Replacing and upgrading the cricket nets

Aim

The cricket nets are unsafe, outdated and beyond repair. We are looking to replace them with a more permanent solution for all of our teams

Who are we?

Eastergate Cricket Club are a local cricket club in the centre of the six villages area with around 100 members.  Being close to Chichester and Bognor we have two Saturday Senior league sides, and a thriving colts setup with teams in various age groups.  This year sees the launch of our new Women's softball league team.

We service all local villages including Westergate, Aldingbourne, Barnham, Yapton, Walberton, Fontwell, Tangmere, Oving and Boxgrove.

New members are always welcomed.

Community impact

Eastergate Cricket Club are a local cricket club in the centre of the six villages area with a thriving Juniors set up with around 50 members from ages 6 to 18.  For the upcoming 2022 season we will be fielding two Under 10s teams from our softball division alongside our hardball players in the Under 12 and Under 15 sides. 

Our aim is to introduce the children to a love of cricket and see them develop and progress in the game.  We have ECB trained Level 2 Coaches who take the juniors from complete novices to senior cricket using ECB approved training sessions with a mixture of fun play and serious education.

The last few years have emphasised the importance of ensuring children have access to local sports teams and facilities in their local community to improve their physical and mental health and well being.  Such opportunities allow them to develop skills in teamwork, self confidence and sportsmanship.

This winter we have also set up a community group each Monday evening allowing our Juniors to meet and socialise at the club house.  This has strengthened their bond as a team and allowed them to have fun and enjoy themselves in a constructive manner.

The club took Santa and Rewdolph around the local villages to spread some festive cheer and raise funds for the nets project in the week before Christmas.  We received such positive feedback from the local community especially from those that were isolating from Covid waving to us from their windows.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Eastergate Cricket Club are looking to raise £20,000 for the replacement of the cricket nets.  So far we have raised £5,000.  A permanent nets facility would  be used by our Junior and Senior teams.  These facilities will help us to ensure that the training we provide can be of the appropriate standards and ensure the safety of all of our players.  We share the sportsfield with Barnham Trojans Football club and we have been working in conjunction with them to design a solution which can provide storage for their football nets as well as providing the cricket cage.  The image shown to the left is the style of cricket nets that we hope to construct.  Our aspiration is to have these built and in place for the 2023 season.

The current facilities are damaged to a point where we are no longer able to repair them.  The playing surface is uneven and gives misinformation to the players as to the height and path the cricket ball may take when bowling.

Currently the nets are positioned opening onto the main cricket pitch.  This means that, for safety reasons, training cannot occur at the same time as matches.  One of our aims of this project is to change the orientation of the nets and by moving the angle of the opening by 90 degrees the balls could be hit out along the line of the fence away from the field of play.  This would give us much greater flexibility to train and host matches for our Juniors simultaneously.

How we’ll spend the money raised

All funds will be used to improve the facilities that the club is able to offer it's members and the local community.

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. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project closed unsuccessfully on 25th July 2022