maxwell, an early pioneer of women's cricket, when she hosted the Australian international women's team for training in her garden in Comp, Platt, ahead of the first women's ashes test to be held in the UK.

We are now working in partnership with Stonehouse Cricket Club, who we share our ground with and currently looking to combine with, with the aim of creating a fully integrated club offering opportunities for men, women and juniors at all levels.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Our biggest challenge is not attracting players — it’s keeping them.

As our junior section grows, we are seeing increasing numbers of players reach an age where:

• They are too old for junior cricket
• But not yet ready for senior adult cricket

Right now, there is no clear pathway for them to progress — and as a result, we risk losing them from the game altogether.

This project is about fixing that.

What are we trying to achieve?

We are creating a cricket development pathway that bridges the gap between junior and senior cricket.

This includes:

• Launching a new Development Team
• Providing structured coaching and match opportunities
• Supporting progression into adult cricket
• Expanding opportunities for women and girls
• Developing our coaches with further training and support
• Enhancing our outreach programme and building visibility in our communities

Our aim is to retain and support 60–100 players each year who might otherwise leave the sport.

We would love your support in helping us to raise an additional £30-£60k for this project

We are a not-for-profit community sports club who are looking to deliver enhancements to a rapidly developing community asset that will help get more local people active and give our community better opportunities to enjoy everything that the club can provide for men, women and children alike.

How we’ll spend the money raised

To make this pathway work, we need to invest in the infrastructure and equipment that enables participation.

This includes:

👕 New Team and Player Development

• Training courses for our coaches to help support players at all levels
• Set up of a new development XI team to bridge juniors and adults pathways
• New kits for juniors, women and development team players
• Equipment and training resources

🏏 Playing & Training Infrastructure

• Upgraded nets and training facilities to support player development
• Additional equipment to support development and match play
• Winter nets to extend the season

♿ Accessibility & Inclusion

• Investment to ensure cricket is accessible to more people in our community

📣 Engagement & Visibility

• Streaming camera to promote matches and engage our less-mobile community 
• Banners, signage and sponsorship visibility
• Scoreboard and honours board to build identity and pride

🌱 Growth & Sustainability

• Ground equipment including new mowers
• Groundworks to increase capacity and usage

These are not just upgrades — they are essential to running more sessions, supporting more players, and creating a sustainable pathway into adult cricket, that not just supports players but attracts them and makes them proud to be a part of our sport and our club.

Community impact

This project will help deliver lasting benefit to around 4,500 local households. It will bring inclusive sport for all: enhancing inclusive, accessible sport for adults, juniors, women, girls, officials, volunteers and supporters. It will:

• Reduce drop-off in junior cricket
• Create a clear route into adult teams
• Increase participation across all sections
• Support women’s and girls’ cricket growth
• Provide a stronger, more inclusive community club

Without this investment, we risk losing players at a critical stage in their development.

The project will also providing a welcoming hub supporting sport, youth activities and community events well beyond just match days as well as increased visibility linked to positive community impact, wellbeing, youth development and local pride.

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!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 20th June 2026 at 9:00pm