Who are we?
Rodley Cricket Club is a not-for-profit community based family friendly cricket club that caters for all ages and standards of player. The Club has become a hub for the local community and with your help we would like to lay the foundations for many more years of cricket and sport in Rodley.
We pride ourselves on making a difference. In addition to the four senior teams, junior teams at all ages we also run coaching sessions for boys and girls from four years upwards. We firmly believe that being central to the local community is important and we regularly host non-cricketing events for the good of the wider community. Indeed everybody is welcome at Rodley Cricket Club to enjoy the facilities, opportunities and environment in our beautiful surroundings.
Community impact
Since building our clubhouse ten years ago, we have worked hard to create and cement our place as a key asset for Rodley and have organised many free to attend community events. We provide a home to senior and junior cricket, ladies rounders and Rodley's Women's Institute whilst also supporting our charitable neighbours Rodley Nature Reserve and the William Merritt Centre. For a number of years we have organised and hosted charity days with the Crown and Anchor helping to raising thousands of pounds.
Importantly we provide an outlet for youngsters to try cricket and heavily subsidise membership and playing costs. Our ethos is to ensure everybody has an opportunity regardless of their social background and routinely arrange free to attend taster sessions. As a result we are currently coaching over 100 boys and girls of various ages each year.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on the Club both from an income and player membership point of view. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic the Club celebrated its 100th birthday. However, rather than enjoying a major celebration the Club was unable to celebrate it's centenary and made the decision to celebrate in 2022 instead. Unfortunately due to the extended closure of the access bridge over the canal that would also prove to be impossible.
The restricted access to the club throughout 2022 meant that we were unable to function as normal. Our regular community events were cancelled, the Women's Institute had to find a new home and the senior football club terminated its lease. In addition, access restrictions had a severe impact on our customer footfall resulting in a significant financial loss. Many of our planned improvements to the whole of the sports ground have had to be cancelled or delayed as a result.
With the bridge now accessible, its important that we rebuild quickly to re-establish our place at the centre of the community, putting on events and supporting opportunities for all which will allow us to flourish again. The installation of the net facilities which will be accessible to all will enable us to increase our offer to junior and senior players and provide the flexibility to host additional training sessions.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Any donation you make will be ring-fenced for this project and will contribute directly to our ability to sustain our offer of cricket training for all as we grow in the future.
We also plan to take advantage of opportunities from funding bodies, corporate sponsors and local authority grants as we drive towards our overall target of £47k.
If you own or know of a local business who might like to offer a reward for donors, please get in touch on 07876 790440.
The existing nets.
How the new nets may look.
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 and claim your reward. 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 yourself. 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!