Raise the Roof @ Barrow Cricket Club

Aim

The Club's flat roof is leaking and in urgent need of replacement. Our aim is to raise £15,000 to help replace the damaged roof.

Why do we need to raise funds? 

We need to replace the roof urgently.                                                          The club has worked hard in recent years to upgrade our internal facilities, including new toilets and complete refurbishment of our function room and members bar.        We have discovered that the current roof is leaking in many places, putting all of the recent refurbishments at risk of damage. The club has raised £3000 through past fundraising efforts and has attracted £6000 of grant funding from Sir John Fisher Foundation to help with the cost of replacing the roof.                   However, we have had quotations from local company's that put the cost of replacing the roof at around £30,000.

Covid 19 impact

The pandemic had a major impact on cricket last summer and the club's ability to generate income - the club has not been able to hold any of our popular fundraising events, such as our Comedy Nights, Wine Tastings and Summer Ball, since March 2020. The club relies on private hire of the function room for much of it's income.  We are therefore seeking the support of our members, friends and the local and wider community to help us to "Raise the Roof!" 

During the pandemic our volunteers have been working hard to repair areas of damage on the roof, only to find leaks in new areas. We hope that if our Crowdfunding bid gains sufficient support our project group will be able to finalise our plan of action to ensure that the roof is replaced within required timescales before winter 2021.

Looking forward to a brighter future

Barrow Cricket Club is a community amateur sports club, with a membership of approximately 140 from across the Barrow and Furness community. 

We run a successful All Stars programme for 5-8 year olds which works on basic ball skills, hand eye co-ordination and teamwork. The children then progress to Dynamo's, aimed at 9-11 year olds to prepare them for the transition to hard ball cricket. Parents and carers are encouraged to get involved in the sessions, this has resulted in parents sharing a love of cricket with their children and has led to more parents wanting to get involved in all areas of the club.

We run three junior age group teams, playing hardball cricket in the local leagues at Under 11, 13 & 16 age groups. We also operate 3 senior cricket teams competing in the local North West leagues. 

We have a group of dedicated volunteer coaches who work hard with the youngsters to help them improve their skills. Many of our junior cricketers go on to represent Cumbria in their age groups at cricket.                                                                                                                                 

Liam Livingston, Lancashire and England opening batsman was coached and played at Barrow Cricket Club until he went to play at Lancashire at age 16.

Manchester City & and England footballer Georgia Stanway was also a keen cricketer at Barrow CC until she decided to concentrate on football.  

Who in the community benefit from the club?

We have strengthened ties with the local visually impaired community, who are keen to develop cricket for visually impaired people in the local community and other sporting opportunities for their clients using our facilities. 

We are encouraging women of all ages to get involved in the club by developing women's softball cricket. Our Soft Ball festivals have proved so popular that we are now holding weekly women's training sessions and competitive games against other local teams throughout the summer. We are attracting more women and girls to the club who now want to progress hardball cricket.

During the pandemic the club has strengthened its ties with health care providers and the NHS. The club provided training facilities for a local care provider so that they could ensure that their staff were fully prepared for their vital role at this difficult time. The club also provided a base for local businesses to work together to collect donations for food hampers and care packages that were then distributed to the overworked hospital staff.

Barrow Cricket Club is a community hub, being used by a range of different community organisations, for social events, meetings, book club, training and regular activities.   In addition the clubs facilities can be hired for a variety of social gatherings.

We are lucky to have a large group of older adults who volunteer their time and skills to maintain the ground and facilities to a high standard. Our volunteers come with a wide range of skills and life experience, which they put to good use around the club. Tasks taken on by the volunteers include repairing machinery, ground maintenance and accounting. New volunteers are always made welcome.  The volunteers benefit from the camaraderie of working together as a team and the club benefits from their expertise and hard work.

We hope that, with the help of our supporters, we will be able to repair the roof at Barrow Cricket Club and plan a future that continues to see the club at heart of the local community. 

This project successfully funded on 4th August 2021