Stone SP CC Cricket Nets Expansion & Refurbishment

Aim: Stone SP Cricket Club needs to expand and refurbish our all weather nets to cope with the greater demand from our growing membership

Who are we?

Stone SP Cricket Club in Staffordshire plays a vital role in the wider Stone community and at many levels.

First and foremost we are a community cricket club. We have a huge junior membership that has sky rocketed since the difficult days of lockdown. 

We run over 20 junior teams from the age of 6 upwards for boys and girls of all ages and abilities. 

We are especially proud of our growing female section including our all girls Under 8 Sparks team that more than competes with boys of the same age. 

In addition we have 9 senior teams that give players of all ages & gender the opportunity to play at a level that is best for them. 

We certainly prove the old adage that "there is a game of cricket for everyone".

But we are much more than a cricket club! 

For instance we are the base for many other community organisations such as Slimming World, the U3A and the NHS. Our function rooms are in regular use for family parties, christenings, weddings & wakes and for training sessions or meetings from professional bodies.

And we have regular functions that see many visitors from around the area come down to our monthly Feast Food Festivals, Charity Quizzes and hosting visits from several Caravan Clubs.

Stone SP Cricket Club is very much at the heart of our local community

Why are we crowdfunding?

Like most volunteer run community sports clubs we run on a shoestring. In particular, the seasonal nature of cricket means that it is always a very long winter and funds are always tightest in the close season, just at the time when it is best to make big changes. 

In particular our ageing facilities need constant TLC. But we only ever seem to have enough money to do a quick nip and a tuck rather than a full facelift! 

So we are looking for your support to make a transformational change and move from a make do and mend approach to a much needed upgrade to provide new, modern, state of the art practice facilities  

And even better news - we already have backing from Sport England who see the value of our project and have pledged 50% of what we need (£7,273) so long as we can raise the other half from at least 25 unique supporters via this Crowd Funder.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Our existing and much loved all-weather practice facilities are now over 20 years old. 

And, as you may imagine they have seen better days! 

The cricket "nets" are well-used but that means they are showing significant signs of wear and tear, with holes in both the surface and netting and crumbling flooring underneath the astro-turf. 

We patch them up as often as is needed to ensure they remain safe, but in truth they are now desperately in need of refurbishment. 

See pictures of some of our issues below...

Also, at the time of their installation the 2 lanes we have were adequate to serve the demands of our junior & senior cricket membership. However we have experienced exponential growth since then, especially with juniors and girls, and whilst our membership has quadrupled, our practice facilities have remained the same size. Put simply, we are now significantly lacking capacity

So we are seeking to not only refurbish the existing facilities, but also add an extra all-weather practice lane alongside our existing footprint to cater for the increased demand. This will give even more opportunity for players to develop and prosper.

Community impact

In this age of smartphones, gaming consoles and wall to wall TV the opportunity to get our young people outside, into the fresh air and active undoubtedly enhances both their physical & mental health. 

Sport also encourages problem solving, team work, decision making and is a massive help for relationship building.

At Stone SP Cricket Club we can help develop the kids of today into the respectful, capable, successful & confident adults of tomorrow

And who wouldn't want that?!

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!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 27th August 2025 at 2:32pm