Swarkestone Cricket Club artificial pitch

Who are we?

Swarkestone Cricket Club is a small, family-orientated village club which is proud to host one of the most successful junior sections in Derbyshire. We currently operate seven junior sides, who compete in the South Derbyshire Development Group leagues, and also run the ECB All Stars Cricket programme, giving five to eight-year-olds their first experience of the sport. Dozens of our young cricketers have received representative honours at District and County level over the years and progressed to our senior teams. We have five senior sides, which includes a women's team who play in the East Midlands Women's Cricket League. Our first team are four-time winners of the Derbyshire County Cricket League Premier Division and the 2023 season was one of the club's most successful. The first team defended the Premier Division title they won in 2022 and also lifted the Jackson '100' Cup, the second team were crowned Division 3S champions, while our third team won Division 7S. This year has seen the creation of a fourth team, allowing even more members to play league cricket and helping to further bridge the gap between our junior and senior sections.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Our club is growing rapidly and to ensure we have the right facilities to enable all of our members to train and play matches, we're looking to install an artificial pitch. This will be used by all of our senior and junior teams to train on, with the juniors also playing some matches on it to help ease pressure on the club's square and our volunteer ground staff.

How we’ll spend the money raised

By installing one of these – an ECB approved artificial pitch.

We have been awarded a Sport England grant of £5,700 towards the £11,400 total cost of the pitch and our crowdfunding campaign is aiming to raise the outstanding amount. The state-of-the-art surface sets a new standard in non-turf pitch performance.

How it will be used and by who?

The artificial wicket will be used throughout the season by all our senior and junior members. Matches and training sessions take place at the club's main ground, Barrow Turn, almost every day of the week throughout the summer (weather permitting). Currently, members are using a portable net on the main square for training and the artificial pitch will play a key part in reducing the wear and tear on the grass pitches throughout the season.

Community impact

The club is diverse, inclusive and community orientated – and our dedicated team of volunteers and members always go the extra mile. A pre-season 'prep the ground' event in April 2024 was attended by the High Sheriff of Derbyshire as around 50 members carried out necessary maintenance work. The ground hosts a defibrillator for the village and is the polling station whenever an election is held. Derbyshire County Cricket Club  host a summer camp at the ground for youngsters in school years one to nine and we have staged Derbyshire County Cricket Club U19s fixtures in recent years.

Parental and member feedback

The club has received plenty of positive feedback from parents following a survey carried out at the start of the 2024 season. A total of 51 responses were received with 41 of those rating the club experience they have had so far as 10 out of 10. Comments included:

• "The club is very inclusive, friendly and well-organised."
• "The people are really friendly, the coaching is excellent and there are lots of opportunities for the kids."
• "Inclusive, family-friendly club."
• "The club has had a positive impact on my family and supported the social and physical development of my son. I have personally benefited from making lasting friendships, too."
• "The atmosphere and camaraderie at the club is amazing. So many great people sharing the experience together."

When asked if you could improve anything about the club, a number of responses were received around better training facilities, including the installation of an artificial pitch and improved nets.

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!