Albrighton CC calls on local community to fund new clubhouse plans

The club gained planning permission to redevelop and upgrade the clubhouse in 2019 with the aim of creating a warm and welcoming base for members, supporters and the local community.

It comes with the club making major strides on the pitch with the development of its women and girls’ section – with more than 40 now involved with the Albrighton Roses.

The club has hosted women’s softball festivals and also Shropshire age group games at its base in Albrighton in recent seasons.

But the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to all the hard work of raising the much-needed funds to start the redevelopment.

So club officials have now launched a Crowdfunder page in a bid to kick-start the fund raising again to allow them to fulfil their vision for the club.

It says: “Our clubhouse is the hub of a lot of our activities at the club, and is desperate need to improvements.

“The heating is inadequate and temperamental, the interior doors are falling apart and the access to the club needs addressing as it is poor for wheelchair users.

“The plans will address these issues along with the repositioning of the main front door for wheelchair users.

“The maintenance and improvement of the clubhouse has fallen behind due to Covid-19 and we are now unfortunately spending money on things that we had not planned to, but have to due to things breaking.

“We have now reached the stage where the clubhouse and changing facilities are so outdated and money is being wasted on general repairs throughout the whole clubhouse rather than moving forward.

“The ladies/girls’ changing facilities are not at all suitable for the rising numbers of ladies playing softball cricket at the club, this number has risen from 12 to 50 in three years but they don’t have anywhere to shower or change except a very dated toilet.

“The redevelopment will make the clubhouse a warm and welcoming club to be used by the community all year round.”

The renovations will include opening up the front of the clubhouse with new bi-folding doors looking out onto the pitch.

A complete redesign of the changing facilities will see self-contained changing rooms with toilets and showers.

The page can be found https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/albrighton-cricket-club-clubhouse-redevelopment – and there are rewards on offer for anyone who makes a donation.

If anyone wants further information regarding supporting the redevelopment they can email fundraising@albrightoncc.co.uk.

Chairman Darren Shimmons added: “Let’s work together to get the redevelopment completed – we can’t do it without the support and help of all our members, supporters and the local community.”