Wakefield Thornes Cricket Club -building back

Aim

We're aiming to raise funds to extend and refurbish our pavilion to make it more socially inclusive and attractive to a wider range of users

We are a thriving and successful cricket club with three senior and seven junior teams. But our role in the community is much more than just that of a cricket club. We work with a wide variety of community groups and organisations to provide a year round programme of sports and activities.

We are particularly proud that we managed to blend success on the cricket field (and the development of many fine young players) with the development of strong links with other community groups - both sporting and non sporting.

We have a long standing plan to extend our pavilion in order to make it attractive to a wider range of users and increase the space for non cricket users. This would:

• Create a new meeting room and activity space
• Create a new changing room and officials changing room
• Improve and extend the toilets including baby change facilities

  Plans

Elevations

We have plans in place, planning approval granted and so far have secured funding from a number of other funders.

Our plans for further fund raising to complete the project have been severely hampered in 2020 with the loss of a wide range of fund raising activities as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. As well as the inevitable loss of bar income, we had to cancel planning activities such as Race Nights, Comedy Evenings, Golf Days, Charity Day, Sporting Dinner and so on.

We believe that is more vital than ever that people are encouraged to develop healthy lifestyles, be active, engage in community organisations and improve their self esteem and well being. Covid 19 has not affected our communities equally and we want to play a part in addressing health inequalities and levelling the playing field.

We are still seeking to complete our project by the start of the 2021 cricket season (April). To do this we need to secure a further £15,000 which we would aim to do via Crowdfunding

Our project and what we are aiming to do

To extend and refurbish the pavilion is likely to cost us £95,000. We have obtained support from Wakefield Council via its Active and Inspired programme, and the FCC Communities Foundation. So far we have raised around £30,000 ourselves. We still need to raise a further £16000 to make the project work. Following COVID we believe it will be more vital than ever to offer opportunties at a local level that provide affordable and accessible activities that help with the community's physical and mental well being

How Covid has affected us

Cricket in 2020 did not start until July. We therefore lost 50% of our membership income at one stroke. The restrictions that our catering and bar facilities had to operate under meant that income from those sources was down by more than 50%. All in all whilst trying to raise an extra £12,000 towrads the pavilion extension we would have lost £20,000 of predicted income. Thats a tall order!!

Rewards

Weve spent 18 months raising funding towards the project so we're not simply expecting people to donate more. We've got a series of 'rewards' to provide an incentive. Our rewards revolve around the main aims of the club in that:

• We are seeking to involve more people from the local community to become members, to use the site and help us generate more income to be self financing so we have 'rewards' geared to this
• We would like to encourage more children and adults to become involved in sport and/or active lifestyles so we have rewards for children and adults geared to increased participation
• We are seeking to engage more local businesses as partners or in sponsorship we helps but us and them in terms of enhanced profile and greater success 

What We Do

These are just some of the things we do:

Junior Cricket

We provide cricket for children and young people in many ways. 

• We run teams at age groups from Under 9's to Under 17's. Teams play in the Heavy Woollen and Leeds Junior Cricket League. Many of our young players play District and County Cricket and a number have gone on to play Junior international and First Class Cricket

• We stage school festivals each year. 

• We run school holiday coaching course - not just at our own club but also for other clubs around the area who are trying to develop junior cricket.

• We also run coaching programmes in schools and host junior school festivals for up to 6 local primary schools at the ground 
• We run All Stars and Dynamoes Cricket programmes

• We have been  designated by the Yorkshire Cricket Board as a centre for the development of BAME cricket

Senior Cricket

Our senior teams play in the following competitions:

• ECB Yorkshire South Premier
• SYSCL First Division
• Pontefract Cricket League Division 5

All our teams have been successful in recent years with numerous League and Cup triumphs. In 2016 our first team became the inaugural Yorkshire Premier Cricket champions in Adu Dhabi

Playschemes

We have worked with other local charities and organisations to operate school holiday play schemes for children with autism and other learning difficulties. We have also run schemes for children in care. All these activities would benefit from the additional space we are proposing to develop so that they could expand and avoid the logistical difficulties of operating in what is otherwise a bar!

Coach Education

We work with the Yorkshire Cricket Board to provide coach education courses and the ACO to provide training for cricket scorers. As and when our project is complete we will be working withe a local sports provide ACES to provide sports leadership training and in service training for PE teachers in local primary schools. 

Charity Days

In recent years we have developed a tradition of staging 'Charity Days' and raising considerable sum  of money for Charities such as Macmillan Cancer and MND Association. These have revolved around 6 a side and Fancy Dress cricket, Mini and Fun Olympics. In 2020 we'd planned to stage our own 'Hundred' Cricket tournament between Thornes teams of different eras.

Other community activities

We are home to Thornes Sharks Rounders Club. We host meetings of Local Authority Housing and Social Services and carers groups.

Our project and what we are aiming to do

To extend and refurbish the pavilion is likely to cost us £95,000. We have obtained support from Wakefield Council via its Active and Inspired programme, and the FCC Communities Foundation. So far we have raised around £30,000 ourselves. We still need to raise a further £12000 to make the project work. Following COVID we believe it will be more vital than ever to offer opportunties at a local level that provide affordable and accessible activities that help with the community's physical and mental well being

Partnerships and Endorsements

Whilst we are a cricket club, we work in partnership with  many other local and regional activities to deliver sport and recreation

• Yorkshire Cricket Board - Foundation Level Coach Education courses, BAME initiatives, age group cricket fixtures (senior and junior)
• Next Generation - BAME cricket
• ACES - Inset training and schools festivals
• Ceylon Cricket Academy - school holiday coaching programmes
• KIDS - playschems for children with autism and learning difficulties
• Wakefield Council - Active and Inspired programme which encourages young people to become involved in sport
• FCC Communities

This project successfully funded on 12th March 2021