Refurbish Alderholt Recreation Ground Cricket Nets

Who are we?

Verwood Cricket Club is based in East Dorset and has provided its local community and surrounding villages with the opportunity to play cricket for over 130 years.

We are a traditional, welcoming, community club that caters for players of all abilities.  

We have expanded rapidly over the last 5 years, especially in our youth section which has gone from roughly 25 children to just over 100. They come from Verwood & Alderholt and the surrounding area.

Senior cricket

We run three sides on a Saturday;  our 1st and 2nd XI play in the Hampshire cricket league, with our 1st XI in County Division 3, and our 3rd XI play in the Dorset cricket league. We also play traditional Sunday friendly cricket which provides our older youth players the perfect introduction to adult cricket with experienced lead.

Women and Girls

We are proud that our Women and Girls section is continuing to grow. Since 2018 we have run a ladies softball side, Verwood Vixens.  We also run girls teams at U9 and U11 age groups, offering them the chance to play cricket in a fun and supportive environment.

Junior Cricket

Alongside All Stars, aimed at  5 - 8 year olds. We also operate the ECB's Dynamos programme aimed at 8 -11 year olds. We run a full junior setup, with teams at every age group from under 8s to under 19s including all girls teams at under 9 and under 11.

We encourage our "older" juniors to take part in the coaching of the younger ones, especially All Stars and Dynamos, alongside qualified adults. A number have gone on to take their coaching badges which gives us a good home-grown pool that get involved in match day management as well as training. All of our coaches are ECB qualified and DBS checked regularly.

Why are we crowdfunding?

The cricket nets at Alderholt recreation ground have not been refurbished for many years, and are becoming dangerous. They will soon not be fit for purpose as the surface is in desperate need of repair, making it difficult to provide a totally safe area for people to develop their playing skills. It is vital that we are able to renew the nets facilities to improve the training facilities for all members of the club as well as members of the local community who also use the nets, especially during the summer.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Prime goal of the fundraising effort is to replace the playing surface in the nets, this includes

• removing the existing mattings
• repairing the subbase
• laying new shock pad & playing surface

Community impact

During the summer, we have over 100 young people regularly playing cricket via the All Stars and Dynamos programmes which is due to be held at Alderholt this year. We also have open junior teams ranging from U9s to U15s & girls teams at U9 & U11. We want to encourage as many people as possible to enjoy the support and to further the enthusiasm of those that play by helping them to improve their skills. To do this we need safe functioning facilities and equipment.  

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!