Story

Risley Cricket Club is a well-established club based in Derbyshire. Our roots can be traced back to 1872, having played at various locations in the village before finally settling at our current ground in 1994. The club is very much at the centre of the community with the clubhouse being used for a variety of social events as well as being very popular during the week and on matchdays. We currently have two Saturday league teams competing in the Derbyshire County Cricket League, as well as a Sunday XI and a thriving youth set-up.

We want to ensure that the club continues to provide a safe place for young players to practice, adequate facilities for the adult teams to continue to build on recent success and retain Risley Cricket Club as an important part of the local community.

Why are we crowdfunding?

As with sports clubs up and down the country COVID-19 hit our finances hard, with events not being allowed to take place and bar takings significantly down on previous years. This reduced income has left us struggling to fund our core cricket activities let alone invest in our clubhouse or training equipment.

With a decrepit practice net facility that has proved to be not fit for purpose since starting the 2021 season we are fundraising to ensure we can install a new practice pitch and net. This will allow us to continue to coach the youth teams in a safe and satisfactory facility, whilst also allowing our adult teams to practice in a way appropriate to our current standing in the league.

What we are looking to fund:

• Practice pitch – Dig up, remove and relay our current concrete base practice pitch

• Static net facility - Replace our heavy mobile net with a static cage, installed around the new practice pitch

Practice pitch

At some point in the distant past, we built a practice pitch with a concrete base in the corner of our ground. Over the years we have continued to try and utilise this facility, repairing where needed to ensure it still provided a consistent, flat surface. This is no longer possible, however. Half of the pitch has subsided, leaving a dangerous and unplayable ridge running the width of the pitch in an area regularly hit by the ball. The facility, therefore, is not safe for anyone to use.

Our current practice pitch and it’s defects...

Replacing this pitch with a professionally designed and laid solution will mean the whole community, the club and beyond, are able to enjoy good practice facilities to improve their game. It means that younger players grow up training on an appropriate surface to give them the best chance of succeeding in future, and allows our adult teams to train better and build on successes of the past few years.

Static net facility

Cricket nets are the staple of any cricket club. Our current nets are no longer fit for purpose. Not only do the nets have several large holes in, being held together by cable ties, the frame itself is unable to be straightened and so leans heavily to one side. It also requires at least five adults to move with a lot of effort, meaning any youth players are unable to roll them out and take advantage of the facility.

We want to replace these nets with a static net frame installed over the new practice pitch. This will mean significant time saved in set for training, better accessibility for younger players and more appropriate training facilities for the whole community.

What we want to build...

Club vision

Our 1st and 2nd XI have progressed over recent years and we want to see this continue. As a club our long term aim is to have a 1st XI made up of players who have all played junior cricket for the club and who are capable of competing in the top divisions of the Derbyshire County Cricket League. We currently have several players in the Derbyshire main and development squads, which is testament to the effort put in by our coaches despite the current condition of our training facilities.

Please help us

We are engaging with the local community to assist us with our fundraising goals and have several members who have come forward to volunteer their help. In addition, we already have support from an ever growing number of local sponsors.

We are working hard to raise as much as possible and your help would really be appreciated to give us that extra push to realising our vision of transforming our clubhouse into an asset that the whole community can really be proud of.