Ride-on Grass Mower for Southill Park Cricket Club

Who are we?

Established in 1884, cricket has been played at Southill Park CC, in the grounds of the Whitbread family estate, for nearly 140 years. Southill Park is widely renowned as being one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in the UK, and our volunteer ground staff put in thousands of hours every year to make our facilities one of the best in the county. 

In recent years, the club has started to fulfil its true potential, courtesy of our shared vision to make us one of the most inclusive and successful places to enjoy recreational sport in the region.

Southill Park CC are one of the most successful clubs in Bedfordshire in senior cricket, with over 85 playing members. In 2023, our Saturday 1st XI will play at the highest level of any club in the county; 2022 saw us achieve an unprecedented three team promotions;  in 2021, we were the Bedfordshire Premier Sunday League champions; and in 2019 we won the Bedfordshire Viegli T20 Cup. We are also well represented at County level where some of our home-grown players now play for the Bedfordshire 1st XI. We also have children that represent the county at age-group level.

The recent growth and visibility of the domestic game, through the Hundred and the fantastic free-to-air Women's Cricket events have also caused a surge in children wanting to play the game. As such, our junior cricket section is thriving too, and we have over 80 children (boys and girls) between the ages of 5 and 12 who play cricket with us every year. In 2022 our U9 and U11 teams saw great success in their respective leagues and we were also delighted to be able to form our first U11 girls’ cricket team.  

Southill Park CC are also proud that as a club, 38% of our club membership are from a non-white ethnic background, meaning that we can truly represent the communities in which we live. 

Why are we crowdfunding?

Due to a increase in post-pandemic levels of membership, and a strategic vision by the club's board to commit to growing all areas of youth cricket, women & girls' cricket, and disability cricket, we need to continue to invest in the core club infrastructure. 

This investment has been notably difficult over the past 12 months, due to an exponential rise in energy bills - our bills have risen by over 450% - and general expenses that have soared in line with inflation and the cost of living crisis. 

 One of the main areas where we need to invest at present, is in the equipment that allows us to maintain the quality of our cricket facility. Unfortunately, owing to unforeseen circumstances, our current contracted supplier of grass-cutting services is no longer able to provide this service. We have enquired with other contractors and the costs of contracting this service on an annual basis have risen to such a degree that it is not financially viable for us to do this anymore. With the cricket season imminent, we need to find a viable alternative at short notice!

As such, we have made the decision that capital investment into the purchase of a ride-on grass mower, will allow us to maintain a similar net-spend over a five year period, as we would have done with our previous grass cutting contractor. By utilising our volunteer grounds team (who put thousands of hours into the maintenance and upkeep of our ground every year) we believe that we can take care of the job ourselves, all whilst keeping our costs in this area at a much more manageable level! 

We therefore require £10,000 for the purchase of an adequate refurbished second hand ride-on mower. The club's board has agreed to part-fund some of this from existing club reserves, and other finance streams, but there is a significant void in the required funding and we are now looking to raise some of the capital with your help!

Given that we provide such an amazing recreational space to our community, and that the club are committed in their strategic vision to making improvements that will encourage further inclusion and participation across all sectors of society, we want to reach out to our club patrons and the wider local cricketing community and crowdfund our way to our target with their help.

By achieving this goal and being able to make this purchase, we will be able to be more financially self-sufficient as a club, and we will be able to continue to provide quality cricket and recreational space for our members and the wider community for at least the next 5 years.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We will use all money raised to support the capital purchase of a ride-on grass mower, which we envision will allow us to continue to fund the cost of grass cutting at the same net-rate as our previous spending on this area. In a time when every other cost is rising rapidly, this will help us be more financially sustainable and will ensure that we can continue to offer high quality facilities to cricketers from all over the county!

Community impact

65% of our membership comes from either the Bedford or Biggleswade areas. These are towns that are ethnically diverse and this is reflected in our membership, particularly with regards to the British South Asian community, where we have strong representation.

Not only would the purchase of this new equipment benefit all of our club members and players (senior cricket, junior cricket (5-12 year olds), girls cricket); but we also support and host competitive county cricket fixtures for Bedfordshire; we allow local state schools free use of our facilities for physical education and extra-curricular sporting fixtures; we host performance events for regional Women's cricket; we host very large annual cross-country and cyclo-cross events, where over 500 people can be competing; and we hold some equestrian events too.

The funding towards this capital purchase and the longer-term financial stability and sustainability that it will help us to achieve, will ensure that the club can continue to support all of those other 'additional to BAU' events that go on at our wonderful facility!

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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!